Page 56 - The Vision of Islam

The Four Pillars

four and half thousand years in spite of the surrounding land
being unsuited to agriculture. The modern Arab wealth deriving
from oil proves that the Master of the Universe has also arranged
in fulfilment of Abraham’s prayer that even in the industrial age
this area may obtain, from its “own resources” not only abundant
provision for local needs but also pay the cost of fulfilling
propagational requirements, i.e. bear the expenses of performing
Dawah work of the highest standard. Geologists regard Arabian
oil reserves as an accident of geography, one third of the world’s oil
resources being stored beneath the area now known as the Middle
East. But, in actual fact, this is the outcome of the prayer of
Abraham—the prayer in which he had requested God to provide
for the inhabitants of that land the fruits of the earth, so that they
did not depend on others and might have the means and resources
to carry out, in every age, the responsibilities laid upon them by
God.
When God bestowed upon Abraham religious leadership, and
declared the House constructed by him as ‘guidance to the world’
and the ‘centre for mankind,’ He ordered Abraham to announce
to the world that the faithful should come to this centre from all
over the world, be present there for their spiritual good (22:28) and
worship their God. Moreover, all the faithful should gather once in
the year at this central House of God, give thought to their religious
duties and return to their homelands, prepared and determined to
revive the mission of Abraham.
The worship during Hajj is a means whereby believers may draw
close to God and avail of His succour. The real purpose of Hajj is
that the Muslims of the world should gather at one place to look
after their spiritual good and to take stock of their pledge and
thus prepare themselves to follow this path with renewed interest.
The Prophet Muhammad, who had come to revive the people of
Abraham, not only set right the perversions that had crept into
the rites of Hajj, but also made it into a religious pivot from where
he could announce matters of special religious import and explain
duties of a religious order. It was during Hajj that the acceptance
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