BLOG 38 - Hajj (Pilgrimage) is for all mankind

[Dr. Shabbir]

ARE NON-MUSLIMS DEBARRED FROM THE SACRED MASJID?

Answer to a question by Dr. Khalid Naseer: God invites all mankind to Hajj. Then, why are non-Muslims forbidden to come near the Sacred Masjid in Makkah?

Respected Doctor Saheb,
“God invites all mankind”, period. But our clergy loves dissension of thought and action. You will soon conclude that, once again, the prohibition comes from the man-made, ‘Imamist’ Shari’ah.

Verses 9:18, 9:28, 3:97, 22:25-28 directly answer your question.

9:18 & 9:28 mention administration of Masjids and the other verses cited here invite all humanity to Hajj.

9:18 Only those people are fit to administer or maintain the Masjids (the Centers of the Divine Order), who have unwavering belief in God and the Last Day… [Ya’mur = Maintains or administers. Yousuf Ali, Pickthall and Muhammad Asad correctly translate the word as maintaining or tending.]

9:28 O You who have chosen to be graced with belief! The idolaters have made their hearts unclean (and the Sacred Masjid of Makkah is the House of Pure Monotheism). Only those who believe in the Divine System can administer this Sacred House. So let not the Idolaters come close to it (for administering the House) after this year of theirs. If you fear loss of any gains, God will enrich you with His bounty. This is the promise of God Who is Knower, Wise. [See 9]

Will the Quran contradict itself by inviting all mankind to join the Hajj Convention and then debar non-Muslims?

HAJJ IS INCUMBENT ON ALL PEOPLE, NOT ON MUSLIMS ALONE

3:97 … Pilgrimage to this House is a duty all mankind owe to God, those who have the circumstantial means to undertake the visit. One who denies this command should know that God is Absolutely Independent of all His creation. [Mankind can realize the blessings of unity by rallying around this Divinely appointed Center. 22]

22:25 Surely, those who reject the truth and bar people from the path of God, and from the Center of Divine Ideology, the Sacred Masjid, must know that We have appointed it for all mankind alike. This is the Inviolable House of collective submission for the locals as well as the visitors (2:125). Whoever seeks to relegate it from Ideology to ritualism, directly or through side channels, We will make him taste an awful doom. [Zulm = Relegation from the rightful place]

22:27 “And announce to mankind the duty of Pilgrimage. They will come to you on foot, and on every kind of fast mount, coming from every far-away point on earth.”
22:28 So that they might see with their own eyes and experience what benefits the Divine System holds for them (in addition to uniting them in the common bond of humanity).

How will the non-Muslims see and experience the benefits, if they are debarred from Pilgrimage?

Please reflect again on the ‘administration’ and ‘maintenance’ of the Masjids - And the fact that HAJJ has been enjoined upon all humanity, not on Muslims alone. None but the N2Is (followers of the Man-made, Number Two Islam) would debar God’s servants from the Sacred Masjid of Makkah.

Shabbir, a life-long student