'Munkar' deeds in Hajj.

We had studied that certain 'munkar' (unrecognised, wrong) deeds, have been introduced into our religious rites, ('ibaadaat). I enumerate below such practices, which constitute 'kufr' (rejection) of the verses of Qur-aan, and its 'istahzaa' (derision), that have have been introduced into our Hajj.

1. Stoning the 'satans' in Mina: In Mina, near Makkah, we pelt pebbles on three stone pillars (called 'jamaraat'). There is no direction in Qur-aan to do this act.

The reason which we are told by our elders for having to do this deed is : "When prophet Ibraaheem (peace upon him) led his son Ismaa-eel (peace upon him) for sacrificing him, as ordered by Allaah in his dream, the satan tried to prevent him by whispering in these three places." Giving this reason, three monuments for the satan have been erected.

My interpretation of the evil intentions behind this act is as follows:

After erecting these three pillars, we are told: "These are three satans - one is the small, another is the middle and the third is the big." (According to them, it was in three places that the satan tried to disturb prophet Ibraaheem, peace upon him. How it becomes three satans with difference in size? : small, medium and big.)

In other words, according to them, there are three satans: Of them, one is small, the second is bigger, and the third is the biggest. (In the jamaraath, it is written on the boards in Arabic, jamarathus-sughra, jamarathul-Wusta and jamarathul-kubra.)

On 10th of Dzul-Hajj, we have to reach the place of the biggest of the three satans and on that day, we have to pelt pebbles on it (the biggest) only, saying: "Allaahu Akbar" (Allaah is the biggest). As per the teachings of our elders, we have the awareness in our minds that this satan is the biggest and we have to say with our tongues: "Allaah is the biggest." I do not have the courage to say with my tongue, what our ill-wishers wanted to make us utter from our mouths. But I say it because of Allaah's command : "O you believers! Fear Allaah and speak words right and straight."(33:70). By making us commit this act, our ill-wishers want us to say that either Allaah is the satan or that the satan is Allaah. Na'oodzu-billaah. Normally, we seek refuge with Allaah, from satan, with the words :. But here, because of their bad intentions, we are made to say : "Allaahu Akbar." (Allaah is the biggest).

2. In the next act of doing sacrifice of the animals after this act of stoning , we are instructed to say: "Bismillaahi Allaahu Akbar" (In the name of Allaah, Allaah is the biggest). So the sacrifice becomes in the name of satan, instead of in the name of Allaah. (Because we have just identified the biggest satan as Allaah, by pelting a pebble on it and saying, "Allaah is the biggest.") Anything slaughtered in any name other than that of Allaah is Fisq. (See Qur-aan, verse 5:3). Thus, hundreds of thousands of Muslims are made to eat Fisq meat.(Fisq : Abomination, Impious).

Allaah has said in Surah Al-Hajj:

" That : whoever honours things made sacred by Allaah, for him it is good in the sight of his Lord. Lawful to you are cattle, except those mentioned to you (as exceptions): So shun the filth from the idols, and shun lying speech; " (22:30)

2a. Another purpose they achieve by making us do this act is, to make us disbelievers (kaafirs). Allaah has said: " Surely did they disbelieve, who said : 'Allaah is one of three' " (5:73 part)

3. One more act of ours which reinforces our identification of the biggest satan as Allaah, is : We start reciting the "Talbiyah" - 'Labbaik, Allaahumma Labbaik' , (Here I am , O Allaah, here I am ), etc. from the moment we put on the 'ihraam' cloths on the morning of 8th Dzul-Hajj and then continue reciting it the whole day and then on the 9th Dzul-Hajj in Arafaath and then continue to recite it on 10th Dzul-Hajj in Mina, until we reach this 'biggest satan'. We are told by our elders to discontinue the recital of talbiyah on reaching the 'biggest satan'. Is this act correct? For the past two or three days, have we been referring only to this monument for satan, when we kept chanting: 'Labbaik, Allaahumma Labbaik' (Here I am, O Allaah, Here I am )? Is reaching this place, the culmination of our Hajj pilgrimage?

4. The state of Ihraam: The men performing the hajj are instructed by our learned men to wear unsewn sheets of clothing material. The sheets (at least the sheet worn on the upper part of the body) invariably tend to move away from the body, because they have no hold, thus exposing part of the chest, stomach area, back, arms, etc. Since women are also present in the hajj, this causes embarrassment to both men and women.

Thus our enemies have tried hard to make us swerve from the commands of Allaah, regarding hajj.

" For Hajj are the months known. If any one undertakes that duty therein, let there be no obscenity, nor impiety , nor wrangling in the Hajj and whatever good you do, Allaah knows it. And take a provision (with you) for the journey, the best of provisions is fear (of Allaah). So fear Me, O you that are wise!" (2:197)

Our clerics advise the Hajees day after day as to what should not be done while in a state of Ihraam: "Don't scratch, Don't cover your head, Don't apply perfume," etc. But no one quotes the verse of Quran which mentions the state of Ihraam (prohibition) : " let there be no obscenity, nor impiety , nor wrangling in the Hajj. "(2:197)

5. At Arafaath: While at arafaath, the people are advised by the religious leaders to pray Zuhr and 'Asr prayers at Zuhr time, thus praying one prayer before its time. Similarly, people are advised not to pray maghrib prayer at its time, but to postpone it till 'Ishaa time and pray it together with 'Ishaa at Muzdalifah. I saw many people leaving their tents in arafaath one hour before sunset but then I found that all of them gathered and remained at the exit points of arafaath till the sunset, and only after the muezzin called for maghrib prayers and they heard it, they left the arafaath without praying!

We leave Arafaath with the good hope that Allaah Rabbul-izzah would have forgiven our sins, the very next act of ours is to commit 'kufr' (rejection) of a verse of Qur-aan, when we ignore the 'maghrib' prayers on its time and postpone it for praying together with 'ishaa prayers.

Allaah has said: "Prayer at fixed times has been enjoined on the believers." (4:103 part)

6. Depriving us from Tawaaf of Ka'bah : Having cunningly led us into doing 'munkar' deeds with their inventions, as described above, our ill-wishers have even deprived us from doing the Tawaaf (circumambulation) of Ka'abah, which is one of the mandatory deeds of the Hajj.(22:29)

" Then they should make an end of their unkemptness and pay their vows and go around the ancient House." (22:29)

A semi-circle shaped area adjoining one of the four sides of the Ka'bah, called Hateem, has been demarcated and a wall erected on its fringes, which cordons off and prevents the Haajees (pilgrims) from doing the Tawaaf of all the four sides of the ka'bah. (Thus we are effectively prevented from doing Tawaaf of the whole Ka'bah). We can only go around the three sides of the Ka'bah and on the fourth side, we have to go around this bulge of semi-circle shaped area, called hateem. They tell us tales that this area was also once a part of the ka'bah, but common sense tells us that ka'bah (word built from "muk'ab" - a cube) could only be cubical in shape and cubes do not have a semi-circle attached to them.

We can go into this small hateem area through the entrance on both the corners of this side of the Ka'bah, but it is always filled with people who throng the area praying and supplicating, because so much virtue has been attributed for praying there. So everyone does the tawaaf avoiding this area and thus misses one side of the ka'bah or, in other words, misses doing tawaaf of the whole ka'bah.

(Since I wrote these lines two years ago, barricades have been erected on both the entrances of this semi-circle hateem area, and security guards posted, ostensibly to control the rush in hateem. Although earlier I used to complete the tawaaf of the four sides of Ka'bah by passing through hateem, now it is impossible to do so, because during the rush hours, the security guards do not allow anyone to pass and during non-rush hours, the barricades are locked to prevent anyone going inside hateem.)

7. Rendering waste the Tawaaf of Ka'bah : We committed a munkar act by identifying the biggest satan (by pelting a pebble) pronouncing "Bismillaahi Allaahu Akbar" (In the name of Allaah, Allaah is the biggest). This one act was utilised to spoil our slaughter also, where we are again made to pronounce "Bismillaahi Allaahu Akbar". Again, we are instructed to pronounce the same words, "Bismillaahi Allaahu Akbar" while commencing each tawaaf of Ka'bah. Thus, each and every important act required to be done in Hajj is spoiled by stoning the structures that are supposed to represent satan.

8. Name of persons on the door of Ka'bah : The doors of the Ka'bah, (as well as the kiswah - the blanket covering the Ka'bah) have the names of the persons who, in recent times, got it renovated. It is noteworthy that Prophet Ibraaheem (peace upon him), or his son Ismaa'eel (peace upon him), who raised the Ka'bah's foundations with their own hands, never thought it necessary to inscribe their names on it and kept it pure.

While we have been debarred from doing the Tawaaf of Ka'bah in whole, we are forced to see and go around these names, however much we may dislike it. I pray to Allaah to help us cleanse His house and keep it pure for His worship, without having to see and remember anyone's name in places where we have to remember Him alone.

In the decorative engravings on the outer walls of Masjid-ul-Haraam, there are some engravings which look like the face of a tiger, and some which look like the face of monkeys.

However, in the prophet's mosque in Madeenah, these ugly faces are more discernible and we can see them on every pillar in the newly constructed areas. Again, I pray to Allaah to help us cleanse His mosques.

Mina location: "What do we do on the first day of our stay in Mina?" ask many new-comers to Hajj, to the learned men. They reply: "Nothing. Simply stay in the tents and pray five times." Just simply stay and pray? We do that from everywhere. What is the real purpose, I was intrigued. Then I suspected whether the pillars representing the satans are located towards the Qiblah in between Makkah and Mina. Then I tried to see many maps available but nothing gave the information. Then one day I saw the official map that is painted in the Mina itself. I reproduce below the relevant portion. As you may see, when we arrive in Mina from Makkah side, the first thing that occurs is the pillars representing the satan. The rest of the area of Mina falls behind these pillars, so that when you stand in Mina for prayer facing the Qiblah, the pillars are present between you and the Qiblah. Thus, we actually face the pillars also in the prayer, while our intention was only to face the Qiblah. But our stoning of the biggest satan saying "Allaahu Akbar", then stoning the pillars everyday, as an act of repeated identification of the biggest satan, added to that the facing towards the pillars, renders our prayers waste, too.

Square patterns in the Walkways. Some years ago, I noticed that in the Grand Mosque, Masjidul Haraam, at Makkah there are, in some places, black square tiles on the floor (in the walkways), around which there is a thick border. I avoided walking over these black square patterns, since these resembled and might have been put to represent the Kaabah, which is covered with a black blanket. I find that over the years, this type of flooring pattern is being imposed over several areas of the Mosque, all over the walkways, so that every believer visiting the mosque happens to tread over this pattern. This totally unnecessary effort and expense being incurred reinforces my doubt as to their intention.

Talbiyah. The words of Talbiyah which we are directed to keep repeating during the Hajj are: " Labbaik Allaahumma Labbaik, Labbaika Laa Shareeka laka Labbaik ; Innal Hamda, wan-Ni'matha, laka wa--Mulk, Laa Shareeka lak ".. The middle portion of these words means: " Indeed (all) the praise, and the blessing, for you and the sovereignty." Elaborated plainly it would mean : " Indeed (all) the praise is for you, and the blessing is for you and the sovereignty is for you." While the two, praise and sovereignty, is rightly said to belong to Allaah, but why should we say: "the blessing is for you"? The blessing is something which is always from Allaah and we are its recipients. But saying: "the blessing is for you", doesn't it amount to throwing the blessing back at Him?

The Trinity in Nabawi Mosque in Madinah.

There is a strip of painting on the front wall inside the prophet's mosque in Madeenah, which runs end-to-end, on the Qiblah side. Each rectangular painting contains one attribute or name of our prophet Muhammad (peace upon him), for example: al-Muzzammil, al-Mudathir, etc. Since the strip of these rectangular paintings on the wall has to pass through a niche area, called Mihrab - where the imam stands for conducting the prayer - three such rectangular inscriptions are written inside the mihraab.

The three epithets for our prophet (peace be upon him) written inside the Mihraab of the Imaam in the Nabawi Mosque in Madinah are :

The first epithet

.meaning “Establisher of the Sunnah, compassionate, blessed person” can be accepted as an epithet of our prophet.

The second epithet

means (One who is) Trusted upon, (One who) Suffices or Ensures.
These two epithets apply aptly to Allaah because He has been affirmed as several times in Qur-aan.
On the contrary our prophet has been told in Qur-aan (at least 5 times) that he is not a .  

 Similarly , One who ensures, or nourishes, guarantees or takes into care, appearing together with  can only refer to Allaah and not the prophet. In verse 16:91 we have been told

: 
 . And you have made Allaah your surety

As for the third one,   , its reference unambiguously is to the angel Jibreel

Roohul Qudus is by no stretch of imagination an attribute of the prophet. If no one by that attribute had existed, then we could have said that it is an exaggeration to have called our prophet "Roohul Qudus". But since it is the specific attribute of the archangel Jibreel, it is wrong to put that attribute among the attributes of our prophet.

In the first place, we should not write the name or attributes of our prophet on the wall in front of which our brothers would stand for prayer: pray, bend and prostrate.

When we think deeper, then we realize that it is not a mistake but a well-planned and wanton mischief.  The Christians worship the trinity:  comprising of three entities: the father (alluding it to the God), the son (alluding it to His messenger Easa / Jesus (peace upon him) ) and the third "the holy ghost" or "the holy spirit" meaning Roohul Qudus. Similarly, the three attributes painted in the mihraab of the prophet's mosque, comprise of the attributes of The God: Allaah, His messenger : Muhammad (peace be upon him) and "the holy spirit" (Roohul Qudus) Jibreel,  before which the imam leading millions of believers in the prayers prays, bends and prostrates. What a sinister conspiracy to make us mushriks!

Picture representing Ka'bah on the food gift packs.

?Such and whoever holds in honour the Symbols of Allaah, , such (honour) should come truly from piety of heart.?  (22:32)

As part of the ?services? rendered by the various agencies in Saudi Arabia in connection with the Hajj and Umrah, buses plying with Hajis are stopped on the way from Makkah to Madinah and vice versa, and free food packets containing a juice carton, some dates, cake or biscuits are distributed freely to the passengers. After consuming these refreshments, whether we through it in the dustbins (as per instruction on the carton) or on the roads, either way we are made to commit a disrespect of the religious symbols. Because, the cartons contain a figure depicting the Holy Ka?bah, as you can see from the following pictures

.

Allaah has said:

?The unbelievers spend their wealth to hinder (men) from the path of Allaah, and so will they continue to spend; but in the end they will have regrets and sighs; at length they will be overcome: and the unbelievers will be gathered together to hell.?  (8:36)