What is Hajj? In simplest terms it is a journey to find yourself, to connect yourself with your Lord, to elevate above the low grounds of physical being and achieve balance with your spiritual being. “Wah arafa nafsa wah arafa rabah”- To know yourself is to know your Lord- Hajj is exactly that, such simple words but such a large feat to accomplish. Not only is the seeking difficult but also breaking away from all our attachments of the world and society we know, to let go and detach, to become dead to the world we leave behind on our journey in order to bring to life the soul we choke each day through the “muck” of our rotating mundane lives. And you have to ask yourself- does any of which I do each day have any purpose? Does it help me reach my ultimate goal and prepare me for my final destination? (Death and or hereafter)- Probably not.


    However this does not mean we are trying to retain some hidden power or perfection- far from it. Nor are we going to merely ask forgiveness of our sins, to attempt some sort of “rebirth”, quite the contrary for rebirth symbolizes starting all over, almost going backwards trying to regain an innocence we cannot claim. Rather it is about “revolutionizing” ourselves, letting go and changing what we find defective, to move forward, to be aware and conscious of first ourselves and then the world around us. To know both our weaknesses and strengths and face, accept and ask forgiveness of sins or evils we have done- but that is small part of our search.

    In my readings about Hajj it emphasizes many times on death, to “die before you die”. To let go of all attachments of the world and life you know- family, friends, habits, homes, attitudes and even clothes- yes clothes. There is a ritual before Hajj to come to an appointed place at an appointed time Mi’ad and Miqat- the appointed place is really just a place outside Mecca to stop at the appointed time which is the time before the actual Hajj begins, a place and time where you prepare yourself, your body , soul and mind. It is there you leave your ‘self’ behind, all of your I’s, me’s and my’s. You shed your clothes like shedding a skin- shedding the skin of the material world or your individuality, the cover of your true self. We put on white (the ihram) in the simplest form of clothing possible, men aren’t even allowed to wear a single stitch, and women do to retain modesty. Everyone in Hajj wears white, allowing no distinction, no difference- we become one- a single ummah a single people. Everyone becomes human again, humans that are no different from one another.

    It may seem strange to have the simplicity of clothes emphasized on so much- but what we don’t realize is that clothes show, dictate  and define who we are- what our attitude, characteristics or even what our class or race might be. Rich people like to show they’re wealthy; a shy person would dress a certain way to remain unseen and likewise a person who wants to be seen dresses to attract attention. Clothes and colors distinguish and separate us from each other we all are out there to show our identity- they can even label us. Which is why shedding all of that is so important to rid ourselves of the worldly identity and unit equally with the people.
    It is all process and parts of our journey- a journey to know our true selves. What is our true self? : Our spirituality. Hajj is our death before death, a death we create a detachment and a resurrection- a chance to change things in our lives. Hajj is a chance, the ability to chose how to die, to create our own fate. It is in this detachment that we step back and take a look at ourselves and within ourselves and at our life and most importantly what we wish to change about it. Hajj is our death and coming back from it we resurrect ourselves back into our regular lives with hopefully a new insight and changes. But above all the most important thing is to have awareness and work towards learning to balance our spiritual and physical self- to elevate ourselves over the physical being, not allowing it to control us but rather we control it, its desires, its emotions and thoughts.  Islam means peace, not just peace between people or of heart and mind, but peace of soul- ultimate contentment and balance between our two selves.