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HABĀʾ (هباء‎). “Dust,” especially the finer particles which fly about and are only conspicuous in the sun’s rays.

A term used by the Ṣūfī mystics for those portions of matter (hayūla) which God has distributed in creation. (ʿAbdu ʾr-Razzāq’s Dict. of Ṣūfī Terms.)

HABĪB AN-NAJJĀR (حبيب النجار‎). “Ḥabīb the Carpenter,” whose story is told in the Qurʾān (Sūrah xxxvi. 12), as follows:—

“Set forth to them the instance of the people of the city (i.e. of Antioch) when the Sent Ones came to it.

“When we sent two (i.e. John and Jude) unto them and they charged them both with imposture—therefore with a third (i.e. Simon Peter) we strengthened them: and they said, ‘Verily we are the Sent unto you of God.’

“They said, ‘Ye are only men like us: Nought hath the God of Mercy sent down. Ye do nothing but lie.’

“They said, ‘Our Lord knoweth that we are surely sent unto you;

“‘To proclaim a clear message is our only duty.’

“They said, ‘Of a truth we augur ill from you: if ye desist not we will surely stone you, and a grievous punishment will surely befall you from us.’

“They said, ‘Your augury of ill is with yourselves. Will ye be warned? Nay, ye are an erring people.’

“Then from the end of the city a man (i.e. Ḥabīb, the carpenter) came running: He said, ‘O my people! follow the Sent Ones;

“‘Follow those who ask not of you a recompence, and who are rightly guided.

“‘And why should I not worship Him who made me, and to whom ye shall be brought back?

“‘Shall I take gods beside Him? If the God of mercy be pleased to afflict me, their intercession will not avert from me aught, nor will they deliver:

“‘Truly then should I be in a manifest error.

“‘Verily, in your Lord have I believed; therefore hear me.’

“—It was said to him, ‘Enter thou into Paradise’ (i.e. after they had stoned him to death). And he said, ‘Oh that my people knew

“‘How gracious God hath been to me, and that He hath made me one of His honoured ones.’

“But no army sent we down out of heaven after his death, nor were we then sending down our angels—

“There was but one shout from Gabriel, and lo! they were extinct.

“Oh! the misery that rests upon my servants! No apostle cometh to them but they laugh him to scorn.”

Al-Baiẓāwī, the commentator, says the people of the City of Antioch were idolaters, and that Jesus sent two of his disciples, Yaḥyā and Yūnas (John and Jude) to preach to them. And when they arrived, they met Ḥabīb, the carpenter, to whom they made known their mission. Ḥabīb said, “What signs can ye show that ye are sent of God?” And the disciples replied, “We can heal the sick and give sight to those who are born blind, and cure the leprosy.” Then Ḥabīb brought his sick son to them, and they laid their hands upon him and he was healed. And Ḥabīb believed in Jesus, and he made known the gospel to the people of the city. Many of the people then came to the disciples and were also healed. The news then reached the ear of the governor of the city, and he sent for the two disciples and they preached to him. He replied, “Is your God different from our God?” They said, “Yes. He it is who made thee and thy gods.” The governor then sent them away and put them in prison. When they were in prison, Jesus sent Shamʿūn (Simon Peter), and he came secretly and made friends with the servants of the governor, and in time gained access to the governor’s presence, and performed a miracle in the presence of the governor by raising a child who had been dead seven days. The child when raised from the dead, said he had seen Jesus Christ in heaven, and that he had interceded for the three disciples in prison. The governor believed and many others with him. Those who did not believe raised a disturbance in the city, and Ḥabīb the carpenter exhorted them to believe. For this he was stoned, and, having died, entered into Paradise.

Ḥabīb’s tomb is still seen at Antioch, and is visited by Muḥammadans as a shrine.

HABĪL (هبيل‎). [ABEL.]

ḤABWAH (حبوة‎). The posture of sitting with the legs and thighs contracted towards the belly, the back bent forwards, and supported in that position by the arms crossed over the knees. Muslims are forbidden to sit in this posture during the recital of the K͟hut̤bah on Fridays (Mishkāt, book iv. p. 45, pt. 2) as it inclines to drowsiness.

ḤADAS̤. (حدث‎). State of an unclean person, of one who has not performed the usual ablutions before prayer.

ḤADD (حد‎), pl. ḥudūd. In its primitive sense ḥadd signifies “obstruction,” whence a porter or gate-keeper is called ḥaddād, or “obstructer,” from his office of prohibiting people from entering. In law it expresses the punishments, the limits of which have been defined by Muḥammad either in the Qurʾān or in the Ḥadīs̤. These punishments are (1) For adultery, stoning; (2) For fornication, a hundred stripes; (3) For the false accusation of a married person with adultery (or Qaẕf), eighty stripes; (4) For apostasy, death; (5) For drinking wine, eighty stripes; (6) For theft, the cutting off of the right hand; (7) For highway robbery: for simple robbery on the highway, the loss of hands and feet; for robbery with murder, death, either by the sword or by crucifixion. (Hidāyah, vol. ii. p. 1.) [PUNISHMENT.]

AL-ḤADĪD (الحديد‎). “Iron.” The title of the LVIIth Sūrah of the Qurʾān, in which the word occurs (verse 25): “We sent down iron in which are both keen violence and advantages to men.”

ḤĀDIS̤ (حادث‎). What happens for the first time; new, fresh. That which is born in time as opposed to qadīm, or that which is without a beginning, as God.

ḤADĪS̤ (حديث‎), pl. aḥādīs̤. [TRADITION.]

ḤADĪS̤ QUDSĪ (حديث قدسى‎). A divine saying. A term used for a ḥadīs̤ which relates a revelation from God in the language of the Prophet. An example is found in the Mishkāt (book i. c. i. pt. 1): “Abū Hurairah said, ‘The Prophet of God related these words of God, “The sons of Adam vex me, and abuse the age, whereas I am The AGE itself: In my hands are all events: I have made the day and night.”’”

HADĪYAH (هدية‎). A present or offering made to persons of consequence, kings or rulers.

HADY (هدى‎). Cattle sacrificed at Makkah during the Pilgrimage, as distinguished from animals sacrificed on the Great Festival, which are called uẓḥīyah. These animals are branded and sent off with strings round their necks, as offerings to the sacred temple. They may be bullocks, or camels, or sheep, or goats. (Mishkāt, book xi. c. viii.)

ḤĀFIZ̤ (حافظ‎). Lit. “A guardian” or protector. (1) One of the names of God, al-Ḥāfiz̤. (2) A governor, e.g. Ḥāfiz̤u ʾl-Bait; the guardian of the Makkan temple. (3) One who has committed the whole of the Qurʾān to memory.

ʿUs̤mān relates that the Prophet said: “The best person amongst you is he who has learnt the Qurʾān and teaches it. (Mishkāt, book vii. c. i.) In the east it is usual for blind men to commit the Qurʾān to memory, and to thus obtain the honourable distinction of Ḥāfiz̤.

ḤAFṢAH (حفصة‎). One of Muḥammad’s wives. She was the daughter of ʿUmar, and the widow of K͟hunais, an early convert to Islām. She married Muḥammad about six months after her former husband’s death. During the lifetime of the Prophet she was a person of considerable influence in his counsels, being the daughter of ʿUmar. She survived Muḥammad some years, and has recorded several traditions of his sayings.

HAGAR. Arabic Hājar (هاجر‎). The slave wife of Abraham and the mother of Ishmael. Al-Baiẓāwī says that Hājar was the slave girl of Sarah, the wife of Abraham, and she admitted her to Abraham, and from her was born Ishmael. Sarah became jealous of Hājar (because she had a son), and she demanded of Abraham that he should put both the mother and child away, and he sent them away in the direction of Makkah, and at Makkah God produced for them the spring Zamzam [ZAMZAM]. When the tribe of Jurhum saw that there was water in that place, they said to Hājar, “If you will share with us the water of this spring, we will share with you the milk of our herds,” and from that time Makkah became a place of importance. (Tafsīru ʾl-Baiẓāwī, p. 424.)

HAIR. Arabic shaʿr, shaʿar (شعر‎). Heb. ‏שֵׂעָר‎.

The sale of human hair is unlawful in the same manner as the use of it for any purpose is unlawful. Being a part of the human body, it is necessary to preserve it from disgrace, to which an exposure of it to sale necessarily subjects it. It is related in the traditions that God has cursed women who use false hair. (Hidāyah, vol. ii. p. 439.) [HEAD.]

ḤĀʾIT̤ĪYAH (حائطية‎). A sect of Muslims founded by Aḥmad ibn Ḥāʾit̤, who said there were two Gods, one whose existence is from eternity (qadīm), i.e. Allāh, and the other who is created in time (muḥaddas̤), i.e. al-Masīḥ (Christ), and that it is he who will judge the world in the last day. And he maintained that this is the meaning of the words which occur in the traditions: “God created man in his own image.” (Kitābu ʾl-Taʿrīfāt, in loco.)

ḤAIWĀN (حيوان‎). The animal creation; which is divided into ḥaiwān nāt̤iq, or rational beings; and ḥaiwān sākit, or irrational beings. [ANIMALS, BEINGS.]

AL-ḤAIY (الحى‎); Heb. ‏חַי‎. “The Living One.” One of the ninety-nine attributes of God. The term frequently occurs in the Qurʾān.

ḤĀʾIẒAH (حائضة‎). A menstruous woman. [MENSTRUATION.]

HĀJAR (هاجر‎). [HAGAR.]

AL-ḤAJARU ʾL-ASWAD (الحجر الاسود‎). Lit. “The Black Stone.” The famous black stone which forms part of the sharp angle of the Kaʿbah in the temple at Makkah. Mr. Burkhardt says, “It is an irregular oval, about seven inches in diameter, with an undulating surface, composed of about a dozen smaller stones of different sizes and shapes, well joined together with a small quantity of cement, and perfectly well smoothed; it looks as if the whole had been broken into as many pieces by a violent blow, and then united again. It is very difficult to determine accurately the quality of this stone, which has been worn to its present surface by the millions of touches and kisses it has received. It appeared to me like a lava, containing several small extraneous particles of a whitish and of a yellow substance. Its colour is now a deep reddish brown approaching to black. It is surrounded on all sides by a border composed of a substance which I took to be a close cement of pitch and gravel of a similar, but not quite the same, brownish colour. This border serves to support its detached pieces; it is two or three inches in breadth, and rises a little above the surface of the stone. Both the border and the stone itself are encircled by a silver band, broader below than above, and on the two sides, with a considerable swelling below, as if a part of the stone were hidden under it. The lower part of the border is studded with silver nails.”

Captain Burton remarks, “The colour appeared to me black and metallic, and the centre of the stone was sunk about two inches below the metallic circle. Round the sides was a reddish brown cement, almost level with the metal, and sloping down to the middle of the stone. The band is now a massive arch of gold or silver gilt. I found the aperture in which the stone is, one span and three fingers broad.”

According to Ibn ʿAbbās, Muḥammad said the black stone came down from Paradise, and at the time of its descent it was whiter than milk, but that the sins of the children of Adam have caused it to be black, by their touching it. That on the Day of Resurrection, when it will have two eyes, by which it will see and know all those who touched it and kissed it, and when it will have a tongue to speak, it will give evidence in favour of those who touched and kissed it.

Maximus Tyrius, who wrote in the second century, says, “The Arabians pay homage to I know not what god, which they represent by a quadrangular stone,” alluding to the Kaʿbah or temple which contains the black stone. The Guebars or Ancient Persians, assert that the Black Stone was amongst the images and relics left by Mahabad and his successors in the Kaʿbah, and that it was an emblem of Saturn. It is probably an aërolite, and owes its reputation, like many others, to its fall from the sky. Its existence as an object of adoration in an iconoclastic religious system, can only be accounted for by Muḥammad’s attempt to conciliate the idolaters of Arabia.

A complete list of the falls of aërolites and meteoric stones through the atmosphere, is published in the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, from a work by Chladni in German, in which the subject is ably and fully treated.

THE HAJARU ʾL-ASWAD. (Burton.)

ḤAJB (حجب‎). A legal term in the Muḥammadan law of inheritance, signifying the cutting off of an heir from his portion.

ḤĀJĪ (حاجى‎), also ḥājj. A person who has performed the ḥajj, or pilgrimage to Makkah. It is retained as a title of honour by those who have performed the pilgrimage, e.g. Ḥājī Qāsim, i.e. “Qāsim the Pilgrim.” [HAJJ.]

ḤAJJ (حج‎). Lit. “setting out,” “tending towards.” The pilgrimage to Makkah performed in the month of Ẕū ʾl-Ḥijjah, or the twelfth month of the Muḥammadan year. It is the fifth pillar of Muḥammadan practical religion, and an incumbent religious duty, founded upon express injunctions in the Qurʾān. According to Muḥammad it is a divine institution, and has the following authority in the Qurʾān for its due observance:—

(It is noticeable that all the verses in the Qurʾān with regard to the pilgrimage are in the later Sūrahs, when they are arranged in their chronological order.)

Sūrah xxii. 28:—

“And proclaim to the peoples a PILGRIMAGE (ḥajj). Let them come to thee on foot and on every fleet camel, arriving by every deep defile:

“That they may bear witness of its benefits to them, and may make mention of God’s name on the appointed days (i.e. the ten first days of Ẕū ʾl-Ḥijjah), over the brute beasts with which He hath supplied them for sustenance: Therefore eat thereof yourselves, and feed the needy, the poor:

“Then let them bring the neglect of their persons to a close, and let them pay their vows, and circuit the ancient House.

“This do. And he that respecteth the sacred ordinances of God, this will be best for him with his Lord.”

Sūrah ii. 153:—

“Verily, as-Ṣafā and al-Marwah are among the signs of God: whoever then maketh a pilgrimage (ḥajj) to the temple, or visiteth it, shall not be to blame if he go round about them both. And as for him who of his own accord doeth what is good—God is Grateful, Knowing.”

Idem, 192:—

“Accomplish the pilgrimage (ḥajj), and the visitation (ʿumrah) for God: and if ye be hemmed in by foes, send whatever sacrifice shall be the easiest, and shave not your heads until the offering reach the place of sacrifice. But whoever among you is sick or has an ailment of the head, must expiate by fasting, alms, or an offering.

“And when ye are safe from foes, he who contents himself with the visitation (ʿumrah) until the pilgrimage (ḥajj), shall bring whatever offering shall be the easiest. But he who findeth nothing to offer, shall fast three days in the pilgrimage itself, and seven days when ye return: they shall be ten days in all. This is binding on him whose family shall not be present at the sacred Mosque (al-Masjidu ʾl-ḥarām). And fear God, and know that God is terrible in punishing.

“Let the pilgrimage be made in the months already known (i.e. Shawwāl, Ẕū ʾl-Qaʿdah, and Ẕū ʾl-Ḥijjah): whoever therefore undertaketh the pilgrimage therein, let him not know a woman, nor transgress, nor wrangle in the pilgrimage. The good which ye do, God knoweth it. And provide for your journey; but the best provision is the fear of God: fear me, then, O men of understanding!

“It shall be no crime in you if ye seek an increase from your Lord (i.e. to trade); and when ye pass swiftly on from ʿArafāt, then remember God near the holy temple (al-Masjidu ʾl-ḥarām); and remember Him, because He hath guided you who before this were of those who went astray:

“Then pass on quickly where the people quickly pass (i.e. from ʿArafāt), and ask pardon of God, for God is Forgiving, Merciful.

“And when ye have finished your holy rites, remember God as ye remember your own fathers, or with a yet more intense remembrance! Some men there are who say, ‘O our Lord! give us our portion in this world:’ but such shall have no portion in the next life:

“And some say, ‘O our Lord! give us good in this world and good in the next, and keep us from the torment of the fire.’

“They shall have the lot which they have merited: and God is swift to reckon.

“Bear God in mind during the stated days: but if any haste away in two days (i.e. after the ḥajj), it shall be no fault in him: And if any tarry longer, it shall be no fault in him, if he fear God. Fear God, then, and know that to Him shall ye be gathered.”

Sūrah iii. 90:—

“The first temple that was founded for mankind, was that in Bakkah (i.e. Makkah)—Blessed, and a guidance to human beings.

“In it are evident signs, even the standing-place of Abraham (Maqāmu Ibrāhīm): and he who entereth it is safe. And the pilgrimage to the temple, is a service due to God from those who are able to journey thither.”

Sūrah v. 2:—

“O Believers! violate neither the rites of God, nor the sacred month, nor the offering, nor its ornaments, (i.e. on the necks of animals), nor those who press on to the sacred house (al-Baitu ʾl-Ḥarām), seeking favour from their Lord and his good pleasure in them.”

The performance of the pilgrimage is incumbent upon every Muslim, once in his lifetime, if he be an adult, free, sane, well in health, and has sufficient money for the expenses of the journey and for the support of his family during his absence.

If a woman perform the pilgrimage she must do it in company with her husband, or a near relative (maḥram). If she can obtain the protection of a near relative and has the necessary expenses for the journey, it is not lawful for her husband to prevent her performing the pilgrimage. This maḥram is a near relative whom it is not lawful for her to marry.

The Imām ash-Shāfiʿī denies the necessity of such attendance, stating that the Qurʾān makes no such restriction. His objection is, however, met by a Tradition. “A certain man came to the Prophet and said: ‘My wife is about to make the ḥajj, but I am called to go on a warlike expedition.’ The Prophet said: ‘Turn away from the war and accompany thy wife in the ḥajj.’”

For a lawful ḥajj there are three actions which are farẓ, and five which are wājib; all the rest are sunnah or mustaḥabb. The farẓ are: to wear no other garment except the iḥrām; to stand in ʿArafāt; to make the t̤awāf, or circuit round the Kaʿbah.

The wājib duties are: to stay in al-Muzdalifah; to run between Mount aṣ-Ṣafā and Mount al-Marwah; to perform the Ramyu ʾr-Rijām, or the casting of the pebbles; if the pilgrims are non-Meccans, to make an extra t̤awāf; to shave the head after the pilgrimage is over.

The ḥajj must be made at the appointed season. Sūrah ii. 193: “Let the pilgrimage be made in the months already known.” These months are Shawwāl, Ẕū ʾl-Qaʿdah, and the first ten days of Ẕū ʾl-Ḥijjah. The actual ḥajj must be in the month Ẕū ʾl-Ḥijjah, but the preparations for, and the nīyah, or intention of the ḥajj can be made in the two preceding months. The ʿumrah, or ordinary visitation [ʿUMRAH], can be done at any time of the year except on the ninth and four succeeding days of Ẕū ʾl-Ḥijjah. On each of the various roads leading to Makkah, there are at a distance of about five or six miles from the city stages called Mīqāt. The following are the names. On the Madīnah road, the stage is called Ẕū ʾl-Ḥalīfah; on the ʿIrāq road, Ẕātu ʿArq; on the Syrian road, Hujfah; on the Najd road, Qarn; on the Yaman road, Yalamlam.

THE PILGRIM.

The following is the orthodox way of performing the pilgrimage, founded upon the example of the Prophet himself. (See Ṣaḥīḥu ʾl-Buk͟hārī, Kitābu ʾl-Manāsik, p. 205.)

Upon the pilgrim’s arrival at the last stage near Makkah, he bathes himself, and performs two rakʿah prayers, and then divesting himself of his clothes, he assumes the pilgrim’s sacred robe, which is called iḥrām. This garment consists of two seamless wrappers, one being wrapped round the waist, and the other thrown loosely over the shoulder, the head being left uncovered. Sandals may also be worn, but not shoes or boots. After he has assumed the pilgrim’s garb, he must not anoint his head, shave any part of his body, pare his nails, nor wear any other garment than the iḥrām. The pilgrim having now entered upon the ḥajj, faces Makkah, and makes the nīyah (intention), and says: “O God, I purpose to make the ḥajj; make this service easy to me and accept it from me.” He then proceeds on his journey to the sacred city and on his way, as well as at different periods in the pilgrimage, he recites, or sings with a loud voice, the pilgrim’s song, called the Talbiyah (a word signifying waiting or standing for orders). In Arabic it runs thus (as given in the Ṣaḥīḥu ʾl-Buk͟hārī, p. 210):—

“Labbaika! Allāhumma! Labbaika!

Labbaika! Lā Shārika laka! Labbaika!

Inna ʾl-ḥamda wa ʾn-niʿmata laka, wa ʾl-mulku laka!

Lā shārika laka!”

Which, following the Persian commentator, ʿAbdu ʾl-Ḥaqq, may be translated as follows:—

“I stand up for Thy service, O God! I stand up!

I stand up! There is no partner with Thee! I stand up!

Verily Thine is the Praise, the Blessing and the Kingdom!

There is no partner with Thee!”

Immediately on his arrival at Makkah he performs legal ablutions in the Masjidu ʾl-ḥarām, and then kisses the black stone (al-Ḥajaru ʾl-aswad). He then encompasses the Kaʿbah seven times; three times at a quick step or run, and four times at a slow pace. These acts are called the t̤awāf and are performed by commencing on the right and leaving the Kaʿbah on the left. Each time as the pilgrim passes round the Kaʿbah, he touches the Ruknu ʾl-Yamānī, or the Yamānī corner, and kisses the sacred black stone. He then proceeds to the Maqāmu Ibrāhīm (the place of Abraham), where he recites the 119th verse of the IInd Sūrah of the Qurʾān, “Take ye the station of Abraham for a place of prayer,” and performs two rakʿah prayers, after which he returns to the black stone and kisses it. He then goes to the gate of the temple leading to Mount aṣ-Ṣafā, and from it ascends the hill, reciting the 153rd verse of the IInd Sūrah of the Qurʾān, “Verily aṣ-Ṣafā and al-Marwah are the signs of God.” Having arrived at the summit of the mount, turning towards the Kaʿbah, he recites the following:—

“There is no deity but only God! God is great! There is no deity but God alone! He hath performed His promise, and hath aided His servant and hath put to flight the hosts of infidels by Himself alone!”

These words are recited thrice. He then runs from the top of Mount aṣ-Ṣafā to the summit of Mount al-Marwah seven times, repeating the aforesaid prayers on the top of each hill. This is the sixth day, the evening of which is spent at Makkah, where he again encompasses the Kaʿbah.

Upon the seventh day he listens to the k͟hut̤bah, or oration, in the great mosque, in which are set forth the excellences of the pilgrimage and the necessary duties required of all true Muslims on the following days.

On the eighth day, which is called Tarwiyah, he proceeds with his fellow pilgrims to Mina, where he stays and performs the usual services of the Muslim ritual, and remains the night.

The next day (the ninth), after morning prayer, he proceeds to Mount ʿArafāt, where he recites the usual prayers and listens to another k͟hut̤bah. He then leaves for al-Muzdalifah, a place midway between Mina and ʿArafāt, where he should arrive for the sunset prayer.

The next day, the tenth, is the Yaumu ʾn-Naḥr, or the “Day of Sacrifice,” known all through the Muslim world and celebrated as the ʿĪdu ʾl-Aẓḥā. Early in the morning, the pilgrims having said their prayers at Muzdalifah, then proceed in a body to three pillars in Mina, the first of which is called the Shait̤ānu ʾl-Kabīr, or “Great Devil.” The pilgrim casts seven stones at each of these pillars, the ceremony being called the Ramyu ʾr-Rijām, or casting of stones. Holding the rajm, or pebble between the thumb and fore-finger of the right hand, the pilgrim throws it at a distance of not less than fifteen feet, and says—“In the name of God, the Almighty, I do this, and in hatred of the devil and his shame.” The remaining six stones are thrown in the same way. It is said that this ceremony has been performed ever since the days of Abraham. The pilgrim then returns to Mina and performs the sacrifice of the ʿĪdu ʾl-Aẓḥā. The victim may be a sheep, or a goat, or a cow, or a camel, according to the means of the pilgrim.

Placing its head towards the Kaʿbah, its fore-legs being bandaged together, the pilgrim stands on the right side of his victim and plunges the knife into its throat with great force, and cries with a loud voice, “Allāhu Akbar!” “God is great! O God, accept this sacrifice from me!”

This ceremony concludes the pilgrimage, and the ḥājī or pilgrim then gets himself shaved and his nails pared, and the iḥrām or pilgrim garment is removed. Although the pilgrimage is over, he should still rest at Makkah the three following days, which are known as the Ayyāmu ʾt-Tashrīq, or the days of drying up of the blood of the sacrifice. Three well-earned days of rest after the peripatetic performance of the last four days.

Before he leaves Makkah he should once more perform the circuits round the Kaʿbah and throw stones at the Satanic pillars at Mina, seven times. He should also drink of the water of the zamzam well.

Most Muslims then go to al-Madīnah, and make their salutations at the shrine of Muḥammad. This is regarded as an incumbent duty by all except the Wahhābīs, who hold that to make the visitation of the Prophet’s tomb a religious ceremony is shirk, or associating the creature with God.

From the time the pilgrim has assumed the iḥrām until he takes it off, he must abstain from worldly affairs and devote himself entirely to the duties of the ḥajj. He is not allowed to hunt, though he may catch fish if he can. “O Believers, kill no game while ye are on pilgrimage.” (Sūrah v. 96.) The Prophet also said: “He who shows the place where game is to be found is equally as bad as the man who kills it.” The ḥājī must not scratch himself, lest vermin be destroyed, or a hair be uprooted. Should he feel uncomfortable, he must rub himself with the open palm of his hand. The face and head must be left uncovered, the hair on the head and beard unwashed and uncut. “Shave not your heads until the offering reach the place of sacrifice.” (Sūrah ii. 192.) On arriving at an elevated place, on descending a valley, on meeting any one, on entering the city of Makkah or the sacred temple, the ḥājī should continually repeat the word “Labbaika, Labbaika”; and whenever he sees the Kaʿbah he should recite the Takbīr, “God is great!” and the Taʾlīh “There is no deity but God!”

The pilgrimage known as the ḥajj, as has been already stated, can only be made on the appointed days of the month of Ẕū ʾl-Ḥijjah. A visit at any other time is called the ʿUmrah. [ʿUMRAH.] If the pilgrim arrives as late as the ninth day, and is in time to spend that day, he can still perform the pilgrimage legally.

The pilgrimage cannot be performed by proxy by Sunnī Muslims, but is allowed by the Shīʿahs, and it is by both considered a meritorious act to pay the expenses of one who cannot afford to perform it. But if a Muḥammadan on his death-bed bequeath a sum of money to be paid to a certain person to perform the pilgrimage, it is considered to satisfy the claims of the Muslim law. If a Muslim have the means of performing the pilgrimage, and omit to do so, its omission is equal to a kabīrah, or mortal sin.

According to the saying of the Prophet (Mishkāt, book xi. ch. 1), the merits of a pilgrimage to Makkah are very great:—

“He who makes a pilgrimage for God’s sake, and does not talk loosely, nor act wickedly, shall return as pure from sin as the day on which he was born.” “Verily, they (the ḥajj and the ʿumrah) put away poverty and sin like the fires of a forge removes dross. The reward of a pilgrimage is paradise.” “When you see a pilgrim, salute and embrace him, and request him to ask pardon of God for you, for his own sins have been forgiven and his supplications will be accepted.”

For a philological and technical explanation of the following terms which occur in this account of the ḥajj, refer to the words as they occur in this dictionary: ʿARAFAH, AYYAMU ʾT-TASHRIQ, HAJARU ʾL-ASWAD, HAJI, IHRAM, MARWAH, MASJIDU ʾL-HARAM, MAQAMU IBRAHIM, MAHRAM, MIQAT, MUZDALIFAH, TAWAF, ʿUMRAH, RAMYU ʾL-JIMAR, ZAMZAM, TALBIYAH, RUKNU ʾL-YAMANI, TARWIYAH, KHUTBAH, ʿIDU ʾL-AZHA, SAFA.

The Muslim who has performed the pilgrimage is called a ḥājī, which title he retains, e.g. Ḥājī Qāsim, the Pilgrim Qāsim.

Only five Englishmen are known to have visited Makkah, and to have witnessed the ceremonies of the pilgrimage:—Joseph Pitts, of Exeter, A.D. 1678; John Lewis Burckhardt, A.D. 1814; Lieutenant Richard Burton, of the Bombay Army, A.D. 1853; Mr. H. Bicknell, A.D. 1862; Mr. T.F. Keane, 1880. The narratives of each of these “pilgrims” have been published. The first account in English of the visit of a European to Makkah, is that of Lodovico Bartema, a gentleman of Rome, who visited Makkah in 1503. His narrative was published in Willes and Eden’s Decades, A.D. 1555.

Professor Palmer (“Introduction” to the Qurʾān, p. liii.) says:—“The ceremonies of the pilgrimage could not be entirely done away with. The universal reverence of the Arab for the Kaabah was too favourable and obvious a means for uniting all the tribes into one confederation with one common purpose in view. The traditions of Abraham the father of their race, and the founder of Muhammad’s own religion, as he always declared it to be, no doubt gave the ancient temple a peculiar sanctity in the Prophet’s eyes, and although he first settled upon Jerusalem as his qiblah, he afterwards reverted to the Kaabah itself. Here, then, Muhammad found a shrine, to which, as well as at which, devotion had been paid from time immemorial; it was one thing which the scattered Arabian nation had in common—the one thing which gave them even the shadow of a national feeling; and to have dreamed of abolishing it, or even of diminishing the honours paid to it, would have been madness and ruin to his enterprise. He therefore did the next best thing, he cleared it of idols and dedicated it to the service of God.”

Mr. Stanley Lane Poole (Introduction to Lane’s Selections, p. lxxxiv.) remarks:—

“This same pilgrimage is often urged as a sign of Moḥammad’s tendency to superstition and even idolatry. It is asked how the destroyer of idols could have reconciled his conscience to the circuits of the Kaʿbah and the veneration of the black stone covered with adoring kisses. The rites of the pilgrimage cannot certainly be defended against the charge of superstition; but it is easy to see why Moḥammad enjoined them. They were hallowed to him by the memories of his ancestors, who had been the guardians of the sacred temple, and by the traditional reverence of all his people; and besides this tie of association, which in itself was enough to make it impossible for him to do away with the rites, Moḥammad perceived that the worship in the Kaʿbah would prove of real value to his religion. He swept away the more idolatrous and immoral part of the ceremonies, but he retained the pilgrimage to Mekka and the old veneration of the temple for reasons of which it is impossible to dispute the wisdom. He well knew the consolidating effect of forming a centre to which his followers should gather; and hence he reasserted the sanctity of the black stone that ‘came down from heaven’; he ordained that everywhere throughout the world the Muslim should pray looking towards the Kaʿbah, and he enjoined him to make the pilgrimage thither. Mekka is to the Muslim what Jerusalem is to the Jew. It bears with it all the influence of centuries of associations. It carries the Muslim back to the cradle of his faith, the childhood of his prophet; it reminds him of the struggle between the old faith and the new, of the overthrow of the idols, and the establishment of the worship of the One God. And, most of all, it bids him remember that all his brother Muslims are worshipping towards the same sacred spot; that he is one of a great company of believers, united by one faith, filled with the same hopes, reverencing the same thing, worshipping the same God. Moḥammad showed his knowledge of the religious emotions in man when he preserved the sanctity of the temple of Islām.”

The Makkan pilgrimage admits of no other explanation than this, that the Prophet of Arabia found it expedient to compromise with Arabian idolatry. And hence we find the superstition and silly customs of the Ḥajj grafted on to a religion which professes to be both monotheistic in its principle, and iconoclastic in its practices.

A careful and critical study of Islām will, we think, convince any candid mind that at first Muḥammad intended to construct his religion on the lines of the Old Testament. Abraham, the true Muslim, was his prototype, Moses his law-giver, and Jerusalem his Qiblah. But circumstances were ever wont to change not only the Prophet’s revelations, but also his moral standards. Makkah became the Qiblah; and the spectacle of the Muslim world bowing in the direction of a black stone, whilst they worship the one God, marks Islām, with its Makkan pilgrimage, as a religion of compromise.

Apologists of Islām have endeavoured to shield Muḥammad from the solemn charge of having “forged the name of God,” but we know of nothing which can justify the act of giving the stupid and unmeaning ceremonies of the pilgrimage all the force and solemnity of a divine enactment.

The Wahhābīs, the Puritans of Islām, regard the circumambulation of the Prophet’s tomb as superstitious (as shirk, or associating something with God, in fact), but how can they justify the foolish ceremonies of the ḥajj? If reverence for the Prophet’s tomb is shirk, what are the runnings at aṣ-Ṣafā and al-Marwah, the stonings of the pillars, and the kissings of the black stone? No Muslim has ever yet attempted to give a spiritual explanation of the ceremonies of the Makkan pilgrimage, for in attempting to do so he would be charged with the heresy of shirk!

Mr. W.S. Blunt in his Future of Islām, has given some interesting statistics regarding the pilgrimage to Makkah in the year 1880, which he obtained during a residence at Cairo, Damascus, and Jiddah. The figures, he says, are taken principally from an official record kept for some years past at Jiddah, and checked as far as European subjects are concerned, by reference to the consular agents residing there.

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