Hajj Mabrour

The British Museum does special exhibitions right, down to the little things. Like having visitors to their exhibition "Hajj: Journey to the Heart of Islam" walk through their exhibition in a more or less counterclockwise path.  It's really all about the little things.

I personally found this special exhibition really interesting.  Having gone through Freshman World Cultures at my school, I was more or less familiar with the basics of Islam; but this was really interesting for me.  The exhibition took the visitors through the different steps of the sacred pilgrimage to Mecca from preparation to farewell tawaf.  I found their treatment of the different paths to Mecca particularly interesting.  They took a famous traveler of each road and used their experience to talk about the larger pilgrim experience.  These case studies included Mansa Musa, Queen Zubayda, Sir Richard Francis Burton, and Evliya Çelebi.  I personally found Burton particularly interesting because he was sent by the Royal Geographic Society to explore the hajj experience, which was really interesting because non-Muslims are not allowed into the holy cities.  The colonial hajji experience was also fascinating.  Both the British and the Dutch owned colonies in the Indian Ocean with significant Muslim populations, and it was really interesting to see how they regulated the hajj.  I thought the run down of the different hajj rituals was also well done.  If you're interested a more in depth look at the hajj (which is to say one that is more in depth than the one I could logically provide here), I would direct you to the National Geographic Special Inside Mecca which is also really well done.  All in all, I would wholly recommend the exhibition to anyone who's in the area; it's really well done.

The exhibition also included some interesting, modern, artistic interpretations of the hajj.  Featuring work by Muslim artists of today really brought the whole experience together.  That, combined with quotes at the end of the exhibition regarding the hajj experience from famous Muslims, was a really interesting way to bring the impact of the hajj to the non-Muslims who attended the exhibition.  And of course that was the point; the exhibition was designed to be appreciated by Muslims and non-Muslims alike, which is accomplished with a wonderful spirit of brotherhood.  I'll include some of the works below, as well as some of the quotes.

"They asked me what about the Hajj had impressed me the most ... I said, the brotherhood! The people of all races, colors, from all over the world coming together as one!  It had proved to me the power of the One God ... All ate as one, and slept as one.  Everything about the pilgrimage atmosphere accented the Oneness of Man under One God." - Malcolm X, 1964

"I had come to the center of the universe, where the physical and metaphysical worlds meet.  I was floating in that wonderful sea of humanity, turning like stars in a galaxy, around the house of God ... I had at last found that dimension where human existence ceases to be held by the gravitation of sensual and worldly desires, where the soul is freed in an atmosphere of obedience and peaceful submission to the Divine Presence." - Yusuf Islam, 1980

Excerpts from "You and Only You" by Idris Khan:

I was here for You and only You

Are you leaving as you had come?

Nothing is insurmountable and you will return

What do you do now?

Where are you going now?

Towards home?

Towards the world?

The journey you have taken has shown your devotion

As you leave remember what you have achieved a one ness with this earth and another