DRINK

Muhammad also drank water from the well of Zamzam as part of the ritual.  Coming to the tribe of �Abd al-Muttalib (also his own tribe), he said: �Draw water, O BanI  �Abd al-Muttalib; were it not that people would usurp this right of supplying water from you, I would have drawn it along with you.  So they handed him a basket and he drank from it� (2803).  KAtib al-WAqidI, the Prophet�s biographer, gives us one further detail which would be considered unhygienic by the impious.  Muhammad took part of the content, then rinsed his mouth in the pitcher and directed that the water remaining in it should be thrown back into the well.  That was his way of invoking a blessing on a well-by spitting into it.  Many such wells are mentioned in the traditions (TabaqAt, vol. II, pp. 241-244).

He also did not forgo his favorite beverage, nabIz, a soft drink.  Though the nabIz offered him had been fouled by many hands, he took it, declining the offer of a cleaner and purer one.  The orthodox pilgrims of every generation have continued the practice.

author : ram swarup

ANIMAL SACRIFICE

Next comes the sacrifice of the �idu�l-azhA.  The hAjji (pilgrim) could sacrifice a goat or a sheep, or a cow or a camel, �The Messenger of Allah sacrificed a cow on behalf of �Aisha� (3030).

It is permissible for seven persons to join in the sacrifice of a cow or a camel (3024-3031).  While sacrificing the camel, the hAjji should not make his camel �kneel down� but slaughter it in a standing posture and in a fettered condition �according to the Sunnah of the Holy Prophet� (3032).  Its left foreleg should be tied to its hindlegs.  Cows and goats should be sacrificed after making them lie down.

One who cannot go for hajj can send a sacrificial animal to al-Haram and earn merit thereby.  �Aisha reports: �I wove the garlands for the sacrificial animals of Allah�s Messenger with my own hands, and then he marked them, and garlanded them, and then sent them to the House, and stayed at Medina and nothing was forbidden to him which was lawful for him before� (3036).

As Muhammad�s affluence increased, the scale of his sacrifices also increased.  On his �umrah pilgrimage in the sixth year, his biographers tell us, he sacrificed seventy camels at Hodeibia.  On a similar pilgrimage the next year, he sacrificed sixty camels.  On the Farewell Pilgrimage in the tenth year, we are told by JAbir, �the total number of those sacrificial animals brought by �AlI from Yemen [where he had gone on a campaign against the Bani Nakha] and those brought by the Apostle was one hundred� (2803).  A little further on in the same hadIs we are told that Muhammad �then went to the place of sacrifice, and sacrificed sixty-three camels with his own hands.  Then he gave the remaining number to �AlI who sacrificed them. . . . He then commanded that a piece of flesh from each animal sacrificed should be put in a pot, and when it was cooked, both of them [�AlI and Muhammad] took some meat out of it and drank its soup.�

To his followers, Muhammad said: �I have sacrificed the animals here, and the whole of MinA is a place of sacrifice; so sacrifice your animals at your places� (2805).

Even Jehovah, the God of the Jews, whose Temple was a veritable slaughterhouse, had declared that He �desired mercy, and not sacrifice� (Hosea 6:6); but Muhammad�s Allah expresses no such sentiment.  Because Islam is so preponderantly Muhammadism, one of the consequences of the Prophet�s offering sacrifices is that sacrificing has become a sacred institution in Islam.  Thus we find in Islam none of that generous movement of the spirit against animal sacrifice that we find in some measure in most cultures.

author : ram swarup

CASTING THE PEBBLES

Another important ceremony is ramyu�r-rijAm, the casting of the pebbles.  On the tenth day, also the �Day of Sacrifice,� the pilgrim throws seven pebbles at Jamrat al-�Aqaba, also known as ShaitAnuu�l KabIr, the Great Devil.  While doing this, he chants: �In the name of God, the Almighty, I do this, and in hatred of the Devil and his shame.� Allah and Devil are somehow inseparable in certain theologies.

This ceremony celebrates an ancient event when the Devil successively met Adam, Abraham, and Ishmael, and was driven away by the simple method which Gabriel taught them of throwing seven small pebbles.  The three pillars at MinA represent the three occasions when this happened; therefore, the pilgrim casts seven stones at each of the three pillars.

There are several ahAdIs on the merits of throwing pebbles, on their size and number, and on the best time for throwing them.  The pebbles should be small- �I saw Allah�s Apostle throwing stones like pelting of small pebbles� (2979).  The best time for throwing them is after sunrise on the Day of Sacrifice- �Allah�s Messenger flung pebbles at Jamra on the Day of Nahr after sunrise, and after that-on the 11th, 12th and 13th of Dhu�l-Hijja -when the sun had declined� (2980).  Their number should be odd.  �Odd number of stones are to be used for cleaning the private parts after answering the call of nature, and the casting of pebbles at the Jamrat is to be done by odd numbers (seven), and the number of circuits around al-SafA and al-Marwa is also odd (seven), and the number of circuits around the Ka�ba is also odd (seven),� says the Prophet (2982).

author : ram swarup

CIRCUMAMBULATION AND KISSING

After a man has put on the pilgrim�s robe, two seamless wrappers, he should not shave or pare his nails.  He should now proceed toward Mecca singing the pilgrim�s song, �Talbiyah, Labbaika!  AllAhumma!� (�I stand up for thy service, O Allah�).  After arriving in Mecca, he performs ablutions in the Masjidu�l HarAm and kisses the Black Stone (al-hajaru�l-aswad), then makes seven circuits round the Ka�ba (tawAf).  Muhammad himself circumambulated �on the back of his riding camel . . . so that people should see him, and he should be conspicuous� (2919).  For the same reason, he touched the Corner (Black Stone) with a stick.  �I saw Allah�s Messenger circumambulating the House, and touching the Corner with a stick that he had with him, and then kissing the stick,� reports AbU Tufail (2921).

The practice of kissing the Stone is idolatrous.  �Umar said: �By Allah, I know that you are a stone and if I were not to see Allah�s Messenger kissing you, I would not have kissed you� (2912).  Following the lead of Christian theologians who distinguish between veneratio and adoratio, Muslim scholars argue that the Ka�ba and the Black Stone are objects of veneration and not of worship.

Another important rite is that the pilgrim runs from the top of Mount as-SafA to the summit of Mount al-Marwah, the two �Signs of Allah,� according to the QurAn (2:158).  Muhammad says that �Allah does not complete the Hajj of a person or his �Umra if he does not observe Sa�i [i.e., run between al-SafA and al-Marwa]� (2923).

Each time the pilgrim is on the top of these mounts, he recites the following: �There is no deity but Allah. . . . He hath performed His promise, and hath aided His servant [Muhammad] and bath put to flight the hosts of infidels by Himself alone.� Muhammad never relaxes.  At every turn, he instills an unrelenting enmity toward the infidels.

HUNTING

Hunting too is forbidden to a muhrim (one in a state of ihrAm).  Somebody once presented Muhammad with the flesh of a wild ass, but he declined it, saying: �If we were not in a state of IhrAm, we would have accepted it from you� (2704).  But if the animal is killed by a non-muhrim, its flesh is acceptable to a muhrim.  The leg of a wild ass killed by a non-muhrim Companion was presented to Muhammad.  �The Messenger of Allah took it and ate it� (2714).

Though hunting of a sort is forbidden to a muhrim, this does not make him a Jain or a Vaishnava.  �Four are the vicious beasts� he should still kill: �kite, crow, rat and voracious dog.� But �what about a snake?� somebody asks.  Muhammad replies: �Let it be killed with disgrace� (2717).
author : ram swarup