Q Pilgrimage
Hajj & Umra
Every year, in the Lunar month of Dhul hijja, Muslims from all over the world go for the pilgrimage if they are able to. Hajj is in two parts:
One can be performed at any time of the year and is called the Umra.
The other can only be done on specific days once a year. This is called the Hajj.
Apart from the social benefit of Hajj to the individual, it is a major social, cultural, and political market place of universal proportions. It is here that Muslims from all over the globe meet and interact. It links the whole of the Muslim world forming the hub of one of the greatest physical internets of the world all abandoning personal desires in pursuit of knowledge and closeness to God. Any person who has been for Hajj is addressed as ‘Haaji.
Ziyara
A ZAAIR (one who visits someone) moves away from everything and everyone but the one he wishes to visit. It is to colour oneself with the attributes of the visited one. In this context Ziyara is the visitation to the shrines of the most awesome human beings who walked the earth.