To know the wide gap between Islam and Muslims of today, read this article about Al Hajj. It has been published in Cairo, and the writer was insulted because of it.

The Salafi Hajj
Salafi Muslims across their long history have changed the real Islamic Hajj to be in this way that expresses their own Hajj, not the real Islamic Hajj as stated in Quran and applied by the prophet Mohammed during his life time. Let’s explain this:-
Al Hajj is religious duty on every human being, not only Muslims.
Al Hajj is a religious duty that has to be performed by any peaceful human being who is capable of performing it. It is not restricted to Muslims only but includes all peaceful human beings, especially the people of the scripture; the Jews and the Christians. Al Hajj is the most famous aspect of Abraham’s religion or according to the Quranic terminology [Millat Ebraheem] for all the mankind, the Jews and the Christians in particular. This is very obvious when we read these Quranic verses: [2: 125] [3: 93 to 97] [22: 25 to 29].
However, the mighty tribe of Quraysh used to del with Al Hajj according to their tribal policy and interests. They prevented Muslims and the prophet Mohammed from performing Al Hajj, [5: 2] [48:25] [8:34-36] [22: 25]. After the time of prophet Mohammed, the same tribe used the name of Islam to establish the great Arab Muslim Empire. In this Empire, the religious rules were decreed to prevent the non Muslims from Al Hajj, ignoring that the term (Muslim) in the Quranic terminology- when dealing with people- means any peaceful person regardless of his/her faith or affinity, and [Al Moshrik] or the idol worshipper- when dealing with people- is the one who transgresses the boundary and attacks the peaceful people in aggressive and/or unjustly manner. Please read this meaning in these Quranic verses [9: 1 to 14-28]
Muslims have violated this generality and definition of Al Hajj
It is prohibited- in Muslim tradition- for any Christian or Jews to perform Al Hajj if they so wish. More over, they claim in their false Hadiths that the prophet Mohammed ordered to clear the Arab Peninsula from all Christians and Jews. This is a false allegation because the Arab Christian and Jewish tribes used to live in their Arab land during the Omayad dynasty, before this Hadith has been fabricated and which was attributed to the prophet Mohammed two centuries after the Prophet’s death; i.e. at the time of the Omayad state.
Al Hajj (Pilgrimage) may be performed any time during the four sacred moths, not on one week only
Muslims come to Al Hajj to perform it in specific short period of few days before the tenth day of the Arabic month named” Dul Hijjah” (the last month of the Arabic lunar calendar). In this short period of time- known in the Quranic terminology as “Al Hajj Al Akbar”- millions of pilgrims are jammed, crammed and squeezed in one place to practice the same rituals in the same time in chaos and jumbling that causes death for hundreds every year.
It is reasonable to say that they should perform Al Hajj any time during the months in which every one can take the chance to perform Al Hajj in one week and return home to avoid this chaos and trouble. This is reasonable from Islamic perspective because God said:” God intends for you the ease, and He does not want to make things difficult for you:” [2:185]. As a Quranic fact: Islamic laws aim at easing the hardships clearing the difficulties out: [4: 28] [5:3-6] [73: 20] [22: 78] [24: 61] [48:17]
It is not only reasonable, but it is the very Quranic rules that confirm theses verses. According to the Quran, the time designed for al Hajj is four months in which you can make Al Hajj any time during them. God says in the Quran: “Al Hajj is the well known months [Al Hajjo Ash-huron Ma’loumat]. So, those who intend to perform Al Hajj therein, should refrain from intimate marital sexual intercourse, nor commit sins, nor get involved in disputes (or foul arguments) during Al Hajj.”[2: 197].
These are the four Arabic lunar months which are the sacred months in Islam named [Al Ash-hur Al hurom]. In these four months, it is prohibited to wage war, to fight, or to commit any wrongful parctice. Before the time of Islam, Arabs used to recognize these sacred months as an important aspect of the religion of Abraham, so God described these months as [Ash-huron Ma’loumat] i.e. they used to be well known months by Arabs. But they used to violate them by changing them according to their own ongoing interests and continuous fights. Therefore, God blamed them in the Quran. [9: 36 and 37]
[Al Hajj Al Akbar (the Great Pilgrmage)] is only the opening of the religious duty of Al Hajj in the first nine days of these four months which are: [Dull Hijja- Moharram, Safar and Rabeea Al Awwal] but you can perform Al Hajj any time, after this festival of opening to the end of the last fourth month known as [Rabee’a Al Awwal] Fourth the first.
To make it easier for pilgrims who come from distant places [22: 27] God gives them two days exception before the opening, means the last two days of the Arabic month of [Dull K’idah]. Also God gives them another two days exception after the end of the sacred months, i.e. after the fourth month of [Rabe’e Al Awwal] or Rabe’e the first, so they can perform Al Hajj after its designated time during the fifth Arabic month, or the next month after the fourth sacred month known as [Rabe’e Al Awwal]. So the fifth month has the same name of Rabe’e’ but with an addition [Rabe’e Al Thani] means Fourth the second. Pilrgrims who comes early can perform Al Hajj two days earlier i.e. before the beginning of its regular time on the beginning of the four sacred months. Those who comes late can perform Al Hajj two day after the last fourth sacred month, but on one condition: to maintain [Al Taqwa] or to be righteous (maintain piety).[2: 203]
Finally, the Quranic terminology [Al Hajj al Akbar (or the Great Pilgrimage)] means only the opening of Al Hajj, but you can perform Al Hajj during all the four sacred months and even two days before and two days after these four months.
Al Hajj Al Akbar was the real opening of the Arabic lunar calendar which used to be the month of “Dul Hijjah”, means the month of the opening of Al Hajj. It used to be the first month of the Muslim Arabic calendar, then the other three sacred months that follow it.[ They are Muharram, Safar, Rabee’ Awwal].You can understand this if you read carefully these verses:[9: 1-2-3-5].
Muslims have ignored the sacred months and changed them
In their history after the Prophet Mohammed, Arab Muslims have ignored the sacred months and used to fight each other and the other nations during the sacred months. Only during the civil war between Ali; the fourth ruler after the Prophet Mohammed, and Mo’aweyah, there was cease fire to respect the sacred months, but after that, the Omayyad dynasty used to fight its Muslim opponents and invade other countries in the name of Islam, during the sacred months and other months too. They had even violated the holy place of the Sacred Mosque in Mecca and destroyed Al Ka’abah, when they attacked it twice, during the reign of Yazeed, son of Moaweyah, and Marawan son of Al Hakam.
All of these violations happened just five decades after the death of the Prophet Mohammed, and committed by people most of them were [Sahabat Al Nabi] or the companions of the prophet Mohammed. It has become easier for the coming Muslim generations to follow suit because the civil wars and the military insurrections have continued until now inside the Muslim World and between Muslims and other nations and countries. In these continuous wars Muslims have forgotten every thing about the sacred months, even their real names and changed the Arabic lunar calendar to begin with the month of Mharram instead of Dul Hijjah, and, contrary to this, they shifted the four sacred months to the following months : Rajab, Dul Hijah Muharram and Safar instead of: Dull Hijjah, Muharram, Safar and Rabe’e Al Awwal.
Why do Muslims perform Al Hajj (pilgrimage) in one week only?
It is the same reason; the continuous war between them.
The Arabic tribes in the desert around Mecca used to attack and plunder the caravans carrying pilgrims in their way from Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Yemen. Sometimes these tribes, when they became [Khawarej] or religious rebellions, used the name of Islam in attacking and killing the peaceful [Hujjaj] or pilgrims.
It was necessary to protect the pilgrimage caravans by an army led by generals named the leaders of Al Hajj or the princes of Al Hajj or [Ameer al Hajj]. It was necessary also to gather all the pilgrims of every country in one caravan, and to unite the season of Al Hajj in one week to protect the lives of the pilgrims.
Some Muslim Emperors in the Omayyad and Abbasy dynasties used to perform Al Hajj in that specific time as and opportunity to address peoples from different regions and to meet the governors of their states and provinces.
Despite all those different armies, the wild Arabic nomads used to attack the pilgrimage caravans, especially in the time of weakness of power in the central capitals of Baghdad, or Cairo. This added a new ritual in Al Hajj; to shorten the five daily prayers as the journey of Al Hajj is full of dangers. However, this tradition of shortening the season of Al Hajj from four months to only one week is the final reaction to those circumstances. This made Muslims of our time not to realize the clear meaning of the Quranic verse {Al Hajjo Ashhorn Ma’lomat} or:” The pilgrimage is the well known months.” While Arabs at the time of the Quran revelation knew the sacred months, Muslims in our time do not know what exactly the truthful sacred months are.
The real meaning of Al Hajj
God has appointed his only one sacred place exactly in the mid point of this earth, or the very center of the earth. In this place, the first religious house for mankind to worship the One God was built to be the first one on this earth, [3: 96]. It is “Al Bayt Al Ateeq.” means the oldest and the most ancient house of worship on earth. [22: 29-33].
After the prophet Noah and many other prophets and generations God ordered Abraham-who lived in Iraq- to go to the place of the sacred mosque in the desert - known later as the desert of Arabia- and showed its location to him, and ordered him to have it rebuilt and purified for the worshippers and to call the people of all mankind to come and perform Al Hajj. [2: 125 to 130][22: 26 to 29]
On the center of this place “Al K’abah” shrine or the four walls were built to indicate the center of this earth. Around this squared small building, there was a large place for worshipping the only one God in His House. Mecca is the city that has been built around the holy mosque.
Mecca is called in the Quran [Omm Al Kora]. [Omm] means mother [Al Kora] in the Arabic language means villages, but in the Quranic terminology means the main city of any human community, so Mecca is “Mother of all the main cities of all the human communities.” to indicate that the holy sacred mosque is on the very center of this earth.
From this center of the earth the final prophet was born and the final Divine message; the holy Quran was revealed for all the mankind from this time to the end of this world. [25: 1][21:107] [42: 7] [28:59] [6: 92]. To the direction of this point all Muslims should turn their faces in their five daily prayers, [2:144-149-150] and they come to it from all over the world to perform Al Hajj.
This is the only holy place of God in this earth, while the Holy time of God is the Sacred four months, in which people should live peacefully without war or unjust doings and perform Al Hajj.
Inside the Human being, there is the high identity which chooses the good or the bad deed, the right or the wrong. The good believer is the one who chooses to sanctify, adore, glorify and venerate the holy place of the One God and also His four sacred months.
For those good believers, Al Hajj is the chance through which they can worship God in His sacred mosque, during His four sacred months. In this case his/her pure, chaste and righteous heart is in harmony with the holy place and the holy time. Therefore, the believer, while performing Al Hajj, must abandon the permissible sexual intercourse with his wife, the permissible dispute and argument with other people, any kind of sins, and to fear God who knows every thing, and maintain righteousness for the Day of Judgment. [2: 197].
God also said about the sacred mosque:” Which we have appointed to all people as equally; the dweller in it and the visitor, and whoever intend to do evil action and unjust, we shall cause him to taste from painful torment.” [22:25], so the bad intention is forbidden during Al Hajj to keep the heart clean and pure.
In the sacred mosque of God, all the creatures of God should enjoy peace, the pilgrim is prevented from killing any alive creature, even the ant in his hair, so, the pilgrim usually shave or cut short his hair before Al Ihram, or performing Al Hajj ritual. If he/she intentionally kills a game during Al Hajj, the penalty is an offering; brought to the sacred mosque of an eatable animal equivalent to the game he/she killed [5: 95].
It is up to the pilgrim to decide to pay or not because it is the pilgrim who knows if he/she was intentionally doing it or nots. It is a test to teach Muslims during Al Hajj how to purify their hearts. God says in this regard: “O you who believe! God will make a trial of you with something in the game that is within the reach of your hands and your lances, that God may test him who fears Him unseen. Then whoever transgresses thereafter, for him there is a painful torment.”[5 94]
It confirms here that the human heart must be pure to be in harmony with the sacred place and the sacred time. This is the meaning of “Al Ihram”, or the period in which the pilgrim is performing the ritual of Al Hajj.
Submission is the key word.
In this harmony that brings the place, the time and the human heart or soul together, the believer chooses willingly to submit his/her heart, body and feeling to their only One God. God said:” To Him submitted all creatures in the heavens and in the earth, willingly and unwillingly.”[3: 83].
As it is very difficult to maintain this submission all the days and years, the Islamic rituals are reminders. The five prayers remind us every day five times. Fasting during the month of Ramadan reminds us for one month every year, the four sacred months remind us for four months every year, and then Al Hajj reminds us one time-or more during our life time. All these rituals have only one aim; to enable the believer to be righteous and to enable him/her to maintain the most difficult thing in their life; the total and absolute submission to the only One God.
The human being is the only creature in this physical universe that has the freedom of choice, while the entire universe and the other creatures are controlled directly by God, or totally submitted to God by their imbedded nature, having no choice. The human physical body is controlled by God, not by the human being who occupies it. You could not control your liver, kidney and lungs while you can-according to your freedom of choice- obey or disobey God, submit yourself to Him or rebel against Him.
Total submission of universe and the pilgrims
Al Hajj gives the human being the chance to perform the same total submission to the One God. To know the total submission to the Almighty creator, think about the atom and its structure, and the sun and its planets, and the stars inside their galaxies. They have the same system in the total submission to the One God.
The electrons circle around the nucleus inside the atom in a series of orbits at different distances from the nucleus. In much the same way the planets orbit the sun, and the stars circle around the center of their galaxies.
You can look the same way at Al Hajj, where the believers come from different places to the very center of the earth; the sacred mosque of the One Only God, to perform rituals of Al Hajj, means Al Ihram, in the way that their heart must be pure and in a full submission to their only Lord, circling around the Al Ka’abah; the nucleus of the earth, as the electrons circle around the nucleus of the atom, and as the planets circle around the stars and as the stars circle around the center of the galaxy.
If the electrons are neutral the pilgrims are also neutral, if the electrons have a negative charge, the pilgrims are forbidden from the permissible sexual actions and the permissible arguments; i.e. having only negative charge. It is the same submission to the creator, but with one difference, the believer is doing this willingly according to his/her own freedom of choice.
If you look at the picture of pilgrims in their circles around Al Ka’aba where all share the same color and the same special cloth of Al Ihram, so identical the one to another that you cannot identify single any one out of them, you are really looking inside the atom where the electrons are moving ins circles around the nucleus while they are identical one to another to the extent that scientists are unable to distinguish one electron from another. This picture illustrates the meaning of the submission to the One God. Islam in the Arabic language and the Quranic terminology- in dealing with God- mean total submission. This is also the meaning of Al Hajj in the religion of Islam.
However, Muslims have distorted this meaning of Al Hajj as the same way they also distorted the two meanings of Islam.
Muslims distort the meaning of Al Hajj
It is a long story, but it could be outlined in these topics:

1- Al Ka’abah is just a square building, built and rebuilt many times by humans using the same stone of the same area, just to indicate to the center of this planet; the earth. While circling around al Ka’aba it is forbidden to touch it to avoid any meaning of idolizing its building or its stones. Islam is very sensitive in this issue of monotheism. It is absolutely forbidden to idolize any human; any stone any tomb and any temple or statue. Al Ka’aba is called “Al Bayt al Haram” means literally: “the inviolable house”. This necessitates some specific rituals that aim at teaching the believer to maintain the high degree of monotheism in worshipping the only One God, not to worship the human made building of Al Ka’aba making it an idol of stone. In the same wrong way Muslims look at the black stone which identifies the beginning of the seven circles or circumambulations.

2- In Islam, there is only One God, and only One Sacred mosque of the Only One God, but Muslims have many sacred mosques, where they usually visit as a ritual pilgrimage. In every Muslim country, there are many sacred tombs inside mosques, those tombs belong to famous Sufi or Shiites or Sunni saints, Imams and Sheikhs. However, the most sacred mosque among these building is the mosque of Al Madina. Muslims usually visit it as a necessary ritual that complements Al Hajj, claiming that the prophet Mohammed is still alive inside his tomb in this mosque, and whoever performs Al Hajj to him he/she will have the so-called intercession of the Prophet Mohammed on the Day of Judgment. This distorts their Hajj and their Islamic faith as well.

3- They add a fabricated ritual; stoning the symbol of Satan inside the holy mosque. This ritual belongs to the ancient fabrication of “stoning Esaf and Na’elah” in Al Hajj before the time Islam and before revelation of the holy Quran. Because of this ritual known as {Ramy Al Jamarat} hundreds of Muslims usually get killed after finishing the real rituals of Al Hajj. This satanic ritual has been made to make Muslim remember Satan and celebrate this memory in the very sacred mosque of the One Almighty God. According to Quran, the only way to deal with Satan is to seek refuge with the Almighty God from Satan by your heart and your tongue, not to designate a place for Satan inside the sacred mosque of Allah.

4- The Muslim Imams and famous scholars had many wrong verdicts and laws concerning Al Hajj. For example, they said the woman in her period or menstruation is prohibited from circumambulation around Al Ka’abah. They also said it is permissible to any Muslim to hire any one to perform Al Hajj instead of him or her, or for his parents or any one else. It is wrong because all the rituals in Islam aim at purifying the individual, so they have to perform these rituals by themselves to clean one’s heart by one’s own effort for their own future in the Day of Judgment. The pilgrim should witness by himself/herself and perform all the rituals of Al Hajj by themselves. [22: 28].