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Hajis have returned from the pilgrimage and now their spiritual upliftment should manifest in their actions, to the effect that they struggle to rise above the baser things of life.
The Hajj pilgrimage is over and our pilgrims are back home safe and sound and purified, or so we believe. The Hajj is a spiritual experience that cannot be expressed in words, but the serenity that emanates from the pilgrims as they come back shows that they are spiritually renewed.
Having gone through a sublime spiritual experience, their lives can never be the same again. It is because of its spiritual enrichment and fulfillment that any Muslim, who has the means, is required to make the Hajj at least once in his or her lifetime.
Families of the returning pilgrims have been celebrating the safe return of their relatives. It is a blessing well worth celebrating. Let the good times roll on. But it should go beyond celebration. The pilgrims must henceforth show by their words and deeds that they have been spiritually re-awakened and are ready to let their lives be shining examples to others to emulate. They should and must be seen as role models in their communty in every way. It is not edifying to go about bragging that one has been to Makkah on pilgrimage. The resultant spiritual upliftment should manifest in our actions and utterances to the effect that we strugle to rise above the baser things of life.
One who has performed Hajj should ponder whether his supplication has been accepted or not, by watching his heart and his conduct. If he finds his heart adverse to this world and inclined to be intimate with Allah, then he may count on acceptance, for Allah accepts only those whom He loves.
As Hajj provides every pilgrim with tranquility of heart, inner purity, and understanding of his existence in the cosmos, every single step should recall the ideas of the creation, glory of divine transcendence and the unity of the believers that crosses boundaries and ethnic and gender diversities.
What spiritual enrichment one should experience after performing Hajj? Man’s actions are governed more by psychological factors than physical ones. The most effective way of influencing human behaviour is to influence his mental and spiritual faculties which are the power-house of the entire human system. If one is able to influence the psychic mind of the individual, you will completely influence his actions. These factors play a very significant role in preparing and mobilising the human factor, which is what the Hajj pilgrimage does.
Islam has three dimensions or levels, which in Arabic are called Islam, Iman, and Ihsan. Islam refers to doing the correct actions, that is, ones that are in accordance with the Quran and Sunnah. Iman (faith) refers to having the correct knowledge (aqidah). Ihsan (excellence) refers to having the correct motivations.
Much attention is given to Islam and Iman and to matters of Shari’ah and aqidah. But Ihsan is important too. Having the correct motivations means purifying our souls from hypocrisy, caprice, and everything else that keeps us away from serving Allah for His sake alone. This purification of the soul is called tazkiyah.
To achieve spiritual enrichment, one has to be conscious of Allah and His attributes in whatever a person does. One has to consciously and sub-consciously connect to Allah. When we think, we should connect with Allah. Then there is the Intellect. Intellect is our human reasoning, limited to our five senses and our interpretation of our surroundings. We need our intellect. It performs a very important job. It allows us to observe what is happening in our lives and deduce the cause, which is what we are habitually thinking and feeling. Once we know the cause, we are at liberty to change our thinking (the cause) to something better for us.
The sticky part comes when we only use our intellect and not our intelligence (which is what the human race has been doing in its evolution up until now). When we only use our intellect, we get the “I’ll believe it when I see it” attitude towards life. It becomes a stopping point that keeps us from soaring to our highest spiritual growth. It keeps us limited to living a life of perception only. Reacting instead of acting.
When has the “I’ll believe it, when I see it” attitude ever created something or made something happen? Did the first carpenter who made the first chair say, “I’ll believe there is such a thing as a chair when I see one”? Did Thomas Edison say, “I’ll believe there is such a thing as the electric light bulb, when I see it”? Nothing would ever have been invented with an attitude like that. I will go as far as to say every inventor, every artist has tapped into the Creative Mind of Spirit at those moments. We can all tap into the Creative Mind. Universal Intelligence knows all potentiality.
Hajj is the journey which helps an individual, to graduate from merely using the intellect to inbuilt intelligence, recognising and experiencing the role and place of Almighty in one’s life. In other words, it is spiritual purification leading to spiritual enrichment. In other words, material attraction is on the wane and the love for Allah should always dominate one’s actions.
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