The Hajj: Spiritual Pilgrimage

The Hajj: Spiritual Pilgrimage

The Five Pillars form the basis of Muslim faith and practice:

The National Geographic records three people’s holy pilgrimage to Mecca in

Saudi Arabia, fulfilling a requirement of the faith (for those who are physically

and financially able). As you will see in the Youtube video, the two million

faithful who make this pilgrimage in the final month of the Islamic calendar

experience an intense connection to God and humanity during the hajj.

Pilgrims leave behind indicators of their social and economic status to enter

a state of ritual purity, though the Saudis like to keep them organized in

national groups. Everyone who attends is equal, and there are a number

of prescribed ritual acts recalling events in the life of Abraham and his

family members (Hagar and Ishmael) and includes circumambulating

the Ka’ba seven times and ends with the Feast of Sacrifice. (The film

recounts the logistics of preparing the sacrifices and feast for 2,000,000

pilgrims). {There’s also a film on the Kumbhala Mehla in India where

20,000,000 people gather on the Ganges).

Questions:

What do you observe about Society and the Sacred from watching

this film?

How is the faith of Islam re-enacted in the ritual?

How are the pilgrims prepared, purified, regenerated and reborn?

What is the significance of this rite for the maintenance of Islam?

How have the Saudis “modernized” to make the experience of the hajj more palatable

for the pilgrims and to accommodate world Islam?

How do race, class, and gender figure into National Geographic’s choice of Hajjis? Do

these people have the same experience?

What was your personal response as a participant-observer in seeing the hajj in this film?

Has anyone one read AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MALCOLM X and his Hajj experience?

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