HISTORY OF 'HAJJ'

HISTORY OF 'HAJJ'

Brethren-in-in-Islam

I have explained to you in my previous lecture how Hajj originated and what was its purpose. I have also stated that Abraham had made Mecca the center of the Islamic movement and had settled there his eldest son, Isma’il to carry on this movement after him.

Custom of idol-worship among Abraham's descendants

God knows better how long after Ismail his descendants continued to adhere to the Deen which he had left for them to follow. However, in a few centuries these people forgot all the teachings and the way of their elders and gradually adopted all those wrong practices which were rampant among the other ignorant communities. Hundreds of idols were installed in that very Ka'ba which was built as a centre of preaching and exhortation for the worship of one God, and, ironically enough, idols were made of Abraham and 'small themselves whose whole lives were spent in exterminating the practice of idol-worship. The descendants of Abraham, the upright, made idols called Lat, Manat, Hubal, Nasr, Yaghus, Uzza, Isaaf, Naela and God knows what others, and worshiped them. They also worshipped Moon, Neptune, Venus, Saturn and so many other stars. They further worshipped jinns, ghosts, angels as well as the spirits of their dead ancestors. Benightedness rose to such a high pitch that if the family idol was not available to them while emerging from their house, they worshipped on the way any glossy stone they came across and, should no stone be available, they made a round bail from clay with a sprinkle of goat-milk over it, and this lifeless mound became a god of them. That very Mahantism and Pandithood re-entered their houses against which Abraham had fought in Iraq. They turned Ka'ba into a sort of Hardware or Benaras, and settled down there as its Mahant. They transformed Hajj into a Teerath Yatra and started preaching idol-worship in a house which was constructed to propagate the belief of oneness of God. Adopting all the tricks of Pujarees they began accepting gifts and offerings from Yatrees flocking from the four corners of Arabia. In this way all the work done by Abraham and Isma’il was destroyed and the purpose for which they had introduced the system of Hajj was superseded by a different type of objective.