Is Pilgrimage A Pagan Rite?

My friend’s eyes had that gleam which characterizes the look of a person preparing to deal a knock-out. His broad smile revealed his teeth and he rubbed his hands in glee as he talked:

Don’t you observe as I do that your pilgrimage rites are frankly pagan? First of all there is that stone structure you call the Ka’ba to which you cling and then go round. There is also the stoning of the devil, the hurrying between Safa and Marwa, the kissing of the Black Stone, and the occurrence of the number seven in many acts such as circling the Ka’ba, stoning the devil, or hurrying to and fro between Safa and Marwa. This is, surely, a vestige of ancient superstitions about talismanic numbers. There is yet that Ihram cloth you wrap round your naked bodies in preparation for the pilgrimage. Don’t be angry with me if my frankness hurts you; but, as you say, there is no timidity in the pursuit of knowledge.

Having finished, he started puffing the smoke of his cigarette slowly and fixed his eyes on me from behind his glasses.

I began to reply with equal calm:

Don’t you observe with me that according to the laws of matter we studied it is found that the smaller body revolves round the larger: the electron in the atom circles round the nucleus, the moon round the earth, the earth round the sun, the sun round the galaxy, the galaxy round a bigger one, and so on till we ascend to the Absolute Greatest: God? Don’t we repeat the phrase ‘Allah is greater’ (Allahu Akbar) meaning that He is bigger than everything? Hence, and in accordance with the laws of your science, everything should revolve round Him. You are now, in fact, revolving round Him in spite of yourself along with our solar system. You cannot choose but revolve for nothing is still in the universe but God – the Sanctuary, the Enduring; He is still whereas everything else is in movement around Him.

So far for the law of the lesser and the greater which you studied in physics. As for us, we circle around God’s House of our own free will. This House, the Ka’ba, was the first building man devoted to the worship of God. Ever since that time immemorial it has become a symbol and a House of God. Don’t you ‘circle’ the Kremlin revering a certain man entombed there and claiming that he saved mankind? If you know where Shakespeare is buried, you would race each other to visit his grave in more fervor than we have as we vie for the journey to the tomb of Muhammad, peace be upon him. Don’t you lay a wreath on a stone monument saying that it is a symbol of the Unknown Soldier? Why, then, blame us for casting a stone at a certain post which we take to symbolize Satan? Don’t you live in a ceaseless ‘hurrying’ from the moment of your birth to that of your death and doesn’t your son, after your death, repeat that ‘hurrying’ all over again? This is the same as the symbolic ‘hurrying’ from Safa – the name in Arabic connotes emptiness or vacuum as a symbol of nothingness – to Marwa, the spring which signifies life and being. Isn’t this, in fact, the pendulous movement of all creatures? Can’t you discern in the rites of pilgrimage a profound symbolic synopsis of all these mysteries?

Now for the number seven that moves you to so much sarcasm. Let me ask you, in my turn, why do we have seven tones in the musical scale: Sol, La, C, Do, Re, Mi, Fa? After the seventh tone we return again to the pitch of Sol – always seven tones and not eight or more. The shades of the light spectrum are seven, electrons revolve round the nucleus in seven fields, the embryo completes its growth only in the seventh month and if delivered before that time will be stillborn. The days of the week are seven – among all peoples – and this was reached without any previous agreement. Doesn’t all this signify something? Or is it that all these facts are, for their part, mere talismanic superstitions?

Let me further ask you: don’t you kiss a letter your beloved sent you? Are you, then, a pagan? Why blame us, therefore, for kissing that Black Stone which our Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, carried in his own robe and kissed? There is no paganism involved at all; for we do not address our devotion and worship to the stones but to the profound meanings, symbols, and memories they evoke.

The pilgrimage actions are occasions for inducing contemplation, arousing the feelings, and instilling godliness in the heart. The Ihram cloth we wrap round our naked bodies, and which should not be sewn, symbolizes the renunciation of worldly ornament and complete devotion before the Presence of the Creator. It is just the same as our condition at birth and death; for we come to the world wrapped in a piece of cloth and go out of it in the same attire. Don’t you need formal suits for audiences with kings? We, for our part, say that only such stripping of ornament and donning of this simple robe is appropriate for God’s Majesty; for He is greater than all kings and nothing more befits attendance before Him than absolute humility and the shedding of clothes. The humble Ihram robe worn in God’s Presence by rich and poor, Raj and millionaire alike signifies also that men are brothers however different they may be in ranks and wealth.

For us the pilgrimage is a great gathering, an annual conference; it is an enlarged version, if you like, of the Friday prayers – that smaller meeting which unites us every week. These events have wonderful significance for anyone who cares to contemplate their meanings. They are as far removed from paganism as can be imagined.

If you had stood, as I did, on Mount Arafat, one among millions crying ‘Allahu Akbar’, reciting the Quran in more than twenty tongues, calling out ‘labbayka Allahuma labbayk’ (we have answered your call, God), sobbing, and melting in love and longing – you would have shed tears unconsciously and merged in that multitude of men, you would have experienced that sense of reverence and annihilation of self before God, the Magnificent, the Lord of all Being, Who masters everything there is.

By Dr. Mostafa Mahmoud, “Dialogue with an atheist”