The Basics of Hajj – A Practical Guide to Hajj 2024
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AI Generated Summary ©
The holy Bible is a key point in the holy city of Mecca, where acceptance of Islam is essential to achieving a spiritual journey. The importance of acceptance and making a commitment to it is emphasized, as it is a blessing and choice. The journey is a microcosmic one and is designed to transform one's life. The importance of mental preparation and control of anger is also emphasized. The importance of following church guidelines and not harming others is emphasized, and the importance of not losing one's spiritual state and not just getting angry at people is also emphasized. The importance of mental preparation and control of anger is emphasized, and the importance of following church guidelines and not harming others is emphasized.AI Generated Transcript ©
I just recited for you 2 of the,
verses in the Quran. There are others as
well, but 2 of the primary verses that
deal with the blessings of Hajj. And in
the first one, Surat Ibrahim,
Allah
mentions the commandment of Hajj. This is where
Hajj begins.
Where does it begin?
Say the adhan for Hajj. There is an
actual adhan that was given for Hajj. Here,
the adhan here means
proclaim to mankind that they should come for
Hajj. Where and when was this proclamation made?
It was made over 4000 years ago
in the holy city of Mecca when the
prophet sallallahu alaihi when the prophet Ibrahim alaihi
salam first built the Kaaba with his son,
Ismael.
When he first built the Kaaba and nobody
had yet done tawaf
and nobody had yet traveled and nobody had
done anything for the Kaaba yet, Allah said,
announce
the Hajj
Hajj, and make this Adan
to all of mankind.
Hajj. Make it for all of mankind.
And so Ibrahim alaihis salam, it is said
he asked Allah, oh, Allah, this is a
dead land. This is an empty land. Oh,
Allah. Who's gonna come
to perform
to your sacred house when nobody lives here?
When this is in the middle of nowhere?
And Allah said to Ibrahim alayhis salam,
you give the adhan, and I will make
sure it is heard. You give the adhan,
and I will make sure people hear and
respond to that adhan. And so our our
father, Ibrahim alayhis salam, he walked to the
surrounding valleys. He walked to,
he walked to the, mountains around and to
Safa and Marwa as well and to the
other mountains, Jabal Qobais and others he went.
And from every mountain top, he announced
that, oh people, oh mankind,
Allah has asked me to proclaim that you
should come to Hajj. You should come to
his house to perform the Hajj. And when
he gave that call, no human being other
than his family heard. But Allah
kept that call alive, and Allah
kept that adhan perpetual.
And so since that year,
every single year, even pre Islam and with
the coming of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam,
Islam and up until our time post Islam.
Throughout all of these 4000 years, people have
been performing Hajj. And that adhan
has become so popular
that the largest annual gathering in the whole
world, this is according to the Guinness Book
of World Records, the largest religious gathering
every single year is the Hajj. And that
is the response to that adhan. And in
fact, when we say,
and you should know this. This is a
very key point here. When we say,
we are responding to that call, that adhan.
That's what means. Literally,
means, oh, Allah, here I am at your
service. Oh, Allah, I'm responding to your call.
Is a term in Arabic that doesn't have
an English equivalent. There's no simple word here.
And laba means
to respond to a call. That's literally what
it means. So you only do labaik when
somebody has called you. You don't you don't
just come and say, hey. I'm here. That's
not
is somebody calls you says has come here.
When you respond to the call in Arabic,
you say, Labayka.
I am responding to your call. Now a
lot of us say, Labayk Allahumma Labayk, and
we don't understand why we're saying it. You
know why we're saying it? We are responding
to the adhan that our father Ibrahim gave,
And that's literally what we say.
Oh, Allah. I heard the adhan. I heard
the call. I believe in that call. I
know you have called me to your house.
You told me to come.
I have responded to that call. I have
replied to that call. Here I am, oh
Allah,
responding
to the to the call of Ibrahim alayhis
salam and replying to your commandment to come.
So that is why we are coming to
the house of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. And
all Muslim, what can
impress us? What can
make us understand
the reality of this sacred journey that you
are all about to undertake? Subhan Allah. I
have performed more Hajj's than I can remember.
I think almost 20 Hajj's. And every single
time we go over and I go over
these hadith,
it is just
humbling. It is just overpowering
the blessings of Hajj. Never you lose the
the hope and the enthusiasm
and the awe of the blessings given. Do
you know a Muslim
that the famous companion, Amr ibn al Aas,
that he had a a a stellar resume
and a a very well known career pre
Islam. And he had committed some crimes against
the Muslims because he was a general, because
he had done things, you know, militarily.
That Amr ibn Aas was the last Muslim
to convert,
before the conquest of Matkah. He was the
last Muslim to make hijra. And when he
came to Madinah, the last Muslim to migrate
to Medina, literally the last Muslim, and he
was very embarrassed at all that he had
done. He had literally, you know, harmed the
ummah, even killed Muslims in the pre Islamic
days of Jahiliyyah, you know, when he was
fighting on the wrong side. And he came
to the prophet,
and he put his hand out,
and the prophet was gonna take it, then
he put his hand back. So the prophet
said, what's up? Why are you putting you
you came to accept Islam. Right? He said,
you Rasulullah, I have a condition. Now this
was in the, 7th year of the Hijra.
This was before the conquest of Mecca. No
Hajj had been performed yet. The Muslims had
not done Hajj yet. Listen to this hadith.
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam asked him, Mahiam,
what's up? Why did you put your hand
back? He said, you Rasool Allah, I have
a condition. So the prophet
said, what's the condition? He said, you Rasoolallah,
I've done so much wrong.
I I I want to embrace Islam on
a clean slate. I want all my sins
to be forgiven. I don't want to have
to deal with all that I've done. So
the prophet smiled. Remember, it's the 7th year.
Nobody has done Hajj yet, and yet he's
giving this hadith. He said he said, oh,
Amr, don't you know that
a non Muslim embracing Islam
and a Muslim performing Hajj. Notice, Wallahi, this
hadith is mind boggling. Look at the context.
There has never been a Hajj done, yet
the prophet wanted us to know the equivalent.
Don't you know, o'amr, that when a person
embraces Islam or when a Muslim does Hajj
and it is accepted,
then all of their previous sins are forgiven.
All of the sins are forgiven. SubhanAllah,
our prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam equated the going
for hajj. He equated the performance of the
Hajj as a Muslim with literally
the embracing of Islam as a non Muslim.
That's literally the equation. Oh, Muslim whom Allah
has chosen to go for Hajj, listen to
me and listen carefully. And I'm see I'm
being very, very frank over here. If you
are going for Hajj,
if your
to go for Hajj
is just to cross off something on your
to do list, if it is just to,
in your mind, get rid of some, you
know, deep seated, you know, obligation you think
you have and that's it to go back
to resume your normal life afterwards,
then I warn you, I caution you that
you are not performing Hajj with the right
frame of mind. This is not how you
perform Hajj to cross it off your to
do list. It is not a chore that
you just have to get rid of and
then return.
No. Hajj is literally a transformative
experience. It is a life changing experience.
What changes occur when a non Muslim embraces
Islam? What sacrifices
does that person have to do? What new
routines and rituals does a non Muslim have
to take on? You and I both know
it is literally a game changer, a life
changing experience. Well, guess what, o Muslim? You
and I performing the Hajj, that is the
equivalent
of a non Muslim embracing Islam. That is
a life changing transformation
that should affect a complete overhaul, a complete
redo of your priorities, of your ethics, of
your livelihood, of your routine. Everything should change.
That's the goal of Hajj. And if and
when you go with that mindset, well then
that is a whole different experience. And that
is when Hajj will indeed have all of
these blessings that we are talking about. But
dear Muslim, and I tell you from now,
if you go with the wrong intention, if
you go without having this mindset that I
want Allah to accept my Hajj and I
want Hajj to be something that truly impacts
me. If you don't go with this mindset,
well then, there is still time Insha'Allah.
We think through and have a genuine,
sincere commitment that, oh, Allah, you're allowing me
to come and realize, oh, Muslim,
that the very fact that you get for
Hajj, the very the very fact you're allowed
to go for Hajj in and of itself.
This is a blessing and a choosing that
is not in my hand. Our prophet said,
The Hujjaj are Allah's delegations and guests.
Allah's delegations and guests. Allah invited them and
they accepted that invitation.
So to be there in Makkah, to be
there in Hajj, this is not something that
is in your choice or my choice. It
is in the choice of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala. So the very fact you have been
chosen, the very fact that Allah has given
you this opportunity
means he wants you to change, and he
wants you to become somebody that is beloved
to him. And he wants to forgive your
sins. So accept that invitation.
Accept that blessing that Allah has given you,
and make sure you have the right mindset.
Make sure your niyya, your paradigm, your entire
your entire,
methodology of going for Hajj that you think
about it from here and now. There's barely
2 months left, oh Muslim. So now is
the time you have to start thinking, why
am I going? What is my goal? When
I come back, what will I be doing
to manifest the blessings of Allah for having
gone for Hajj? Our prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
said,
The best of all deeds is iman in
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And then Hajj, then it is the Hajj.
Hajj is the greatest thing you can do
after iman in Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. And
our mother, Aisha Radiallahu
Anha, she came to the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasallam, and she said, you Rasulullah,
all the men are getting the rewards. They
go for you the battle of Barid, the
battle of Uhud, the battle of Khandaq, the
battle of of Amurisiyah, all of these battles.
What can we do? We can't go in
these battles. We wanna get all of the
blessings of jihad and of shahad and everything
possible. We want those blessings. The prophet
said, I will tell you of the equivalent
of jihad that has no hardship
of blood. There's no blood being shed in
it, but it'll get the rewards. And that
is
the jihad of going for Hajj and Umrah.
Simply doing Hajj and Umrah, traveling for Hajj
and Umrah, participating in Hajj and Umrah,
all of the blessings that the true people
of Jihad and of Badr and and and
and and all of those,
expeditions that that will come to the one
that is undertaking the Hajj to the house
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
and our prophet Sallallahu Alaihi wa Salam said
3 people
feel the man in Allah
3 people are under the protection of Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Allah has promised that they
will be blessed by protection here. It doesn't
mean no harm will come to them. Protection
here means that Allah has given them special
attention, special care. 3 are the people that
Allah
has protected.
And he said one of them,
a person who came out and did Hajj.
As long as he is in Hajj, he
is Allah's guest and Allah has protected him.
And that's why, by the way, if a
person dies in the state of Hajj, if
a person dies in the state of iharam,
there's special rituals that that the the type
of perfume and whatnot is not done upon
this person because they are honored in a
special manner that other people are not honored.
Because they are Allah's guests, Allah's delegates. So
all all Muslim, Allah has chosen you to
be his guest. Allah has chosen you to
be his delegate. Delegate. So from now from
now, my advice to myself and all of
you is to get the right mindset, to
understand this is not something that is just
crossing off the list. It must be, it
should be a life transformative experience. Your goal
should be that Hajj changes your heart and
soul. Hajj causes you to reconnect with your
faith in a manner that you have never
been connected before. Hajj brings you closer to
Allah than you have ever been in your
entire life. That is the goal. And if
that happens, then
Hajj will genuinely be a transformative experience. Realize
all Muslims, the blessing is of Hajj began
even before the journey. And during the journey,
the blessings of Hajj began as soon as
you leave your house. Our prophet
said that no person
takes one footstep nor does an animal take
1 even one step from the animal except
that going for Hajj obviously. Except that Allah
causes
an entire level of jannah, an entire daraja
for him to be given, and, an an
entire set of of evil deeds to be
wiped out. Every single footstep that you take,
every single,
portion of the journey that you do and
and many of us are going from faraway
lands. Imagine we are going all the way
from America. And so every single step that
you do and every single journey that you
travel, it is as if Allah
will continue to give different levels of Jannah
and forgive different quantities of sins simply by
your undertaking the journey for Hajj. And our
prophet said
that nobody says the Talbiyah. Nobody says the
Takbeer in the Hajj. Nobody says that while
they're going for Hajj, except that an angel
is gonna be giving him glad tidings of
Jannah. An angel will be giving him glad
tidings of of of Jannah. And whatever
that we do
that every time that we do the
whatever hears that around us will testify on
the day of judgment. Every rock, every leaf,
every stone, every brick of the building, even
inanimate objects, they will testify that, oh, Allah,
this person answered your call. Oh, Allah, this
person left his house or her house and
walked or rode the bus or took the
train or took the airplane and and traveled
all the way from his home in order
to please you and to sacrifice of his
wealth and time to answer the call of
Ibrahim alaihis salaam. And every single footstep that
we take is going to be blessed. And
as for the blessings of Arafat,
as for the blessings of the people of
Arafat, then what will make you realize the
blessings of the people of Arafat? What will
make you realize the blessings of the people
of Arafat? There is no gathering
more sacred than the gathering of Arafat. There
is no blessed people more blessed in our
times after the Sahaba, obviously. There is no
blessed groups of people that is more blessed
than the gathering of the plains of Arafat.
Allah
himself
boasts to the angels of how proud he
is of those people. Allah himself boast to
the people that look at all of my
servants. They have gathered from all over the
world. Look at how tired they are. This
is all in the hadith. Look at how
tired they are.
Look at how dusty they are. Look at
how disheveled they are. You know, you're in
Ihram for 3 days. Right? You will you
will realize if you haven't been, you will
realize exactly this hadith. Oh, Muslim, memorize this
hadith and console yourself because you will feel
tired. You will feel dirty. You will feel
disheveled. That because of the circumstances,
it's gonna be difficult to take baths and
showers. Because of the circumstances, you're gonna be
sweaty and grimy. Because of the circumstances, you
wouldn't have combed your hair, your deodiance, your
perfumes, all gone. And so you are literally
dusty and tired and disheveled. And when you
are feeling that way, don't feel down. Don't
feel don't feel depressed.
Thank Allah that you're there and remember this
hadith that Allah hadith Qudsi. Allah
will boast to the angels, look at my
servants.
Look at these servants. They They have come
from all over the world
responding to my call, and they are dusty,
tired, disheveled. They are they are as they
are, and they are all
gathered for one reason, and that is they
want my forgiveness.
And then he Allah, azzawajal, will say to
the angels that I call you to testify
that I have forgiven
every single one of them. I have forgiven
down to the last person and our prophet
Sallallahu Alaihi wasallam told us you know, authentic
hadith. He said,
The best dua anybody can ever make is
the dua of Arafa. The best dua anybody
can make is the dua of Arafa. Oh,
Muslim,
no dua of yours in your whole life.
No dua is more powerful and more effective
than the duas you can make on the
day of Arafa, in the plains of Arafa.
You will have the opportunity
to speak directly with Allah. You will have
the opportunity to hand in your petitions directly
to Allah and
Allah will be listening to the please of
every single one of you, to the request
of every single one of you. So go
prepared. Make sure you know the duas that
you want. And the most important dua is
the dua of and Hidaya. You want Allah
to forgive your past. You want Allah to
bless your future with guidance. You want Allah
to forgive all the sins you've done. You
want Allah to make it easy for you
to be the best Muslim you can be
in the future. Make these duas a priority
and know
that the dua of the dua of Arafa
is a dua that is accepted by Allah.
No dua is turned away on the day
of Arafa. Every single dua that you make
is going to be accepted. Now, of course,
to be accepted means that Allah
will hear and give you something
something what you wanted or something better than
that. So an equivalent or better than that.
So every dua you make will be accepted.
And when you finish Arafat and you go
over to the land of Musdaliifa,
there Allah
mentions the Muzdalifa in the Quran.
Allah, that's where Muzdalifa is the sacred,
lands and territory. Allah mentions Muzdalifa in the
Quran. And he says, once you finish up
Arafat, then go and continue your dhikr in
Mashal Haram. Continue in Musdariqa. And then from
Musdariqa, when you work your way, walk your
way to the Jamarat, our prophet
said, And as for your stoning that you
do for the Jamarat,
then Allah will safeguard
every single blessing of that day. You're walking
and you're pelting.
It will be invested for you is a
saying, well, you can translate it. All the
deeds of that day, because that is a
hectic. The the 10th of the is always
hectic, because there's so much to do. Right?
You have to walk, you have to go
pelt, you have to go to change and
everything. Always the most hectic day, right, of
10th. So so the prophet
said, that day and the day of Jamarat
that you do it, all of it, Allah
will invest it for you. Allah will store
it for you. Meaning, you're going to see
all that you've done on the day of
judgment. You will get it back and it
will please you and you will be happy
of all that you have done. And then
as for the
shaving of a hair, our prophet
said that when your hair is shaved or
trimmed for every hair that falls, Allah
will forgive will forgive your evil. Allah will
forgive all of your evil deeds. So it
is symbolic and it is real that as
you are shaving or trimming, then all of
this is falling off, so too your sins
are completely
falling off. And then when you do your
and that is, of course, the the the
the main, rukun after the rukun of of,
of of standing in was and and and
Arafat. When you do it,
which is done, on 10th or 11th or
12th, whenever you do it, whenever you do
it,
realize that is one of the primary pillars
of Hajj.
And our prophet said, when the Hajj when
the Hajj does his tawaf and he finishes,
then he will leave
the the Kaaba
as pure as the day his mother gave
birth to him. You know the famous hadith
that we have about, having all your sins
forgiven? It applies right at the point of
tawafl ifada. When you finish tawafl ifada, then
expect
Allah
to bless you with a complete clean slate.
And you are now spiritually
absolutely pure
even though physically you're sweating and physically you're
tired and physically your clothes are dirty and
physically you might hit this and that. But
spiritually,
you are sparkling clean. You have never been
cleaner in your whole life than that day
as an adult. Yes. You were clean as
clean that day when you were born because
you have no sin. But since that day,
now is the cleanest day you have ever
been. So as you do, tawaf al ifada,
as you do, your ifada,
understand the spiritual significance of that
do not trivialize
that day and ask Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala
to have your Hajj accepted. All Muslim realize
as our prophet
said that
The Hajj that is accepted, it has no
reward lesser than Jannah itself. You see, there
is no grade for Hajj. You don't get
a b plus for Hajj. You don't get
a c plus. You don't even get an
a minus. There is no grade for Hajj.
You can't do a mediocre Hajj. You either
have an accepted Hajj or you don't. And
if you have an accepted Hajj,
the only reward for Hajj is Jannah itself.
Now do you understand
why the prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam equated the
embracing of Islam by a non Muslim with
a Muslim doing the Hajj? Because just like
the non Muslim
saves himself or herself from Jahannam and guarantees
Jannah when they say the the Shahada.
So to the Muslim, when the Muslim goes
for Hajj, when the Muslim participates in the
rituals of Hajj, there is no reward lesser
than Jannah itself.
So either you do it and Allah accepts,
in which case you get to Jannah. Or
we
don't do it. We don't do it because
the only reason the Hajj will not be
accepted is if we did it with the
wrong intention. The other, you know, technicalities
we can always make up. But the only
reason that the Hajj will not be accepted
was something inside of us. That's something we
did wrong. That our was wrong. We messed
up,
spiritually.
That's what's going to ruin our Hajj. And
so my dear brothers and sisters, realize that
the journey of Hajj,
it is a microcosmic
journey
of the spiritual soul to the akhira. Literally,
as you are going to the akhira spiritually,
the hajj is like a a physical manifestation
of that. So just like the soul will
journey back to Allah, in hajj, the body
journeys to the house of Allah. In the
akhira, the soul goes back to Allah but
in this dunya, we are voluntarily
walking and going to the house of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala. So don't forget your spiritual
journey as you are going physically to Makkah,
physically to the house of Allah. Now when
you come back, your heart and your soul
must walk on the Surat al Mustaqim to
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. As you go for
Hajj, you prepare yourself with money. You prepare
yourself with medicines. You prepare yourself with taking
the packages that are, you know,
the packages you wanna go with. You you
prepare yourself by reading,
about Hajj and listening to lectures about Hajj.
So to prepare and this is by the
way, all of this is in the Quran.
What does Allah says prepare for the journey.
Don't just leave your house and expect, you
know, rain to fall on you that are
along the way. What does that do? Pack
your bags, have your money, have your passport.
That's literally what does that do means. Be
take preparations for the journey. And as you
take preparations, fa'ina khayra zaad I taqwa, the
best way to prepare yourself for this world
is taqwa. That's your real
zad. That's your real provisions that you need
to take. So when you prepare yourself physically
for Hajj, prepare yourself spiritually to go back
to Allah
Realize as well, when you go for Hajj,
you are leaving your family and friends. You
are leaving your work. You're leaving your house.
And remember, a time will come when you
will permanently leave all of these things to
return back to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. As
you say goodbye to your family, you say
goodbye to your friends, as you walk away
from your house voluntarily,
a time will come when you will walk
away spiritually,
involuntarily. The angel of death will come and
there will be no goodbyes. But the
same,
separation will take place. But the difference is
that for Hajid, it's temporary. And for the
akhirah, it is permanent. As you get into
the ihram, you will take a ghusl and
shower and you will wear the ihram. Realize
what is this if not a reminder of
death? What is this except exactly a reminder
that at least now you are taking the
shower. A time will come when will be
given to you. Now you are wearing the
shrouds,
the ihram. A time will come when the
shrouds will be paste placed on you. Now
you are taking your clothes off voluntarily and
putting the ihram on. A time will come
when others will take your clothes off and
shroud you in your kafan of the akhira.
So as you put all of this, prepare
yourself for that journey as well. That's the
whole point of hajj here, to put yourself
in the spirit and mind of the journey
back to Allah
And
as you go for Hajj and you see
the,
extremes, you see the chaos, you see the
crowds, you see, you know, all that is
going on. Well, then think of the day
of judgment. Think of
the because what you see in Hajj is
but a fraction, but a miniscule
fraction of the chaos and panic and the
rush that is gonna be taking place in
the akhira on the day of judgment. Oh,
Muslim, the Hajj isn't just a physical journey.
It is a spiritual journey. It is a
transformative journey. It is a journey that is
intended
to completely
change and restructure
your life. That is the goal of Hajj.
Make it your goal from now. That is
the ultimate goal. And if you make it
your goal and if you genuinely go with
that intention, then inshallah,
your Hajj is a Hajj.
What does Hajj mean? Hajj
means Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala has blessed you
with it that Allah has
accepted it. You want your Hajj to be
Hajj and you
want Allah to have accepted your Hajj And
so a Muslim, some very quick generic advice,
and then I'll open the floor for some
q and a. And today is not really
the day for for q and a. We'll
have another, multiple sessions and, you know, each
specific group is gonna have, you know, more,
classes and talks. Those are with my group,
then we have obviously our own intensive,
series of lectures we're gonna be doing, and
other groups can have their, I'm sure they
have their own own plans and packages as
well. And so,
this is not really about the fiqh of
q and a, but I do wanna give
you some, aspects or some, realities, and
especially for those that have not gone for
Hajj and this is your,
first time going for Hajj, then let me
explain to you that,
I'm gonna tell you something that is not
politically correct to say, but it is needs
to be said.
Many of us who have never been for
Hajj,
you think that you're gonna be spiritually at
an all time high, and you think you're
gonna be in this nice little bubble of
iman and taqwa.
But when you get there, there's going to
be a 1,000,001
problems,
starting with the traffic
and the jostling and shoving of people. Right?
And the filth around you everywhere. And the
beggars coming to you. And this and that.
And you are a human being
and surrounded by all that you are. And
you're gonna see things you don't like to
see. People are being very nasty and mean
in Hajj. They're pushing people in front of
the Kaaba, and it's really heartbreaking. Right? And
they're trying to do this and that. And
you're like, are you here for Hajj or
what? I don't understand. So realize, oh, Muslim,
you're not gonna have this calm, serene bubble
that you think you will. You're gonna be
tired.
Eighty, ninety, 99 percent of people fall sick
during Hajj. That is the reality of Hajj
because you are, you know, congregate together. You
might have a slight fever, coughing, you know,
this is the reality, the Hajj gift we
call it. Is going for Hajj all the
time. I have been for Hajj more times
than I can remember and every single time
I get to the coughing virus and whatnot,
it is the part of Hajj, the voice
goes and whatnot. It is what happens during
Hajj. So in that state, and you're gonna
be like, how can I find spirituality?
How can I get that that that that
high that I wanted? And I'm telling you
from now, that's the spiritual high. In that
chaos,
with your body tired, surrounded by that filth
and that dirtiness and that smells and the
list and that, in that difficult situation
for you to muster
spirituality.
It's not the way you're gonna imagine it.
That's what I'm trying to explain to you.
It's not going to be the way you're
thinking about it. But whatever you do at
that stage, that is what is required. The
fact that you're attempting
in that complete chaos
to find your personal safety, safe space, your
personal spirituality,
that is where your salvation will occur. So
So understand this point as well. And, of
course, and this is something again, I've already
hinted at this. Do realize that Hajj brings
out the best and the worst of people
around, and it is the reality of the
ummah. The ummah is not angelic. We know
this. Look at what is happening around the
world and what the ummah is doing. So
the Ummah is not angelic. It's not full
of angels. The Ummah is full of good
people and the opposite. And in Hajj, you
will find the best of the best. People
will sacrifice. People will you will find people
that would have walked from halfway across the
world to come to Makkah and Madinah. And
here we are traveling in air conditioned planes
at 600 miles an hour, you know, within
or within hours from one end of the
world to other. There are people that have
spent their life savings and they are walking.
They're on bicycles. You will see this. They've
come all the way from the furthest, you
know,
countries in the world. And now they're doing
Hajj, and they're smiling and so happy just
to be there. And your iman is gonna
be all time high. And then the very
next second, you're gonna see a person getting
irritated, pushing somebody, you know, not being, nice
to somebody. And it's gonna hurt you immensely.
And this is the reality
of Hajj. And realize your job and my
job is to control our temper, is to
control our,
tongue and our anger. Our prophet
said, whoever does Hajj
without being vulgar
and without, you know,
doing any fisk to other people harming and
and hurting other people.
He's not vulgar, and he's not pushing and
shoving and being nasty to people. That is
the one who will go back with all
of his deeds,
with all of his sins forgiven. Why did
the prophet say he's not vulgar and he
doesn't hurt other people? Because in Hajj,
so many people can't help it. They lose
their temper. And when they lose their temper,
and believe me, and I as I said,
every hajj I've done, you see this happening
in front of you and you think to
yourself, subhanAllah, hey, didn't you listen to the
lecture? Didn't you listen to what the prophet
said? Did it weren't you warned not to
do this? You're gonna get angry at everybody
next to you. Akhi, why are you snoring?
Akhi this, oh, did this, that on and
on. And you realize this is the the
test of Hajj. The fact that you're congregating
with 2,000,000 people. You don't think issues are
gonna happen? You don't think there's gonna be
problems and stuff that gonna happen? Control your
tongue. Control your anger. And if you're an
if you're angry,
expect Allah to reward you for your anger.
Don't waste your Hajj be by getting angry
at somebody else. Don't cause your Hajj to
be obliterated because there are things beyond your
control.
Things are gonna happen you don't like and
I don't like. And you can't you know,
it's easy to blame everybody else in the
end of the day if there's only so
much people can do. You control your anger
and control your tongue, and that will be
protection of your Hajj. Also, one other generic
advice,
and again, this is my advice to you
as somebody who's, as I said, done done
plenty of Hajj's and I've I've been with
hedge packages so many times, and,
I've seen this over and over again. So
my generic advice to all of you when
it comes to,
the fiqh of Hajj
and the fatawah of Hajj
is
follow from now
the scholar or scholars whom you
want,
and don't worry about the differences of opinion.
Because Hajj, like all fiqhih issues,
you have differences. Can you do this? Can
you do that? And
Hajj is not the time to become a
self styled expert. Hajj is not the time
to become your own mufti and go fatwa
shopping. You need to decide
which sheikh you wanna follow and whichever sheikh
you follow that has studied and has whichever
one is all good. No problem. And here's
another point.
And I I hope, inshallah, this is not
taken in the wrong way.
Oh, Muslim,
I am very troubled personally
by how
so many Hajjaj
become obsessed with
the minutia of Hajj.
They become obsessed with the fine print.
You know, the number one questions
we get asked are about,
about the things that baked the ihram. Oh,
I I plucked a hair. Oh, I did
a nail here. Oh, I used perfume soup.
So so etcetera. I said, oh, I ate
biryani that had saffron in it, and the
saffron smells. So the biryani is not spreading
my
I'm not trying to make fun of that
attitude. May Allah bless you with that attitude.
I am going to say something blunt here.
You know that enthusiasm and zeal you have
for all the minutia?
Cut it to 10%.
Take that 90%
and put it to the broader goals of
Hajj. I wish people were more concerned about
the spirituality
of Hajj as much as they are about
the very minute uhgam.
How many times people are gonna come to
me? I'm not even exaggerating. It's a sounds
funny. It's so true. Showing me their shoes.
I'm not joking. Wallahi, every sheikh knows this.
Sheikh, is this shoe allowed or not? They're
gonna come and display their shoe to me
and whatnot. Okay. Alhamdulillah.
Good. May Allah bless you. But you know
that concern you have, wallahi, whichever thing you
do, you'll find some it's not the main
issue.
A 1000 times, a 100000
times more important than the shoe that you
wear, how is your qalb? How is your
spiritual attitude of hajj? So please, for the
love of God,
don't become obsessed with the minutia.
Allah is not gonna punish you if you
followed one scholar over another about this shoe
that you wore, the sock or whatnot. This
is not what Hajj is about. Yes. You
need to study. And, yes, you follow the
hakam to the best. I'm not, you know,
telling you not to not follow. I am
saying prioritize the bigger goal. Don't lose the
forest for the trees. Prioritize
your reason for being there. And that is
you want a cleansing experience. You want to
reconnect with Allah
Far more important
than the ihram and this and that is
the dua and the dhikr you're making from
the qalb. That's a 1000000 times more important
than, you know, making sure that, oh, the
button is this and that. No. Keep that,
Yani. As I said, 10%. I'm not saying
throw it out the window. 10%. Right? And
the main thing
the main thing that you should be aware
of, there's 4 arkan of Hajj. As long
as these arkan are done, you're gonna go
over it in the fiqh of Hajj. As
long as these arkan are done, and that
is you declare the nih of Hajj that's
called Ihram, and that is that you stand
at Arafat and that you do the Tawaf
alifada and the Sahib. Okay? These are the
4 arkan.
As as long as you do this, the
rest is
salvageable.
You can do something to make it up.
You can do the crash course of Hajj
in 20 minutes. That's it. Now the rest
of the time should not be spent in
the minutia,
in the hair splitting, in going to the,
the the the footnotes. That's not what Hajj
is about. No. The rest of the time
should literally be spent. What duas am I
gonna be making? How is my spiritual state
here? The that I'm doing here. Am I
truly connected with Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala? That's
the spirit of Hajj. And then to start
thinking from now,
my life when I return from Hajj must
be different.
I must be a better person. From now,
you start thinking like this. And if you
do this, well then, the trivial stuff will
make its way there. No problem. And the
actual Hajj will be accepted, Insha'Allah,
by Allah.
So this is in a nutshell,
some of the stuff that I wanted to
share. And be thankful to Allah that you
have been chosen.
Be appreciative of the blessings. There are so
many people that are not able to go
less than, what is it, 0.1 percent of
the ummah is able to go for Hajj.
So, subhanallah, you are now in that 0.1%.
You are now in the elite, the creme
de la creme. You are the highest now
that that Allah has chosen. So once you
get there, appreciate those blessings. Don't trivialize those
blessings. Take advantage
of those days and nights. Fill them with
Ibadah. Fill them with the dhikr of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Do not waste your hajj with vain talk,
with making people angry and irritated.
Control your tempers, all Muslims. I'm telling you
from now, Hajj will test your temper in
ways that has never been tested. You will
get angry at the person next. You're gonna
get angry at the bus driver. You're gonna
get angry at me for whatever reason. I
don't even know. You're gonna get angry at
the world, whatever. It is what it is.
We can't control everything. You're gonna get angry
at the for sure, without a doubt. That's
the reality. And Ahmed knows this. Right? There's
only so much they can do. In the
end of the day, this is 3,000,000 people
there. There's they're trying to their their rest
and whatnot. So whatever you wanna do, just
control your tongue. Don't lose your hedge for
trivial matters. Allah blessed you to go. Allah
blessed you to be there. Okay. You might
not have gotten the AC you wanted. You
might not have gotten a particular bed that
you wanted. You know what? People are sleeping
on the streets while lives needs to be
set. People have walked a Hajj and they
don't have a fraction of the luxuries we
do, and they're thankful to Allah for that.
Now I'm not saying that, you know, if
you don't get your stuff that you're not
you're you know, you it's your haqq as
well. We understand this. But at the same
time, there's a time and a place. And
I'm telling you as the religious guide, I'm
telling you as the person, Yani, from the
spiritual side,
during the days of Hajj is not the
day to argue business. During the days of
Hajj is not the day to lose it
by showing your frustration and anger. Now is
the time for sakinah, for ibadah, for dhikr,
for rituals, and to control, you know, your
anger and tongue. Don't hurt other people. Don't
harm other people. Allah knows, you know, Hajj
is not the time you're gonna kiss the
black stone, honestly. It's not the time. Get
it out of your mind. It's not even
the wisest thing to do.
Another time, go when there's less rush there
to to hurt people and do the and
and get there. This is not what the
sharia is about. If Allah allows it without
you hurting other people, then, alhamdulillah. Otherwise, don't
worry about this. Don't the time for Hajj
primarily, as we said,
is the spiritual journey to Allah and to
be in these holy places, in Muzdalifa,
in Arafat in particular. Right? In Mina. These
are the main requirements. When you are there,
you are worshiping, you're doing dhikr, you're reading
the Quran, you're turning to Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala, you're contemplating
the blessings Allah has given you, you're contemplating
your life up until that point in time,
and how your life is gonna be better
henceforth from that point in time. That is
the main point of Hajj, internal and not
the external stuff and not the minutiae of
this and that. No. This is all trivial.
The main point, your soul is going to
be reborn. You're gonna be given a second
chance at life. Spiritually, you're gonna be coming
back a new person. So that is what
hajj is about. Take advantage of that. We
ask Allah to
bless every single one of us to have
a Hajj Mabroor. We ask Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala to make this Hajj a blessed Hajj.
We ask Allah Azza Wa Jal to make
it a Hajj that is easy for us.
We don't want difficulties in our lives, so
we want an easy Hajj. We want a
Hajj that allows us to reconnect with him,
that allows us to have our sins forgiven.
We want to return
back to our home safe and sound and
as pure as the day our mothers gave
birth to us. And with that, InshaAllah,
I'll open the floor for, q and a
from your side.
And so InshaAllah, where do I get the
questions from? Oh, the q and a tab.
Sorry. Okay. It's like a little kid, Shaykhna.
Yes. And then I think you can sort
by up votes and we can take a
couple of questions InshaAllah for the next 11
minutes or so. May Allah bless you Shaykh.
For the session. Okay. InshaAllah. So let's take
some questions here from now.
How do you deal with keeping up your
spiritual momentum after big events like Hajar Ramadan?
I always feel super motivated during these times,
but struggle with post event blues. Any advice?
Brother Azzam, are you from Tennessee with your
post event blues? I was living in Tennessee
for 10 years. So,
the answer to this question
is the struggle
for spirituality.
There is no easy answer.
And in attempting
to find spirituality,
in trying your best
to reconnect with Allah,
in that is your salvation.
As I explained to you even during Hajj,
that
you're not gonna find
the peace and quiet that you have right
now. Wallahi, right now, right after this lecture,
if you sit down for 5 minutes, the
type of spirituality you're gonna be feeling, you
will not experience it during Hajj. You're gonna
experience different types. Because in Hajj, like I
said, your stomach's gonna be growling. You might
have had istaghfirullah
stomach issues as well. Right? And then you
have fever and coughing and sneezing, and everybody's
crowded. And it's just damp or hot or
taut or cold or whatever. And there's coughing
and there's smoke and there's this and that.
How can you find the spirituality you're gonna
find in your own home right now for
the 5 minutes? That's not gonna happen. But
in that environment,
for you to attempt
to push the boundaries
and to raise your hand to Allah and
to carve out your own spirituality.
It's not gonna be like today's. It's not
gonna be like in in Ramadan. It's not
gonna be like in the peace of your
masjid. It's gonna be a different type, and
that type is what Allah will bless. So
understand. Have your expectations realistic. And understand
spirituality
is never just achieved once and that's it.
It is constantly strive for. You constantly wanna
push it more and keep it
When you try, you're gonna get it. And
of them is you immerse yourself in
rituals of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Constant dhikr
and Quran during Hajj is comes with the
territory. That's what you do during Hajj Hajj
is about,
This is literally in the Quran.
What that literally Allah says do
in those days. That's what you're supposed to
do. So adhkaar here doesn't just mean but
dhikr is also the Quran. Dhikr is also
dua. Right? Dhikr is also contemplating over life.
All of this is dhikr. So all of
these are, things that you can do.
Next question, sister Nadeen.
Does
a woman have to make up any missed
fast before going for Hajj? She should, but
it is not a requirement. She should simply
because it is good to get rid of
all your debts before going for Hajj, but
it is it has nothing to do with
the validity of Hajj. So if you're not
able to do that, for example, if a
sister has multiple years, you know, she was
pregnant, she was breastfeeding, she was pregnant, she
was breastfeeding, She has plenty of, Ramadans to
make up. She cannot do it in 2
months. No problem. It is not a requirement
that you make up your fast before you
go for Hajj, but it is good to
do so if you're able to do so
just because of the generic,
reality of having, all of your debts paid
if you can. And again, this is not
even a requirement because even if you have
a debt to somebody who allows you to
go for Hajj, that too is allowed, no
problem.
Question
here. Does every accepted Hajj clean the slate
of sins or only the first Hajj of
a Muslim? Every single Hajj brother Khurram. Why
do you think I'm doing Hajj every single
year that I can do and all of
us are doing it. We want every single
year. It will cleanse you. It's a cleansing
experience every single year. So definitely,
uh-uh,
every single year.
Question here, trying to find the highest question.
My skin my question is can men wear
fragrance free sunscreen on the exposed sin? Yes.
They can. No problem. Inshallah, you can wear
fragrance free anything. No problem.
And like I said, so many of the
questions will be about this. No problem. Just
ask a few of them and and don't
get too much bogged down in detail. As
I said, the bulk of questions comes over
shoes
and then over lotions. These are the 2
bulk questions. Okay? That's what every sheikh, like,
we are shown this. We're smell smell this
sheikh. Smell this. This is halal.
All
Muslims,
don't sweat the small stuff. Pun intended.
Don't sweat over these petty issues. Okay? Use
whatever soap is available and try your best
to find perfume free soap. But soap in
and of itself is not perfume.
Perfume is perfume. Do not take your cologne
and put it on you. And even if
you do it accidentally, again, the Sharia is
so easy. Please take a mini course on
the fiqh of Hajj so you know. And
once you've done it, khalas, no need to
ask a million questions. Really, wallahi,
Hajj is not meant for the minutia as
I said. Know your stuff. Know what is
haram and halal. And then, Yani, don't worry
about, as I said, these these petty things.
It's not gonna make or break your your
your hedge.
Is it mandatory for a man to shave,
or is trimming sufficient? Shaving is more blessed,
but trimming is sufficient. Shaving is more rewarding
by Allah,
and the reason is to show humility. So
the whole purpose and again, oh, men, we
know how we feel. Like, we wanna have,
you know, that nice hair and whatnot. And
so by shaving, you are literally
sacrificing your ego. You are literally like, Halas,
I want to show my humility to Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Right? So I do encourage,
but if not, and I've done had so
many times sometimes that it's me on a
personal level. Sometimes I shave, sometimes I don't.
It's just it is what it is.
It just
depends on my own mood at the time
no problem, but technically speaking the perspective the
spiritual perspective and especially if it's your first
Hajj then, I would strongly encourage you to
to shave it, off for the men. Of
course, the women, they just take the, the
end of the the tip of the hair
there.
For the 11 13 days of the visit,
we'll be performing Namaz Al Qasr,
Qasr prayer. So when you pray behind Imams,
you will pray with them full. When you
pray on your own, you may pray for
for rakaturaka
no problem when you pray on your own
because you are a traveler throughout that entire
time. But when you are behind an imam,
then you will uh-uh
be praying the full because the imam is
gonna be local. If the imam is not
local and the imam prays too, then you
pray too as well.
Could you explain the spiritual
significance
of wills for family? So you know a
lot of books they mentioned that before you
go for Hajj, you have to write a
will. You have to understand
the reality of this is nothing to do
with Hajj. It's to do with past times.
Because once upon a time,
traveling was life threatening,
especially
months of travel. And so
a good percentage of people would not return
and so the advice that you give to
somebody about to die. That's the advice that
will be given to the people going for
Hajj In our
times, going for Hajj is has nothing to
do with wills per se, but you should
always have a will ready. That's the point
here. You should have a will,
in case anything happens. And so going for
Hajj, it should just remind you that I
should have a will as well. In and
of itself, writing a will and going for
Hajj are 2 separate obligations.
So they're not causally connected with,
one another.
Question here. Let me just see. Again, I'm
trying to see which ones are the one
that have the most votes because, that's what
I'm trying to answer.
What is the suggested etiquette of handling dealing
with high conflict situations before going for Hajj
and
we're dealing with people who have wronged you.
Okay 2 separate questions here
as for dealing with people who have wronged
you in the past. I'm assuming that is
the question
that people have wronged you in the past.
It is very healthy
for the soul to forgive before going for
Hajj. But I have a longer lecture online
about the reality of forgiveness.
It is not obligatory
to forgive somebody who has done wrong to
you. It's not obligatory. It's up to you.
But it is therapeutic,
and it is good before you go for
Hajj to have a clean slate.
And so that's why it is encouraged to
do that. As for techniques of,
dealing with high conflict situations,
honestly, one of the biggest and most important
aspects is to be mentally prepared.
Realize you and I are gonna be tested.
Realize you're gonna be tested by everybody around
you. You're gonna be tested by the most
trivial things because when you're not feeling well,
right, even somebody coughing loudly next to you,
because they're in the same tent. You're in
the same tent, right, for days. Right? And
so somebody coughing loudly. You know, it might
even just
get to you much more than it might
get because you're not feeling well. Everybody's not
feeling well, etcetera, etcetera. So
keep your tongue in check.
Allah will not punish
based on an internal feeling of anger. You
can be as angry as you want inside.
Control the anger. Control your tongue and
calm down before you try to assess the
situation.
Some nuisances
you can change. Others, you cannot. I mean,
I'm telling you from now, one of the
most,
you know, problematic things of Hajj are the
long lines at the bathrooms. Right? And it's
nobody talks about this. And by the way,
I've given Hajj lectures online. I go into
the logistical details of Hajj and ways that
people don't because you need to be prepared.
Okay? It's very frustrating
waiting 50 minutes, an hour and a half
to use the bathroom.
Very frustrating. You don't think you're gonna get
frustrated? And now somebody comes in, you think
he cuts in line or he does this
and that. Of course, you're gonna lose your
frustration. And you have the right to tell
somebody, ahi, there's a line, whatever it might
be. So I'm not saying, you know, don't
correct a wrong. I'm not saying don't address
the nuisance. I am saying don't lose your
temper. That's what I said. And that is
a rule. I am saying don't become vulgar.
And that is a rule. You know, during
Sayam, we are supposed to control our tongue
and say if somebody's
rude to us, we say Allahum Benin Islam.
What do you think about Hajj then? If
in Siam, we're supposed to control, then how
how much more so about,
Hajj here?
Final 2, 3 questions Insha Allah. So
could you go over how to perform Hajj
on behalf of your parent? Yes. Very easy.
Anybody.
As long as you've done one Hajj at
least for yourself,
you may do Hajj for any person that
you feel deserves that Hajj.
You're gonna spend 10, 15, $20,000.
You're gonna
spend 2, 3 weeks of your life. You're
gonna sweat. You're gonna toil. You're gonna get
tired.
That's a massive amount. Who Who you're gonna
give that to? Don't just give it to
a stranger.
Don't that is for you. It's not it's
not just meant to be thrown away for
free. But, I mean, your mother, your father,
somebody that's, you know, moved on and owes
you owe a lot to them without a
doubt.
A parent deserves that type of, you know,
good deed without a doubt. And so
for you to perform Hajj on behalf of
a parent is a very noble,
endeavor. And how do you do this? Everything
is exactly the same except one thing.
Everything is exactly the same except one, and
that is when you enter the state of
Ihram,
when you begin the Hajj,
you say,
Labbeik
on behalf of so and so.
That's how you tell Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala,
that this Hajj is on behalf of so
and so. I'm answering the call, oh, Allah,
on behalf of my mother. Libayka
for my mother. That's that's all. That's it.
When you begin Hajj, you just change the
and
you say
on behalf of so and so. And then
the rest of the Hajj is exactly the
same. And you may make dua for yourself,
and you may do all the stuff you
want for yourself, and you may make extra
dua for your mother, whoever you're doing it
for, And all of the good deeds and
the person that you, did it for.
the person that you, did it for.