The Story Of Hajj – The Great Sacrifice Of Ibrahim

foreign ly the greatest Journey Muslim will take in his lifetime journey of sacrifice self-discovery and above all journey of servitude and obedience to Allah Almighty little do Muslims know that the rights of Hajj were ordained by the almighty during the era of prophet Ibrahim four thousand years ago toward the end of his life Ibrahim witnessed century of struggle movement confrontation with the ignorance of his tribe oppression of nimroud and the fanaticism of idol worshipers his Barren wife Sarah was an aristocrat she was infertile and he was more than hundred years old he was wishful but not hopeful Allah blessed him with son Ismail from his maid every moment of the last days of his life had to be enjoyed he enjoyed it by having smile the boy grew as strong tree he brought Youth and happiness to ibrahim's life he was his father's hope love and kin the message was revealed Put The Knife to the throat of your son and sacrifice him with your hands how can one describe ibrahim's fear by the shock of this message the degree of his pain is beyond tolerance or imagination Ibrahim the most humble servant of Allah and the famous Rebel of human history started to shake as if he were falling apart he was terribly shocked by the message but the command was the order of Allah in his older years Ibrahim was commanded by Allah to take his wife hajar and his newborn son Ismail to live in the barren desert Plains of Makkah land which was by all means inhospitable only to leave them with nothing more than some dates in flask of water as Ibrahim begins to leave his wife hajar emotionally cries out to where are you going to whom will you leave us she frantically repeats this again and again doesn't respond and just walks away she then says has Allah commanded you to do this to which Ibrahim replied yes being noble woman she replies if that is the case then Allah will not let us down shortly after their dates and water are used up hajar began to search for help she leaves her baby behind and proceeds to ascend the mountain of Safa she looks far and wide but to her disappointment sees no one in sight she races back down to check on her child and then continues her search this time ascending the mountain of marwa she traverses back and forth between the mountains of Safa and marwa until one narration states that angel Gabriel descends and with the tip of his wing hits the ground and out Sprouts The Well of zamzam with water being the source of life this event served as the beginning of what was to become the city of Makkah this miraculous event is encapsulated or running between Safa and marwa that Muslims perform in the days of Hajj many years go by Ibrahim returns to unite with his beloved wife and son Ismail shortly after his arrival he sees dream that he was sacrificing Ismail Allah says then when the boy reached the age to work with him Ibrahim said my dear son have seen in dream that must sacrifice you so tell me what you think he replied my dear father do as you are commanded Allah willing you will find me amongst the patient ones make their way to the place of sacrifice as Servants of Allah they know they must do what was commanded to them even if they don't want to do it this is the principle of submission to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is teaching us about along the way shaytan comes towards Ibrahim he knows that deep down Ibrahim would never want to harm his only son let alone sacrifice him Ibrahim knows that shaytan only wishes to deceive him so he pelts him with some Stones until shaytan withdraws then second time shaytan appears him again shaytan appears for the third time him yet again after that shaytan does not appear again Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala continues in the Quran mentioning the story and when they submitted to Allah's will and Ibrahim laid him Ismail on the side of his forehead for sacrifice we called out to him Ibrahim you have already fulfilled the vision indeed this is how we reward the good doers that was truly revealing test and we ransomed his son with great sacrifice and blessed Ibrahim with an honorable mention among later generations peace be upon Ibrahim this is how we reward the doers of good he was truly one of our Faithful Servants just as Ibrahim was about to sacrifice Islam to replace Ismael is replaced with the ram the Angels who were present exclaimed Allahu Akbar Allah Allah is the greatest Allah is the greatest when Ibrahim noticed that he had sacrificed ram instead of his son he exclaimed there is no God but Allah and Allah is the greatest noticed what had happened and that he had not been sacrificed he exclaimed Allahu Akbar alhamdu Allah is the greatest and to him is due all praise few years pass and once Ismail reaches his youth Allah commands Ibrahim alongside his son to build the Kaaba the house of Allah on Earth upon the completion of this Monumental task Allah commands Ibrahim to call the people to perform the pilgrimage of Hajj bear in mind that this is still in the middle of the desert in the city of Makkah is still extremely small yet once again in sheer obedience to Allah Ibrahim fulfills and calls the people Allah says and Proclaim to the people the Hajj pilgrimage they will come to you on foot and on every lean camel they will come from every distant past the Legacy today that very call has been answered and the fruits of Ibrahim sincerity and obedience to God can be seen in full effect every year Millions upon millions of people travel from all corners of the world to visit the house of God to walk in the footsteps of Ibrahim yet the story doesn't end there for it is while Ibrahim on his own pilgrimage that he is approached by Satan Satan being the open sworn enemy to humanity tries to corrupt his pilgrimage however in defiance to Satan Ibrahim pelts him with stones and overcomes him this event has been embodied in the Rami or the pelting potent of Hajj whereby Muslims symbolically Cast Away Satan by pelting these same areas with stones these important key events in the life of Ibrahim went on to become the monastic or rituals of Hajj in one way or another we can see that Hajj in fact is celebration of the life of Ibrahim and an embodiment of his path Allah commands the Believers in the Quran in more than one occasion too follow the faith of Ibrahim the upright and just like that come every year for Hajj Muslims once again walk in the footsteps of one of the greatest men to ever live Ibrahim May the peace and blessings of Allah be upon Ibrahim his family and the noble messenger Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam