Hajj in the Bible
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The first time I got involved in this subject was about seven years ago, when a Christian dude put up another one of his "difficulties" with the Quran. The two of us had been weighing the merits and demerits of the Quran and the Bible for over a year, and I had started to believe that he was running out of difficulties to present to me. It was then that he came out with what he considered a "serious problem" with the Quran -- the Hajj. According to him the practice of Hajj (commonly understood as pilgrimage) was an invention of the Quran, as the Bible never talks about such a practice as travelling to a particular place. Given the emphasis that the Quran puts on it, traced back to at least Abraham, he found it "very serious" that this pilgrimage finds no precedence in the Bible. I found the "serious problem" pretty interesting, and I toyed with the idea of pursuing the Bible (parts of which I found pretty distasteful at the onset, enough for me to have set the book down a couple of times). He volunteered that if I could overcome or rationalize this "serious problem," he would start looking at the Quran in a better light. I decided to give it a try.
To be fair, he is a good Christian. And like a good Christian he believes in whatever he has been taught, and reads his Bible regularly. The drawback of this practice is that he has very little knowledge apart from what he has been taught and what he reads. He believes in the Bible unflinchingly, and because the idea that he could be wrong does not occur to him (or if it does, he suppresses it admirably), he never bothers to stop and think beyond what he has read. To give an example of how this quality hampered him in the matter of 'hajj' let us take a look at the verses (from Exodus, Bible) which are expedient to the matter at hand
2314 Offer a sacrifice to Me three times each year.
2315 Keep the Festival of Matzahs. Eat matzahs for seven days, as I commanded you, during the prescribed time in the month of standing grain, since this is when you left Egypt. Do not appear before Me empty-handed.
2316 the Reaping Festival, through the first fruits of your produce that you planted in the field. the Harvest Festival the end of the year, when you gather your produce from the field.
2317 Three times each year, every male among you must appear before God, Master .
Of course, we cannot see the word "pilgrimage" anywhere, which is exactly the case with any Jew or Christian reading the Bible. To help out the buddy, I turned to a couple of commentaries for the above verses
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
Three times ... keep a feast ... in the year This was the institution of the great religious festivals - The feast of unleavened bread, or the passover - the feast of harvest, or pentecost - the feast of ingathering, or the feast of tabernacles, which was a memorial of the dwelling in booths in the wilderness, and which was observed in the seventh month (Exo_122). All the males were enjoined to repair to the tabernacle and afterwards the temple, and the women frequently went. The institution of this national custom was of the greatest importance in many ways by keeping up a national sense of religion and a public uniformity in worship, by creating a bond of unity, and also by promoting internal commerce among the people. Though the absence of all the males at these three festivals left the country defenseless, a special promise was given of divine protection, and no incursion of enemies was ever permitted to happen on those occasions.
Keil and Delitzsch
The Fundamental Rights of Israel in its Religious and Theocratical Relation to Jehovah. - As the observance of the Sabbath and sabbatical year is not instituted in Exo_2310-12, so Exo_2314-19 do not contain either the original or earliest appointment of the feasts, or a complete law concerning the yearly feasts. They simply command the observance of three feasts during the year, and the appearance of the people three times in the year before the Lord; that is to say, the holding of three national assemblies to keep a feast before the Lord, or three annual pilgrimages to the sanctuary of Jehovah. The leading points are clearly set forth in Exo_2314 and Exo_2317, to which the other verses are subordinate.
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Three times in the year (i.e., according to Exo_2314 and Deu_1616, at the three feasts just mentioned) all thy males shall appear before the face of the Lord Jehovah. The command to appear, i.e., to make a pilgrimage to the sanctuary, was restricted to the male members of the nation, probably to those above 20 years of age, who had been included in the census (Num_13). But this did not prohibit the inclusion of women and boys (cf. 1Sa_13., and Luk_231.).
A look what another source (jewishencylopedia.com) has to say about pilgrimage
Pilgrimage to First Temple.
A journey which is made to a shrine or sacred place in performance of a vow or for the sake of obtaining some form of divine blessing. Every male Israelite was required to visit the Temple three times a year (Ex. xxiii. 17; Deut. xvi. 16).
What about the Karaites?
Karaite Pilgrimages.
The Karaites in the ninth century, likewise showed great devotion to Jerusalem. Their hakam, Sahl ibn Mazliah, wrote to Jacob b. Samuel that Karaite pilgrims of various towns gathered to pray for the restoration of Zion; these pilgrims he described as Nazarites who abstained from wine and meat (Pinsker, "Likkute Kadmoniyyot," Appendix, p. 31). A company of Karaites, headed by Moses ha-Yerushalmi, journeyed from Chufut-Kale ("The Jewish Rock", from the Crimea, and from the Caucasus. The inscription on Moses' tombstone, dated 4762 (1002), reads "Good luck followed him and his companions to the tomb of King David and of his son Solomon, which no other persons heretofore had been permitted to enter." All pilgrims to Palestine were sent out with music and song in honor and praise of the Holy Land. The pilgrims on their return were known as "Jerusalemites" (see the Karaite Siddur, part iv.; "Luah Erez Yisrael," v. 22).
That's enough material to establish that the pilgrimage is not a Quranic invention, but a set practice etched firmly in the Judeo-Christian literature. With the pre-Quranic precedent established, let us return to the verse which is to play an important role 23-14. For the benefit of the reader, I present several translations of the verse
Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year. (King James Version)
"Celebrate three festivals a year to honor me. (Good News Bible)
Offer a sacrifice to Me three times each year. (bible.ort.org)
Three times you shall slaughter sacrifices to Me during the year.(chabad.org)
Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto Me in the year. (Jewish Publication Society)
The word that we have to look for in this verse is the one that has been translated variously as 'feast,' or 'festival' or 'sacrifice,' and this magic word is 'chagag'. As we can see from the above translations, a Bible reader will interpret this word as feast/festival/sacrifice, depending upon the translation which he or she reads.
The reason this word interests us is its closeness to the Arabic 'hajj'. The Hebrew 'chagag' and the Arabic 'hajj' are closely related, possibly cognates, and a Jew or Christian will tell us on the strength of the above translations that the word has nothing to with 'pilgrimage'. Quite obviously, the Quranic notion of a pilgrimage is an error. But that is where our good Jew/Christian is mistaken. Let us take a look at the entry 'chagag' in a couple of concordances
chagag
NASB
Word Origin" a prim. root
Definition" to make a pilgrimage, keep a pilgrim feast
Strong's
A primitive root (compare chagra', chuwg); properly, to move in a circle, i.e. (specifically) to march in a sacred procession, to observe a festival; by implication, to be giddy -- celebrate, dance, (keep, hold) a (solemn) feast (holiday), reel to and fro.
The picture that now forms is quite different from the one that the translations have presented. As we see from both NASB and Strong's, the Hebrew 'chagag' does indeed carry the very same connotation as the Arabic 'hajj' one of making a pilgrimage/marching in a sacred procession.
Let us now turn our attention to 'chug,' a word related to 'chagag'
chug
NASB
Word Origin a prim. root
Definition to draw around, make a circle
Strong's
A primitive root (compare chagag); to describe a circle -- compass.
There we have it. A long distance from the Christian's misconception, the essence these two Hebraic words encapsulate shows a remarkable affinity to the 'hajj' as laid out in the Quran.
As we see, the Bible does indeed record the practice of pilgrimage. Further, the Hebraic 'chagag,' which a Christian would tell you to mean feast/festival/sacrifice, in fact, carries the very same connotation as its Arabic cognate 'hajj' -- that of pilgrimage.
(Here's some material posted at a Jewish website (judeotalk.com) that I came across recently
The word "Chag" (seen above) means "Holiday". It is a shortening of an older, now mostly unused word, "Chagag". "Chagag" is an ancient word denoting a pilgrimage to the Temple of Jerusalem or even the celebration of that pilgrimage. In Arabic, there is a cognate of this word that is still used today. It is "Hajj" (ج, the pilgrimage to Mecca that all Muslims are very strongly encouraged to experience at least once in their lives. After the destruction of the Second Temple of Jerusalem by the Roman Empire 2000 years ago, Jews no longer had any place to perform their rituals. This ended the Jewish practice of animal sacrifice and formally began the Rabbinic age in which we still live.)
"Quite plainly," I said, "the 'Hajj' as pilgrimage is not a new concept, but an ancient one that exists in a pretty similar form as 'chagag' in the Bible." I thought I had presented enough material to remove the dude's "difficulty", and true enough it did the trick. The admission that he was "not entirely right" about his earlier assessment came right away; however, with it came a new demand "Show me in the Bible that the pilgrimage is to be made to the Kaaba in Mecca, and I will start looking at the Quran with better respect".
(I am a Muslim, Jax, and I look up to the Quran, not the Bible. And beware of Scorpion. grin
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I disagree with the idea that Hajj means pilgrimage. Pilgrimage implies journey. It's only a journey to Mecca if you live outside the city. Hajj means the rite of walking in procession around the Kaaba. In the Bible it seems that this term is expanded to refer to all rites just as in Islam it's been expanded to refer to a journey to Mecca.
As for the role of Jerusalem you have to keep in mind that the concept of Temple arrived late in Judaism and was preceded by shrine and baetylus worship.
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Pilgrimage may entail travel, but the essence is to appear at a sacred place for a set purpose. To suggest that unless one travels from another city or country one cannot achieve this is irrational. It doesn't matter whether one travels a thousand miles or covers two steps, it will still constitute a hajj/pilgrimage.
I don't whether your last statement is accurate, but it has no bearing on the gist of my writeup. The idea is to let many Jews and Christians know that the word (chagag) which they misunderstand as merely feast/festival/sacrifice is better understood as pilgrimage.
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Regarding your understanding that 'hajj' may not entail traveling
2227 and proclaim among men the Hajj, and they shall come unto thee on foot and upon every lean beast, they shall come from every deep ravine
Again, it might require travel to go on Hajj, but the word itself doesn't necessarily mean to travel. Or alternatively, it took on the meaning of pilgrimage the same way it took on the sense of 'fest' in Judaism. It still seems clear to me that the word itself refers to procession.
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Like mentioned earlier, the essence of pilgrimage is to appear at the sacred place with a set purpose. And as demonstrated by 2227, this could very well require traveling. Disregarding 2227 is not an option; as such, the Quranic notion of hajj is pretty well duplicated in pilgrimage.
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Like mentioned earlier, the essence of pilgrimage is to appear at the sacred place with a set purpose. And as demonstrated by 2227, this could very well require traveling. Disregarding 2227 is not an option; as such, the Quranic notion of hajj is pretty well duplicated in pilgrimage.
Peace
But is pilgrimage the meaning of hajj, or are you making a journey to do the hajj?
IMO it is the latter.
Roshan
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Unless one can teleport himself or herself to the designated place, I think one would need to undertake some sort of journey. Though, technically, even that would be a journey.
Regarding your specific question, I have already mentioned that the essence of both 'hajj' and 'pilgrimage' is the appearance at the sacred place for a set purpose.
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Unless one can teleport himself or herself to the designated place, I think one would need to undertake some sort of journey. Though, technically, even that would be a journey.
So unless you never move from your chair, in this case every activity is a pilgrimage . I think it is reasonable to assume that any activity is usually defined by its purpose and not as a journey that one may have to undertake from point A to point B to do it.
Regarding your specific question, I have already mentioned that the essence of both 'hajj' and 'pilgrimage' is the appearance at the sacred place for a set purpose.
Like all activities "hajj" is defined by its primary purposes, which are clearly spelled out in the great reading
- Witness benefits for themselves.
- Remember the god's name on what he provided for them from the livestock and eat from it and feed the needy.
Benefits and free food sound very much like a feast.
Peace,
Ayman
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@ayman So unless you never move from your chair, in this case every activity is a pilgrimage . I think it is reasonable to assume that any activity is usually defined by its purpose and not as a journey that one may have to undertake from point A to point B to do it
Did you happen to read that single sentence?
@ Benefits and free food sound very much like a feast.
Ha ha ha. I will come to this, but is that the only verse you found in relation to 'hajj'?
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@ayman I think it is reasonable to assume that any activity is usually defined by its purpose and not as a journey that one may have to undertake from point A to point B to do it
Given the fact that I have stated to that effect, and you have not only quoted me on it but also underlined it, I can only assume that you were either trying to waste space or attempting to find something to say.
So we will turn our attention to what the Quran says about 'hajj' and what you have claimed (benefits and free food).
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"Fulfill the Pilgrimage and the Visitation unto God; but if you are prevented, then such offering as may be feasible. And shave not your heads, till the offering reaches its place of sacrifice. If any of you is sick, or injured in his head, then redemption by fast, or freewill offering, or ritual sacrifice. When you are secure, then whosoever enjoys the Visitation until the Pilgrimage, let his offering be such as may be feasible; or if he finds none, then a fast of three days in the Pilgrimage, and of seven when you return, that is ten completely; that is for him whose family are not present at the Holy Mosque. And fear God, and know that God is terrible in retribution." Surah 2196
Discuss.
Edit Christians perform pilgrimage to the Vatican.
Peace.
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The very two verses following the one which ayman quoted themselves reference the 'hajj,' but he skipped them.