The Hajj: Journey of a Lifetime

Mohamed Amin's documentation of the Hajj brilliantly captures the spirit and devotion of one of the world’s great religious experiences.

During the 1970s, over three years, Mo travelled on camel, helicopter, car and on foot following the pilgrimage. He photographed the devout as they made their way in their millions to the holy places of Islam -- to Medina, Arafat and the holy city of Mecca itself.

Mohamed Amin portrayed these crowning moments in the lives of men and women, rich and poor, from places as far apart as Malaysia and Mali, Nigeria and Japan, Indonesia and Iraq.

Mohamed Amin was among the first people permitted to photograph sections of the Sacred Mosque in Mecca and the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina.

‘And proclaim unto mankind the Pilgrimage. They will come unto thee on foot and on every lean camel; they will come from every deep ravine’. 
Koran XXII – 27.

The barren Arabian hills stand out in the blazing desert sunlight as they look down on the holiest city in the world. Few people are lucky enough to live within its ancient boundaries. Yet, it is the centre of one of the most powerful religions on earth.

It is a faith which has grown stronger since the birth of Prophet Muhammad, who brought the message that there is but one God, and that He and He alone deserves man’s worship and devotion.

Now, over a quarter of the world’s population kneel in prayer five times each day, facing the holy city of Mecca. It is their spiritual home, where Abraham built the first House of God on earth and where the Prophet Muhammad was born. Here the Koran was first revealed.

For Muslims, the Pilgrimage begins years before the actual journey. During childhood, they are taught the holiness of God’s word and learn to answer the traditional call to prayer. Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar – God is most great.

It is a call that finds a response in all Muslim souls, a beckoning created by centuries of the unflinching faith of their ancestors. The call is a holy command; a summon to display piety and show obedience to divine laws.

But to understand the true meaning of the call to prayer, the follower has to make the pilgrimage. It is a requirement of the religion that every able-bodied Muslim must try to fulfill this journey at least once in their life.

'Lo! The first sanctuary appointed for mankind was that at Mecca, a blessed place, a guidance to the peoples; Wherein are plain memorials of God’s guidance; the place where Abraham stood up to pray; and whosoever entereth it is safe. And Pilgrimage to the House, is a duty unto God for mankind, for him who can find a way thither. As for him who disbelieveth, let him know that lo! God is Independent of all creatures.' 
Koran III – 96, 97.

Since the Prophet’s Farewell Pilgrimage, millions have obeyed the command to make the journey which, until recently, was often an odyssey involving incredible adventures.

Pilgrim caravans from Egypt, crossing the Sinai Desert took almost two months, endangering the travellers' health and risking attack from Bedouins. There are also stories of pilgrims who crossed every kind of terrain, from desert to jungle, often taking years to arrive.

There is a story of one man, single when he left his far-off homeland, who arrived in Mecca with a wife and several children. Another man started the journey as a child and was in his seventies when he arrived.

The poor made the journey in stages, stopping to work every so often to pay their way. Some were enslaved and many died, though not unhappily in some cases as death while on the Pilgrimage guarantees entry into Paradise.

Today's pilgrims do not face such fortitude. The Saudi Arabian Government has invested millions of Saudi riyals in modern transport, shelter and hygiene to make the Pilgrimage as physically comfortable as is required in God’s eyes. Consequently, more than two million pilgrims of the 1.8 billion Muslims across the world are able to make the pilgrimage every year. Pilgrims still come from all backgrounds, from the wealthiest to the poorest, the healthiest to those suffering from illness, the old and the young. Yet on the road to Mecca, they are all equal, joined in a common bond of devout servitude to God.

For most pilgrims, Jeddah is but the first stage of the journey, a resting place from which to set out for Mecca.

The millions in Jeddah merge into the corridors of pious sound which forms the road from Jeddah to Mecca, making each of the forty-five miles an affirmation of man’s relationship with God.

The sight of this mass movement is beyond any description. It is an act of devotion that has to be undertaken. You have to see it to believe it.

And always, through the days and nights of this most solemn event, the faithful offer up the Talbiyah, as they have done from time immemorial:

‘Here am I, O God, at Thy Command, Here I am! Thou art without associates,
Thine are praise and grace and dominion
Thou art without associates
Here I am!’

It was here, when the building was finished, that Abraham and Ismael prayed thus: “Our Lord, Accept from us (this duty). Lo! Thou, only Thou,
art the Hearer, the Knower. Our Lord! And make us submissive unto Thee and of our seed a nation submissive unto Thee, and show us our ways of worship, and relent toward us. Lo! Thou, only Thou are the Relenting, the Merciful.” 
Koran II – 127, 128.

At the end of this corridor of dedication is Mecca, into which the pilgrim is suddenly disgorged, to behold, with awestruck eyes, the Masjid-al-Haram, the Sacred Mosque, the first House of God.

“The Prophet (PBUH) seated al-Fadl behind him on his mount, and al-Fadl said that he did not stop reciting the Talbiyah until he stoned the Jamrah.” 
Al-Bukhari: 1685 and Muslim: 1282

'We believe in God and that which is revealed unto us and that which was revealed unto Abraham and Ismael, and Isaac, and Jacob, and the tribes, and that which Moses and Jesus received and that which the prophets received from their Lord. We make no distinctions between any of them, and unto Him we have surrendered.'
Koran II - 136.