Tomorrow is the
Yaum-At-tarwiyya that marks the beginning
of this year’s Hajj when Muslim pilgrims are expected to flock to the tent city
of Mina on the outskirts of the holy city of Makkah, to spend the next few days
performing Hajj rituals there and at a few other holy sites around. The
exercise climaxes on the Day of Arafat, i.e. this Sunday, to subsequently usher
in the Eid-Al-adha the following day, as the remaining Hajj rituals and Eid Al-adha
festivities continue concurrently over the subsequent few days.
As one of the
five pillars of Islam, Hajj attracts divine reward too large to measure, which explains
the authentically narrated Hadith where the Messenger of Allah (Peace and
Blessing of Allah be upon him) said ‘Al-Hajj Al-mabroor (i.e. Hajj free
from vice) ‘has no divine reward for it that
is befitting enough except the Paradise’ (Narrated by Bukhari and Muslim.
Interestingly, he (i.e. the Messenger of Allah) further explained Al-Hajj
Al-mabroor where he said ‘Whoever performs Hajj throughout which he does not commit obscenity and wrongdoing, sloughs his
sins and turns sinless as the day he was born’ (Narrated by
Bukhari and Muslim).
Besides, though performing Hajj once in a
lifetime is a fundamental religious obligation, while Al-adha sacrifice is a highly
recommended Prophetic Sunnah, yet only those who can financially afford them
and also do indeed fulfil other applicable preconditions, e.g. physical
fitness, with regard to Hajj, are supposed to perform them. After all, Allah
the Almighty will never hold any body accountable for anything beyond his
ability or control. In other words, those who can’t afford Hajj or Al-adha
sacrifice have nothing to be concerned about, in fact, they don’t miss any
reward-earning opportunity either, for there are so many alternative worship
rites that they can perform to earn similar or even bigger divine reward,
depending on the extent of their respective sincerity of intention, piety and
compliance with the Sunnatic guidance
of the Messenger of Allah (pbuh).
Like all Islamic worship rites, Hajj and Al-adha sacrifice are
only accepted hence rewarded by Allah when the doer fulfils the two fundamental
preconditions for Allah to accept an act of worship, which are (1) Al-Ikhals i.e. absolute sincerity of
intention, and (2) Al-mutaaba’a i.e. compliance
with the appropriate Prophetic guidance in performing it. In other words, for
every act of worship to be accepted by Allah the almighty, it must be performed
exclusively for His sake, and it must basically comply with the way the
Messenger of Allah performed it or taught his noble companions. In fact, any act of worship performed without
absolute Ikhlas in particular is not only worthless, but the doer, instead,
incurs the sin associated with Riya i.e. showing off in worship, which
is one of the worst forms of wrongdoing that attracts the Wrath of Allah the
Almighty.
Obviously, when
the foregoing is viewed against the backdrop of the increasingly status-obsessed Nigerian
society where people are largely obsessed with outclassing one another, the
picture would reveal some interesting underlying contradictions.
For instance, many people seem to have forgotten that Hajj, Al-adha sacrifice
and indeed all other worship rites that involve resource spending are acts of
worship the acceptance of which is subject to their fulfillment of the above
mentioned preconditions. Consequently, there is easily observable phenomenon of
showing off in, particularly, such acts of worship, in the society.
It’s common, for instance, to observe that
many people unnecessarily expose themselves to avoidable financial strain in
order to offer Al-adha sacrifice or perform Hajj, in total disregard for the
basic order of priority in resource spending, even though they obviously have
accumulated basic responsibilities toward their respective families that they
have not delivered, e.g. basic and decent living condition and other equally
basic things like healthcare, education etc. Yet, they are obsessed with Hajj,
Al-adha sacrifice and other worship rites that involve relatively significant
resource spending. In fact, some of such people even sponsor others to Hajj and
give out sacrificial animals to others, apparently to maintain their largely
fake social status in the society, or in their desperate bid to acquire one. Besides,
even though the country’s persistently deteriorating economy has obviously
affected the amounts of resources spent, or rather wasted, in this regard, the
phenomenon still persists anyway.
While, unfortunately, the social phenomenon of
obsession with status and showing off in our societies is apparently too deep-rooted
to be checked at once, Muslim individuals should, at least, strive to keep their
worship acts intact and free from all forms of showing off, so that they can earn the divine rewards
associated with them in the Hereafter.
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