You Would Have Missed Heaven This Week!
- Category: Faith
- Date 15-01-2006
- 322 views
As millions of Muslims celebrated Id Aduha last earlier in the week, I took a holiday, sat in my private quarters and watched images of the festivities relayed on my television screen. I felt pity for the more than two million Muslim pilgrims doing rite of hajj, the annual pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca.
My pity was premised on a few realties. Less than a week ago, I had been discouraged when an aging hostel in the heart of Mecca collapsed and killed scores of (about 76) people! In 2004, there were similar tragic scenes when an unwarranted stampede left at least 251 pilgrims dead!
Someone had rumoured about a possible bomb blast, prompting the pilgrims to scramble and flee for dear life, but sadly many died in the due course. That is not to mention another stampede of 1990 that killed 1,426 pilgrims.
With these absurd events at the back of my mind, I doubted humanity’s wisdom. How could an open-eyed person subject himself to danger, even death, for the sake of religion? When I sought the counsel of a friend whose religious knowledge I trusted, he explained that to put one’s life in danger while fulfilling God’s will is the noblest thing a believer must be proud to do.
Besides, the ongoing pilgrimage is a regular event, being one of the five pillars of faith – the hajj –, which is an once-in-a-lifetime obligation for all devout, able-bodied Muslims with the means for the journey. Like any other journeys, a pilgrimage is not entirely free of accidents, some being fatal indeed.
The most interesting revelation though is that many pilgrims undertake the hajj, despite their poor health and they brave the perils that may come with such an excursion, feeling as people who suffer for a heavenly cause.
One could indeed see many of the pilgrims huddled under tents or camped out on streets with their mats and blankets. Yet some devotees even cherish the opportunity to die during their pilgrimage, perceiving it as an occasion for martyrdom – to die as sacrificial victims.
Incidentally, true martyrdom is not sought after; it is earned on merit as a free gift from God. In his book, Murder in the Cathedral, T.S. Eliot indicates that a person who purposely pursues the path of martyrdom does not necessarily become a martyr in the end. He explains that a martyr is a person who submits his will to the will of God, someone who does not desire anything for himself, not even the glory of being a martyr.
One could therefore see that necessarily, when some believers die during their Mecca pilgrimage, they may not have wanted it in the first place. It could most likely have not been part of their mission. On the contrary, those who would have desired to die during the journey might be shocked to return home safely.
However, if the deaths of the many casualties stated above were God’s gifts to the victims, then let it be – and perhaps it was! You and I would have been among them!
To the worldwide Muslim community, Id Aduha is a religious fiesta that requires the faithful to slaughter animals, as a sign of observing the rituals performed by Prophet Ibrahim (the biblical Abraham) when he almost butchered his son Isaac as a sacrifice to God. It is believed that God intervened to save the young man’s life by providing a bull as a substitute sacrifice.
It was an eye-catching spectacle in Mecca as the pilgrims toddled to Mount Arafat, retracing the journey made by Prophet Mohammed more than 1400 years ago. Here, they would pray for mercy and forgiveness at the scene where Prophet Mohammed is believed to have delivered his last sermon, and it is the very place where some believe that Adam and Eve reunited after they were banished from the paradise if Eden. Just within God’s own backyard!
By Venansio Ahabwe
Source: Peering Eye, Sunday Citizen