The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought

pilgrimage

Pilgrimage in Islam takes three principal forms. The annual hajj and the year-round ‘umra involve travel to Mecca and its precincts, and ziyāra involves travel to the tombs of revered religious figures, notably Muhammad’s grave in Medina. Jerusalem, as one of the three sacred precincts together with Mecca and Medina, also historically has been a pilgrimage destination.

Hajj and ‘Umra

The Qur’an enjoins all able believers to perform the hajj to Mecca, its sanctuary, and environs but does not detail the associated rituals. For these, Muslims rely on Muhammad’s one hajj in 631 into which he incorporated many pre-Islamic practices, such as the circumambulation of the Ka‘ba, the cubical stone structure that housed personal and tribal idols. The documents of treaties between tribes and succession documents such as that of the caliph Harun al-Rashid were also often stored in the Ka‘ba. In 630, when Muhammad retook Mecca, his first act was to destroy the idols in the Ka‘ba. Muslims hold that the Ka‘ba (also called bayt Allāh, or “the House of God” or “Temple of God”) was built by the first man and prophet, Adam, and then periodically rebuilt, most significantly by Abraham: this undergirds political rhetoric and interfaith discussion about Islam as an Abrahamic religion. Non-Muslims are, however, barred altogether from Mecca and Medina. Some Muslims, such as Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda, have called for the removal of non-Muslims from the entire Arabian Peninsula, including foreign troops posted in Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

In the sixth century, Mecca prospered because of trade through the city and pilgrimage to its sanctuary, control of which was in the hands of Muhammad’s tribe, the Quraysh. Such control conferred prestige, legitimacy, and jurisdiction; the Shi‘i Fatimids, though based in Cairo, for instance, extended control over Mecca and Medina during their ascendancy. Modern Saudi monarchs, following Ottoman practice, have adopted the title “custodian of the two holy sanctuaries [Mecca and Medina]” (khādim al-ḥaramayn al-sharīfayn). Guardianship came to include the obligation to appoint caravan leaders and guarantee safe passage for pilgrims. Other Muslim potentates have sought legitimacy through ceremonial acts such as sending ornamental keys for the Ka‘ba door, official palanquins (maḥmal), or a brocaded drape for the Ka‘ba (kiswa).

The hajj rituals—which include “halting” (wuqūf) at the plains of ‘Arafat and Muzdalifa, the symbolic stoning of Satan and ritual animal sacrifice at Mina, and the circumambulation of the Ka‘ba (ṭawāf) at Mecca, as well as a ritualized brisk walk (sa‘y) between the mounts of Safa and Marwa—are performed by Muslims, male and female, from the world over, making it the only significant show of Muslim world unity. This is underscored by the fact that men of all ranks dress the same, in two pieces of unsewn cloth, and women dress in simple cotton garments called iḥrām. During the ‘umra, the pilgrim is in a sacralized state (also known as iḥrām), during which sexual intercourse, the cutting or shaving of hair, and the use of scented products are forbidden, but the ‘umra is short, lasting a few hours, whereas the hajj lasts from three to five days. ‘Umra rituals are confined to circumambulation, the brisk walk, and the cutting or shaving of hair to exit the sacralized state.

Sectarian and denominational differences are set aside during the hajj, and all pilgrims travel and worship together; in the past, many pilgrims stayed in Mecca and Medina for several months or years. The hajj consequently has long provided scholars of differing views the opportunity to meet and exchange ideas. Between the 10th and 12th centuries, for instance, North African pilgrims carried the Isma‘ili ideas they encountered westward. In the 11th and 12th centuries, the Almoravid and Almohad movements are said to have been planned in Mecca. In the 17th century, returning pilgrims repatriated the books of the Southeast Asian Shaykh Yusuf al-Maqassari (d. 1699), who had been banished from Indonesia to Sri Lanka and then to the Cape by Dutch colonial authorities. In the 18th century, Indian pilgrims brought the ideas of Muhammad b. ‘Abd al-Wahhab to the subcontinent, and in the 20th century, Malcolm X returned to the United States with a new understanding of egalitarian Islam and consequently broke away from Elijah Muhammad’s separatist Nation of Islam.

Although never a political capital, Mecca has, nevertheless, at times been the site of political struggle. In Islam’s first century, for instance, when ‘Abdallah b. al-Zubayr disputed the caliphate, he sought sanctuary in Mecca and preached there against the ruling Umayyad caliph, ‘Abd al-Malik; he also may have tried to control access to Mecca. According to one account, this prompted the caliph to build the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem and to encourage pilgrimage to Jerusalem rather than to Mecca. Pilgrimage reverted to Mecca when Ibn al-Zubayr was killed in 692, but Jerusalem remains an important destination for the pious.

More recently, in 1979, ‘Abdallah al-Qahtani proclaimed himself an awaited savior (mahdī) and with roughly 500 armed followers captured the Grand Mosque; hundreds, including hostages, died before the militants were subdued. In 1987, Iranian protesters (and bystanders) were killed by security forces after staging a demonstration.

Since ritual prayers are performed facing Mecca, every single Muslim, pilgrim or not, gains a sense of unity, community, and common purpose. Only 2 to 3 million out of some 1.5 billion Muslims perform the hajj each year, many of them repeat pilgrims. Thus most Muslims’ actual experience of the hajj is only through national discourses. Sponsorship, regulation, and subsidy by governments politicizes those discourses and, in turn, the hajj itself. The fact that Saudi Arabia has been in charge of the hajj for the past century has meant that it, in particular, has wielded considerable political leverage. In the late 1960s, for instance, King Faisal successfully lobbied Muslim leaders about the need for a coalition of Muslim states (the Organization of the Islamic Conference [OIC]). It is through the OIC that international hajj quotas have been implemented. It was at the 2006 OIC meeting in Mecca that some Muslim leaders, outraged at cartoons of Muhammad published in a Danish newspaper, recalled their ambassadors to Denmark and called for a boycott of Danish products.

For some 20th-century intellectuals, the hajj is more a vehicle of resurgence and sociomoral reconstruction. For ‘Ali Shari‘ati, it is a prototype and metaphor for the individual, nonclerical production of religious knowledge. Muhammad Iqbal saw the hajj as a way to unite Muslims in order to destroy the indigenous idols of dogmatism and superstition and the Western idols of nationalism and consumerism.

Ziyāra

The veneration of deceased religious figures is widespread in the Islamic world, notably among Muslims who embrace Sufi practices. Pilgrims travel to seek blessings (baraka) from saintly figures’ tombs and shrines, the custodians of which frequently wield power over pilgrims by controlling access.

Throughout Islamic history, however, many scholars have disputed the permissibility of such visits, holding that they are not part of prophetic practice (sunna) and thus constitute heresy and innovation (bid‘a). Ibn Taymiyya, for instance, makes it clear that a visit to Muhammad’s grave in Medina must be incidental to an ‘umra or hajj, and several important reform movements have made opposition to ziyāra a major platform.

In Shi‘ism, ziyāra is made to the graves of the imams and their significant relatives and companions. The most important of these is at Karbala in Iraq, where Husayn, Muhammad’s grandson through his daughter Fatima and his cousin ‘Ali, was killed by the forces of Yazid I. With the removal of the Sunni Iraqi leadership in 2003, restrictions on visits to Karbala were lifted, and it received a million pilgrims in 2004.

See also Pillars of Islam