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The scale of this extraordinary event has inspired poems and hymns, and Muslim writers have left accounts of their journey to Mecca and experiences there. The human life is short compared to that of communities and nations, and the Hac impresses on pilgrims the events in the life of Muhammed, in whose footsteps they are following, and by leaving behind the cares and pleasures of daily life at home enhances their awareness of God and their faith. The Hac and other pilgrimages therefore encourage believers to seek the true and right, and at the same time lends a sense of unity, fraternity and solidarity between people joined in a common purpose. Whether from Islamic countries or elsewhere, Muslim pilgrims throw off their pessimism and lethargy towards their religious duties in the course of their journey. Lapses in morality whether in word or deed, during the pilgrimage cancel out any blessing the pilgrim might have gained by performing it. The Prophet said: Whoever make the pilgrimage for Allah, and who in its course refrain from evil and from disobedience to God will return purified of their sins as the day they was born of their mother's womb (et-Tac, 2/106). Pilgrimage in the Koran:The english translation was taken from The Meaning of the Glorious Koran by Marmaduke Pickthall
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The pilgrimage to Mecca is an act of worship
which all Muslims in good health and with the financial means should fulfil. The concept
of pilgrimage as a religious duty goes back around four thousand years, to the time of
Abraham and his son Ishmael. Mecca and the Kaaba are the most sacred places of Islam,
associated with Abraham and the monotheistic faith which the people of Arabia abandoned
for idolatry. Thenceforth the Kaaba was filled with idols and pilgrimage acquired many of
the customs of idolatry. But with the conquest of Mecca by Muhammed and his followers in
630 AD, the monotheistic faith was revived and idolatry outlawed. The following year it
was declared that pagans could no longer perform the pilgrimage to Mecca, and it became a
purely Muslim practice. This has continued over the past fifteen centuries, and is
performed by Muslims from all over the world.