It is a lunar calendar. That means the days in a month are based on the phases of the moon. That makes the Islamic year around 11 days shorter than the calendar you use in school. That one is called the Gregorian calendar. It moves back around ten days every year on the Gregorian calendar. Pilgrims circle the Kaaba while keeping socially distanced. The Kaaba is a large square building in the middle of the Great Mosque of Mecca. During Hajj, pilgrims must walk around it seven times counterclockwise.
This way the Kaaba stays on their left side. Muslims pray five times in a day, wherever they are in the world. Mohammed himself then placed the stone into its final position. This was back before Mohammed had received his first revelation from God. The next time Mohammed was involved with the Kaaba, though, would prove to be much less One particularly popular idol was a figure of Hubal, a moon deity worshipped by many in Mecca at the time.
Access to the Kaaba and thus the idol was controlled by the powerful Quraysh tribe, of which Mohammed was a member, and they basically capitalized on this to get rich, charging fees and selling wares to pilgrims coming to worship the idol. When Mohammed began receiving revelations from God he received his first one about five years after the incident with the Black Stone and preaching his message of monotheism, the rich Qurayshi merchants started getting a little antsy.
Worried that the growing popularity of his decidedly anti-idol worshiping message could potentially hurt business, they ran Mohammed and his small band of followers out of town. Ten years later, Mohammed and his now much larger and more powerful army of followers defeated the Quraysh tribe and took control of Mecca.
Today, the Kaaba is kept closed during the hajj because of the overwhelming number of people, but those who visit the Kaaba during other times of the year are sometimes allowed to go inside.
There is very little inside it, though — just three tall stone pillars, a small table, some hanging lamp—looking things, and a staircase to the roof. Seven is also a prominent number associated with the divine in many religions, including Christianity and Judaism.
Other rituals include a ceremony where pilgrims throw small pebbles at three large stone walls, called jamarat, to symbolize the stoning the devil that tempted Abraham to defy God, and the slaughtering of an animal usually a sheep to honor the animal Abraham slaughtered instead of his son. The meat is then given to feed the poor and needy. These days, pilgrims frequently elect to purchase tokens to have an animal slaughtered for them. Today, both hills are enclosed within the Masjid al-Haram Sacred Mosque complex which also houses the Kaaba , and the path between the hills is a long, beautiful indoor gallery with marble floors and air conditioning.
Many also drink from the Zamzam well located there. The only ritual that is solely related to Mohammed is the climbing of Mount Arafat, which is where Mohammed preached his last sermon.
On the second day of hajj, pilgrims wake at dawn and walk a short distance to Mount Arafat, where they spend the remainder of the day on or near the mountain in quiet worship and contemplation of God. Although Christians and Jews believe in the God of Abraham, they are not allowed to perform the hajj.
Indeed, the government of Saudi Arabia forbids all non-Muslims from entering the holy city of Mecca at all. The Saudi government takes this very seriously, so the odds that a non-Muslim would be able to slip in unnoticed among the throngs of pilgrims undetected or pretend to be Muslim and get in that way are extremely small. Legal entry into the country is extremely tightly controlled, and the paperwork required to get a hajj visa is incredibly detailed.
Pilgrims must book their hajj trip through a Saudi government—approved hajj travel agent. For a Western Muslim convert to be allowed to go on hajj, he or she must present documentation from an imam Muslim religious leader. The imam must testify in writing that he knows the person in question and that the person is a true convert. Trying to come in on a regular tourist visa and then stealthily making your way to Mecca is also a nonstarter. Getting a tourist visa as a Westerner is notoriously hard, and the likelihood of you being able to just slip away from your Saudi government minder and travel undetected all the way from the capital Riyadh to Mecca — more than miles away, on the other side of a vast desert — is basically laughable.
That has happened before: In , WND published a three-part series written pseudonymously by someone who claimed to be a white British non-Muslim man who successfully fake-converted to Islam and went on hajj. Women are also allowed — indeed, required, just like every other physically and financially able Muslim is — to perform the hajj. However, they have to be accompanied by an appropriate male guardian called a mahram. Here are the rules, per the US State Department:.
Women must be met by their sponsor upon arrival. Women who are traveling alone and not met by sponsors have experienced delays before being allowed to enter the country or to continue on other flights. Women over 45 may travel without a mahram in an organized group, provided they submit a notarized letter of no objection from the husband, son, or brother, authorizing travel for Hajj with the named group.
Violators face deportation. This is likely because Shia scholars have, unlike Sunni scholars, ruled that a woman may travel alone on hajj if she feels that she will be safe. Some have also come up with rather creative workarounds, such as wearing large, darkly tinted sunglasses and those paper face masks doctors wear.
So why the prohibition? Men also wear special clothing during hajj. Male pilgrims wear two pieces of clean, unstitched cloth usually plain white — one wrapped around their waist and one wrapped around their torso — and plain sandals.
The purpose of making all men dress in this same simple garb is to strip away all indications of wealth and status so that all pilgrims are seen as equal, as they are in the eyes of God. What do you say when you walk around the Kaaba? Can you walk into the Kaaba? Why do we go around Kaaba 7 times? Why Kaaba is covered with black cloth? Who really built the Kaaba?
What Colour is the cloth that covers the Kaaba? Does hajj involves only visiting the Kaaba? Who are the only worshipers allowed to Mecca? In , Al Jazeera produced a degree VR experience that takes viewers on a tour to see the major landmarks that millions of Muslims visit during the Hajj.
Experience the journey by moving your phone around or drag the video around to see what Mecca looks like from all angles. Eid al-Adha or the Feast of Sacrifice is celebrated on the third day of Hajj and lasts for three days. This year Muslims worldwide will celebrate Eid on July. Eid al-Adha is the second major Muslim festival after Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan, the month of fasting. Muslim pilgrims pray around the holy Kaaba during the annual Hajj in Mecca, September 27, Mecca from the sky Central to the Muslim pilgrimage is the Grand Mosque of Mecca which houses the Kaaba, a cube-shaped structure elegantly draped in black silk with verses of the Quran woven into it with gold and silver threads.
Hundreds of Muslim pilgrims keep a social distance to protect themselves from the coronavirus [AP].
0コメント