Pilgrimage Essay

Oxford 2017 describes pilgrimage as “a journey to a place of particular interest or significance.” In a religious sense, pilgrimages are sacred journeys used as a rite of passage to transcend one’s current spiritual position. A pilgrimage may be undertaken to have an emotional or holy experience or strengthen and further understand one’s faith in their beliefs. The profane form of pilgrimage is considered ritual tourism, which is to experience culture and recreate on a pilgrimage, but not as an actual religious pilgrim.

Islam is a monotheistic religion, this means that the adherents of the faith have one deity, namely, Allah. The Islamic tradition was created from Allah’s revelations received by a Prophet named Muhammad in Saudi Arabia in

The particular place of significance is Mecca, the capital of Saudi Arabia. Mecca is considered the holiest Muslim city, so holy in fact, that non-Muslims are not permitted entry under most circumstances. Therefore, ritual tourism does not exist on Hajj. Hajj is essentially a re-enactment of the rituals and prayers of previous prophets. Muslims use Hajj as a means to strengthen their faith. As he says in his book, Pilgrimage in Islam, Huseyin Yagmur see that “[The Hajj is a] blessed voyage, during which the heart and soul, rather than the rational mind will be discovered” As the largest mass gathering in the world, participants travel from all over the world to Mecca. The world-wide Muslim community are referred to as

Muhammad paved the way for the modern version of the Hajj, but the beginnings of Hajj date back to 2000BC, in the time of Abraham. God prophesised to Abraham that he must leave his wife and son in the desert of what is now Mecca. From there he was commanded to build what is known as the Ka’ba. The Ka’ba is the building in the centre of Mecca, it was believed to be the crash site of a sacred black stone, a meteorite. Due to Hajj’s and the Ka’ba’s rich history, it now holds great sacred significance for Muslim people. In the era before Arabia was Islamic, Jahiliyyah, the Ka’ba was home to pagan idol statues, in 630 CE, Muhammad spiritually purified the Kaaba by destroying all the pagan idols, and then reconsecrated the building to Allah and the Islamic