This is the hajj season.
I am reminded of 1983, my 1st hajj.
Prof Dr Harun Din reminded us then ' Hajj is a rehearsal of death'.
I read 'The Hajj', a short treatise by Ali Shariati. No, I am not a Shiah ! But I find Ali Shariati's 'The Hajj' very illuminating. It deals with the spiritual aspects of the Hajj. An excellent read. He was an excellent young Iranian scholar, a dissident during Shah's time based mainly in France. Died young. 'The Hajj' is not easily available here but I think it could be surfed in the net if you are IT savvy enough. Worth looking for it.Avoid the last chapter when he went 'ballastic' against us Sunnis. You do it that way, 'Hajj' would be an excellent read !
This morning, while thinking of all my friends going for haj this season, and as to what advice to give to them, I stumble on Shaykh Ninowy's gem of a khutbah on 'The hajj' . The good shaykh talked about 'detachment' and 'attachment'. This ability to remain 'detached' and at the same time 'attached' is an important proviso for a successful 'hajj' campaign. I call it a 'campaign' because one need to have a good strategy in doing one's hajj, just like going to war.
Shaykh Ninowy, i count him as one of my living tok guru, having taken baaiah with him in Ipoh many years back.
This could be our life changing lecture if we can read in between the lines.
Listen to him:
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Postcript :
For those Tan Sris, Datuk Sris and especially the Puan Sris and the Datins,
one important reminder and my sincere advice....please leave your titles and 'excess baggage' behind in Kuala Lumpur when your flight leaves KLIA. Travel to hajj incognito. It would help you greatly in your quest for hajj mabrur.
Our'egos' are the excess baggage.[ banyak sangat 'songeng'nya, it would certainly affect the spirit of our hajj. ]
I have done a couple of 'hajj' over the last 3 decades and my most memorable, and I hope insyaallah my most successful, was probably the one I did with utmost simplicity: sleeping on bridges while waiting for 'melontar' and mixing amongst poor Somalian, Bangladeshi and Sudanese pilgrims in the Haram. These poor souls arrived in Jeddah usually with just 'a sling bag on the shoulder, one ihram and a few hundred Saudi Riyals in the purse and an old worn out sajadah to sleep on'.
Amongst them I felt almost there but not quite. I returned from The Haram almost daily to a decent hotel with plenty of water,superfluous meals and air-conditioned comfort to freshen myself and above all, at the back of my mind,had a five-figure salary and a 'great life' to go back to after the hajj.
Just how do one beg with earnest sincerity and clarity in front of Maqam Ibrahim and eslewhere in HIS house in this 'attached' state ?
They say, one measure of knowing you have done fairly well is to feel some change in the direction of your life when you come back home.
Imagine yourself at Padang Mahsyar. INCOGNITO , no excess baggage except your few recognizable, meagre, sincere deeds which you have 'posted' forward and relying 99.99 % on mainly your hope and anguish for HIS 'grace and rahmah'.
To the very poor and the dispossessed of this 'duniya', this automatically come with the territory.
Previous related article on the blog :
Ilm, Iman, Amal,...click here
Key To The Garden, click here
Hajj...A Poem by Nasir Khusraw, click here
A Letter To An Agnostic Friend, click here
Talk To Your Monkeys !, click here
On Life, Dying, Death and Life After Death, click here
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