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JOURNEY IN ISLAM
A. R. Kidwai
Editor of the magazine Islamic Review
The motif of journey is imbedded deep in the Islamic
worldview in that it presents the Hereafter as one’s
home, this world as a brief sojourn and man as a
traveller always in readiness for the ultimate return to
the Creator. The numerous refrain-like references in
Islamic texts, especially in the Qur’ān and Hadith (the
Prophet’s sayings) to the Next Life as one’s destination
are meant both to drive home the ephemeral nature of
this life and to urge one to engage in righteous deeds
and sound beliefs which will accrue to him/her the best
rewards in the eternal life of the Hereafter.
Reading the Qur’ān one is struck by several passages
that invest a journey with strong spiritual and moral
overtones. The Qur’ān repeatedly asks one to undertake
visits to historical sites and archaeological remains with
a view to reflecting on the divine signs and appreciating
the divine scheme of things;
Do they not travel
Through the land, so that
Their hearts and minds
May thus learn wisdom
And their ears may
Thus learn to hear?
Truly it is not their eyes
That are blind, but their
Hearts which are
In their breasts.
(al-Hajj 22;46)¹
Nonetheless, the most significant and symbolic use of
the motif of journey in the Islamic tradition appears in
the account of the Prophet Muhammad’s (peace be upon
him) ‘Isrā’ and Mi’räj (The Night Journey and
Ascension). This journey took place a year before the
Prophet’s other epoch-making journey, hijrah
(Migration from Makkah, his birth place to Madinah).
The Prophet’s Mi’rāj stands out as a watershed in the
mission of Islam, in the Prophet’s career and in the
nascent Islamic history. Though the Qur’ān records
journeys, with their unmistakable spiritual dimension,
of almost all the Prophets, most notably those
undertaken by the Prophets Abraham and Moses (peace
be upon them) in pursuit of their divine mission, the
Prophet Muhammad’s Mi’rāj is unique on many counts;
it signifies the Prophet’s vision of God; his first-hand
observation of both the torment of the people of Hell
and the bliss of the people of Paradise; his meeting with
earlier Prophets; the institutionalization of Salāt (five
daily prayers) as a religious duty binding on every
Muslim; and the Prophet receiving special directives
which were to serve as the very foundation of the
Islamic order of life. The message, addressed to
believers instructing them in both their private and
public life and in beliefs and deeds, appears in Surah
al-’Isrā’ (17; 23-37).
While Mi’rāj was special to the Prophet Muhammad,
hijrah (a journey undertaken in the way of God) is
applicable to every Muslim. This particular form of
journey became part of the Islamic tradition in its early
days. As adherents of a new faith and constituting a tiny
minority, the Muslims of Makkah were subjected to all
sorts of persecution. The Qu’rān asked them to migrate
in order to escape persecution and preserve their faith.
Abandoning their hearth and home and forsaking all the
comforts of home the faithful travelled to the distant
land of Abyssinia. At a later date, they migrated to
Madinah. The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him)
too had to migrate in that the Makkan unbelievers had
drawn up a plan to kill him. Fittingly enough, the event
of the Prophet’s migration to Madinah marks the
beginning of the Muslim calendar. For it signifies a
great sacrifice - forsaking one’s home - in the cause of
God. The Qur’an speaks highly of “Muhajrūn” the early
Makkan Muslims who undertook this journey. Over the
centuries this sacred form of journey has been
undertaken by millions of Muslims in all parts of the
world. The Muslims of Afghanistan and Bosnia in our
time have kept this tradition alive. Whereas hijrah is a
duty of the beleaguered Muslims, it is the obligation of
Muslims in neighbouring and other areas to receive such
migrants warmly.
Pilgrimage betokening journey with a distinct religious
orientation is a tradition common to many religions. In
Islam it, however, appears in its most comprehensive
and developed form. Known as Hajj, it is a religious
duty of every Muslim who has sufficient means to travel
once in his life to Makkah on certain dates in Dhu
al-Hijjah - the last month of the Muslim lunar calendar.
Like other modes of worship in Islam - Salat (prayer),
Sawm (a month-long fasting in Ramadan), Zakãt
(purifying alms), Hajj (pilgrimage to Makkah) infuses
in the believer an over-arching awareness of God, all the
more so that during Hajj he/she is temporarily released
from social ties and, dressed alike with millions of other
pilgrims, experiences a greater sense of communitas.
The vast congregation of believers, amounting to
millions today, is an effective reminder of the great
assembly on the Last Day. Likewise, pilgrims dressed in
plain white unsewn sheets, with meagre provisions,
spending day and night under the open sky against an
overwhelming background of transience, tend to feel
that they are in the presence of the Lord. Then there is
the historical dimension reiterating the collective
consciousness of the believers. For the pilgrims re-enact
the historical archetype of the Prophets Abraham and
Ishmael (peace be upon them). Again on the level of
Muslim brotherhood this annual gathering boosts the
feeling of solidarity and universalism in that pilgrims
from all parts of the world gather and interact. The
rituals of Hajj - circumambulating the Ka’bah (the
House of God built by the Prophets Abraham and
Ishmael), the Arafat assembly, the animal sacrifice and
stoning the devil carried out in and around Makkah
renew, rather reinvigorate the tenets of faith. Dressed in
ihrām pilgrims observe certain prohibitions and their
code of dress and conduct constantly reflects a state of
abstinence and sanctification. Hajj signifies active
worship, entailing severe physical and monetary
sacrifices on one’s part, which, in turn, rejuvenates one
inwardly and spiritually. The rite of Hajj renews one’s
total surrender to the Creator and shores up his/her
consciousness to fulfil the commitment to the Lord. The
Hajj journey helps orient one to a life of commitment
and submission, of sacrifice and self-exertion. Having
completed this journey one returns with the awareness
and knowledge of the experienced reality. This journey
reflects the summation of life itself. ²
NOTES
1. The translation of this and other Qur’ānic passages is from
Abdullah Yusuf Ali, The Holy Qur’ān: Text, Translation and
Commentary, New Revised Edition (Brentwood, Maryland:
Amana Corporation, 1989). Some of the Qur’ānic passages
recommending journey as a means of spiritual and moral
instruction are: Al ‘Imrān 3: 137, al-An’ām 6: 11 Yusūf 12:
109, al-Nahl 16: 36, al-Naml 27: 69, al ‘Ankabüt 29: 20,
al-Rūm 30: 9 and 42, Fātir 35: 44, Ghāfir 40: 21 and 82 and
Muhammad 47: 10.
2. Some of the material on Hajj is taken from Mona
Abul-Fadl, Introducing Islam from Within: Alternative
Perspectives (Leicester, Islamic Foundation, 1991). For a
detailed discussion on Hajj, see Sayyid Abul A’la Mawdudi,
Let Us be Muslims (Leicester, Islamic Foundation, 1985), pp.
243-283.