From Hajj, To Hajj

Introduction

Servants of Allah — I remind myself and all of you of taqwa, of mindfulness of Allah, in all that we do. For taqwa is the beginning of every goodness, and the shield against every harm.

Two Prophets in Every Salah

Dear brothers and sisters,

Every single day, across five daily prayers, we perform a remarkable act of remembrance. In the tashahhud, in the final moments of every prayer, we invoke two names above all others:

Two prophets.

Muhammad, peace be upon him — the seal of all prophets, the one through whom this ummah was formed.

And Ibrahim, peace be upon him — Khalilullah, the intimate friend of God; and Abu al-Anbiya‘ — the Father of Prophets.

Between these two names is a golden thread running through every act of worship we perform. Today, on this blessed day of Eid al-Adha, we stand in the presence of the greatest monument to that thread: Hajj, the pilgrimage that Ibrahim himself was commanded to proclaim. Ibrahim is the meeting point of all who claim to follow the one God.

From Ismail came the Arab lineage, and through it, the last of the prophets, Muhammad, peace be upon him.

From Ishaq came Ya’qub, Yusuf, and the long line of Bani Isra’il — Musa, Dawud, Sulaiman, and ‘Isa.

Every tradition that traces itself to the one God must pass through Ibrahim. And Hajj is his living legacy. Not a memorial. A living, breathing, annual act of obedience, performed today by the children of Ibrahim across the earth.

Ibrahim’s Call — Still Ringing Through History

Thousands of years ago, in the bare valley of Mecca, before a city, before roads, before nations as we know them, Allah commanded Ibrahim (AS) to do something that must have seemed, by any human measure, impossible:

Ibrahim asked: “O Lord — who will hear me?” Allah said: “Your duty is to call. Mine is to cause the message to reach them.” That call went out. And it has not stopped. Year after year, for over fourteen centuries, the call of Ibrahim has been answered. Today, at this very moment, millions are in Mecca — walking the same paths, standing on the same plain of Arafat, circling the same Ka’bah, performing the very same rites.

I will not repeat for you the sirah today. You know it already.

What I want us to ask is this:

• what does Hajj actually do to us?

• How does it shape us?

• What does it make of us?

Hajj Makes Us Citizens of One Ummah

Notice what Hajj does by design.

It takes you out of your home. Away from your village, your city, your country. It strips you of your tailored clothes and wraps you in two pieces of seamless white cloth, the ihram, the same garment in which you will one day be buried. It puts you shoulder to shoulder with a Black African scholar, a Chinese mother, a Somali trader, an Irish convert, and an Indonesian teacher, and it tells all of you:

There is no East here.

There is no West.

There is no Arab Islam or Asian Islam. There is only the call of Ibrahim, answered by those who believe.

The Muslim is, by design, cured of the smallness of xenophobia. We cannot afford to say “Islam is for Arabs alone” or “our way is the only authentic Islam.” Hajj is where that knowing becomes lived, embodied, felt in the body, not merely believed in the mind.

Hajj and the Muslim Civilisational Mind

Because Hajj required travel, long, often dangerous, always stretching travel from every corner of the earth, Muslims became the greatest travellers and geographers of the medieval world. Think of what a Muslim had to know, before aircraft, before printed maps, before GPS. To find the qibla from wherever he stood, he studied astronomy. To navigate deserts and cross seas, he developed the compass and the astrolabe. To prepare for the journey, he documented the cities, peoples, and lands he passed through. And in travelling to Mecca, he built a civilisation.

All of it, the maps, the instruments, the encyclopaedias, was born of one question: how do I get to Mecca?

Hajj did not just shape individuals.

It shaped a civilisation.

Hajj, Identity, and the Completeness of a Muslim

At the individual level, the Prophet, peace be upon him, told us:

Also:

The best of deeds after faith and striving is Hajj Mabrur, and its reward is a complete return to purity. This is Islam at its summit. And the Prophet told us: “Islam is built on five.” Built. Not suggested. Not optionally assembled. Built. Think of a building, the first four pillars are the walls. But Hajj, the fifth, is the capstone. The act that most completely removes you from your ordinary life and deposits you, stripped and equal, before your Lord.

Man istataa‘a ilayhi sabila — “whoever is able.” Ability is the condition. It is not the excuse to wait indefinitely. There is a narration reported in Sunan al-Tirmidhi, on the authority of Ali ibn Abi Talib (RA):

مَنْ مَلَكَ زَادًا وَرَاحِلَةً تُبَلِّغُهُ إِلَى بَيْتِ اللَّهِ وَلَمْ يَحُجَّ فَلَا عَلَيْهِ أَنْ يَمُوتَ يَهُودِيًّا أَوْ نَصْرَانِيًّا

“Whoever possesses the provisions and means of transport to reach the House of Allah, and does not perform Hajj, then it makes no difference whether he dies as a Yahudi or a Nasrani.”

Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 812 — narrated from Ali ibn Abi Talib (RA)

It does not say that such a person becomes a Yahudi or a Nasrani.

It says: if you have the ability to complete your Islam, to fulfil its fifth pillar, and you choose not to, you have chosen, with full capability, to remain incomplete. You have chosen not to build the house that your Lord gave you the materials for.

Do not worry about not having the money for Hajj.

That is a matter of qadar, of Allah’s decree. Allah’s generosity is without limit, and He opens doors we cannot foresee. What we should seriously and gravely worry about is having no desire.

Having no intention.

Having no plan.

Intention is not a gate that money opens.

Intention is the first step, and it is free.

The person who says: “I cannot afford Hajj, but I plan for it, I save towards it, I make du‘a for it”, that person is already walking towards Mecca in their heart. And Allah does not waste such a walk.

But the person who says: “Hajj is for old people. I will think about it when I retire”, that person has made a choice. They have chosen not to see themselves as complete Muslims. And that choice seeps into everything. Because the person who plans for Hajj learns to save, to set a long-term goal, to live with purpose and direction. The planning for Hajj builds them, even before a single step towards Mecca.

SECOND KHUTBAH

اللَّهُ أَكْبَرُ ، اللَّهُ أَكْبَرُ ، اللَّهُ أَكْبَرُ ، اللَّهُ أَكْبَرُ ، اللَّهُ أَكْبَرُ ، اللَّهُ أَكْبَرُ ، اللَّهُ أَكْبَرُ

الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ، وَالصَّلَاةُ وَالسَّلَامُ عَلَى رَسُولِ اللَّهِ، وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ وَمَنِ اتَّبَعَهُ إِلَى يَوْمِ الدِّينِ.

“All praise belongs to Allah. Peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah, his family, his companions, and all who follow him until the Day of Judgement.”

We Are Here — At the Edge of the Islamic Map

Brothers and sisters,

We are here, in Ireland, a distant island at the western edge of the known world. When Al-Idrisi and Yaqut al-Hamawi were documenting the cities of the earth, Ireland stood at the frontier. Today, that distant island has Muslims who rise for Fajr, who fast during Ramadan, who pay zakah, and who, on Eid al-Adha, stand together, remembering Ibrahim.

That is remarkable. That is beautiful. And it means the call of Ibrahim has reached even here, to every town and city in this island. So: how do we, as Muslims in Ireland, make our own way to Hajj?

Step 1 — Make the Niyyah

The first step is not money. It is not a passport. It is not a travel agent. The first step is niyyah, intention. Decide today that Hajj is part of your life plan. Not “if”, but “when.” Write it down. Tell your family. Make it real.

The niyyah is an act of ‘ibadah in itself. It is the moment you say to Allah: I want to answer the call of Ibrahim. I want to be complete. From the moment you make that intention with sincerity, you are already on your way to Mecca.

Step 2 — Build a Hajj Savings Plan

The Prophet, peace be upon him, said:

Open a dedicated savings account. Set a monthly amount — however small. Even twenty euros a month, consistently over ten years, becomes a substantial sum. Research the costs. Speak to those who have gone. This is not worldly ambition, this is religious responsibility dressed in practical clothes. And the planning itself is worship.

Step 3 — Perform Umrah First If Means Allow

Umrah is not obligatory, but it is profoundly transformative. If your means allow it before Hajj, go.

Walk the Tawaf.

Run the Sa‘i.

Stand at the Ka‘bah for the first time.

Let the sacred space enter you before the full weight of Hajj arrives. There are well-organised packages from Ireland and the UK, accessible to a family that plans with purpose. Many find that Umrah transforms their relationship with Mecca from something abstract and distant to something intimate and present. When you then go for Hajj, you are not overwhelmed; you are coming home.

A Warning: Put the Phone Down — Be There for God’s Sake

But brothers and sisters,

I must say something difficult.

Because we are talking about Hajj and Umrah as the summit of a Muslim’s life, and there is a disease spreading that threatens to hollow out that summit entirely.

We live in an age that has trained us to perform our lives for an audience. The phone is always in our hands. Social media is always watching. We have become so accustomed to being seen, and to wanting to be seen, that we have forgotten what it feels like to simply be, without a witness other than Allah.

And this disease has followed us into our worship. It has followed us to Mecca. To Madinah. To the most sacred places on this earth.

We have all seen it. People standing before the Ka‘bah, the House of Allah, the direction towards which every Muslim on earth turns to pray, the place Ibrahim built with his own hands, and their eyes are not on the Ka‘bah. They are on the screen. They are filming themselves looking at the Ka‘bah, rather than actually looking at the Ka‘bah.

And in Madinah, where the Prophet, peace be upon him, lies in his eternal rest, where the greatest of all human beings departed from this world in a moment that shook the heavens, there too, the phones are out.

Not out of reverence.

Out of performance.

Look at me. I am here. Tell me I am here.

What a waste.

What a profound, heartbreaking waste of a moment that millions would give everything to have.

The Prophet, peace be upon him, did not say that the thing he feared most was an external enemy. He said it was riya‘, the desire to be seen by people, to perform for people, to worship for people. And if that is the thing he feared most in ordinary life, how much more serious is it when it enters the sacred precincts of Hajj and Umrah?

So I say to you, and I say to myself first: when your days come, and they will come, by the will of Allah, leave everything behind.

Leave the phone in the hotel room.

Leave the followers behind.

Leave the comments and the likes.

Go as a servant.

An anonymous, barefoot, two-white-clothed servant of the Most High. Go because He called you. Not because the internet is watching.

Stand before the Ka‘bah and let it break you. Weep if the tears come. Be silent when silence is the only honest response. For God’s sake — for Allah’s sake — be His servant, just once, without an audience.

Step 4 — Live Your Islam Fully in the Meantime

Hajj is not separate from the rest of your life; it is its culmination. The same commitment that keeps you waking for Fajr in an Irish winter, the same conviction that has you wearing your identity with dignity in a non-Muslim country, that is what carries you to Mecca. So maintain your salah. Keep fasting. Give your zakah. Raise your children to know who they are, Muslims connected to Ibrahim, to Musa, to ‘Isa, to Muhammad, peace be upon them all.

Be a full Muslim in Ireland, wherever we are.

Because the Muslim who lives fully as a Muslim in Ireland is already making their way to the Ka‘bah.

Ask Allah — And Die as a Muslim

And ask Allah.

With sincerity and regularity.

Make Hajj a du‘a you return to in your tahajjud, in your morning remembrances, in what you teach your children. The du‘a the Prophet, peace be upon him, most loved to say, and that the pilgrims of Arafat have always raised their hands for:

“Good in this world” includes the ability to perform Hajj, to live with purpose, to plan for our faith.

“Good in the Hereafter” includes arriving before our Lord, having fulfilled what He asked of us. This du‘a is both a prayer and a programme for life.

And the deepest thing I can say today: the goal of all this, the salah, the zakah, the sawm, the Hajj, is not merely to complete five actions.

The goal is to die as a Muslim.

This was the prayer of Ibrahim (AS) himself.

He gathered his sons and asked: what will you worship after me?

They said: we worship your God, the God of Ibrahim and Ismail and Ishaq, one God.

And to Him we submit. Wa nahnu lahu muslimun.

That is the inheritance Ibrahim left.

Every Muslim who plans for Hajj, who saves towards it, who makes the intention and builds a life worthy of it, is claiming that inheritance. They are saying: I am a child of Ibrahim. ” I answer the call.

I submit.

وَصَلَّى اللَّهُ وَسَلَّمَ وَبَارَكَ عَلَى سَيِّدِنَا مُحَمَّدٍ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ أَجْمَعِينَ، وَالْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ.

“May Allah send His peace, blessings and mercy upon our master Muhammad, and upon all his family and companions. And all praise belongs to Allah, Lord of all the worlds.”

Hasrizal Abdul Jamil
Naas, Co. Kildare
10 Dhulhijjah 1447H
27 May 2026