With the pilgrims to Mecca: The great pilgrimage of A.H. 1319; A.D. 1902 — John Shaqi
With the pilgrims to Mecca: The great pilgrimage of A.H. 1319; A.D. 1902Khan, Hadji (Gazanfar Ali)
Religion
With the pilgrims to Mecca: The great pilgrimage of A.H. 1319; A.D. 1902
Khan, Hadji (Gazanfar Ali)
Mecca (Saudi Arabia); Pilgrims and pilgrimages
As this ground idea satisfies the Oriental’s reason, so the second,
Islám, that is, resignation from man to God, responds to the inner
voice of his soul, and seems to lead his heart warmly to embrace
the third principle of the Muhammadan faith, which, in the golden
age of the Muhammadan Era, was the means of establishing equality
among the people--I mean the principle of charity, of alms-giving,
of compassion from man to man. Unswerving obedience to the spirit
and the letter of these three laws carried with it the obligation of
unswerving loyalty to the Prophet. When we pray, we Christians, we say
“Give us this day our daily bread.” The Muhammadans, under penalty of
everlasting torment, are obliged to sacrifice, to the poor and needy,
a due proportion of the things that they love--not merely of their
superfluity--with the result that each man among them, by that fact
alone, constitutes himself, as it were, a willing instrument of God’s
will that His Kingdom of Heaven shall reign on earth. Another fact that
proves Muhammad to have been something far more than a man of the sword
is that to this day Muhammadans hail one another on meeting with the
word “Salám” (have peace). Indeed, peace being an essential condition
of undertaking the sacramental Pilgrimage to Mecca, it is unlawful to
wage war during the three months’ journeying of the Muslim lunar year,
namely, in Shavvál, Zú-’l-ka’dah, and Zú-’l-hijjah.
“Contribute out of your subsistence towards the defence of the religion
of God,” says Muhammad, “and throw not yourself with your own hands
into perdition [that is, be not accessory to your own destruction
by neglecting your contributions towards the wars against infidels,
and thereby suffering them to gather strength], and do good, for God
loveth those who do good. Perform the Pilgrimage of Mecca, and the
visitation of God; and if ye be besieged send that offering which shall
be the easiest, and shave not your heads until your offering reacheth
the place of sacrifice. But whoever among you is sick, or is troubled
with any distemper of the head, must redeem the shaving of the head by
fasting, by alms, or by some offering [either by fasting three days, by
feeding six poor people, or by sacrificing a sheep]. But he who findeth
not anything to offer shall fast three days in the Pilgrimage, and
seven when he be returned: these shall be ten days complete. This is
incumbent on him whose family shall not be present at the Holy Temple.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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