The word Hajj (Pilgrimage), which is mentioned in nine different sections in the

Koran means ‘’a visit’’. In a way, it is a means for the members of the Islamic Religion who are living in all parts of the world, to come together, embrace each other, and try to know each other even if they do not undertsnad one another’s spoken language by using some signs and gestures.

Compared to the limitless Universe, our earth has the size of a pin- point. So, without any doubt, one of the doors opened from this pin-point sized earth towards the Universe, to limitlessness, to infinity eternity) is Hajj. Hajj, which one of the five musts of Islam, invites the person to surrender therefore makes him attain peace and felicity.

During the previous months, in our essays, we had tried to explain the unknown aspects of Hajj and we had tried to reflect the technical aspects from the works of the expert writers as much as we could...

Let us try to recall...

The material side of Hajj, i.e. the external aspect which is related directly to the

spirit of the person was the process of getting purified from the sins.

Our Rasul of Allah has made this subject very clear by saying

‘’The biggest sinner is the one who has returned from Arafat and still asking whether his sins have been forgiven or not’’...

There is a very wrong understanding among the people which is ‘’If anyone

who has obligations for other people, who is carrying on his shoulders the efforts

of others made specially for him, goes to Hajj, then it wouldn’t be acceptable...’’

We have to accept that the sins of anyone who has been to Hajj and has been present at the moment of devotion will definitely be forgiven. We’ve got to accept this aspect. If we think of the opposite, then solely this thought will be enough to fill up our spirit body with negative.

Another aspect is that in a way which we do not know, which we cannot perceive with our five senses, in the Kaaba, one is responsible for his thoughts too. This extraordinary case is one of the most interesting conditions of Hajj.

Realisation, is the qualities of a person present in his mentality, in other words his thoughts. Whereas, performance (application) is the execution of the this plan or idea (to bring into real existence the plan or idea which is in the mind)...

And Islam (the System) does not make one responsible for his thoughts.

However, Kaabah is the place where realisation and execution function at the same time.

Allah’s Rasul is mentioning a different point when he is saying ‘’ In Kaabah, you are even responsible for your thoughts’’...

A place, in which we are even responsible for our thoughts which have an increase coefficient of one hundre thousand.

After having emphasized that Arafat is a center for purification which points out the secret ‘’Men arefe nefsehu fekad arefe Rabbehu’’ / He, who knows his nafs (ego/self) shall know his Rabb/Lord, we had talked about throwing stones at the Satan. With the action of stoning the Satan we have felt, at least we have known that ‘’in the real concept of being a human’’ there is no place for a self/ego which is a combination of temperaments, behaviour patterns, character traits, habits and feelings. All of these do not have any relation with the behaviour of the essence, they can be considered as belonging to a relative self.

We, also have realised that to attain the intercession (help) of our Rasul would only be possible by performing 40 salats at the appointed times in the Masjid-al Nabawi during the eight day stay in the city of Madinah.

So, we have definitely become a Pilgrim/Hajji in such a way that cannot be considered as a mission.

Let us hope that our Hajj would be a ‘’Hajj of Mabrur’’ at Allah’s sight.

The main indication for Hajj of Mabrur would be our way of life on return from Hajj. We have to be living in the direction of the values and realities of the after life realm. Because, it is possible the we may be one ofd those staying eternally in Hell, in spite of the fact that we have been to Hajj.... Do you wnat to know how???

I have not noticed an interesting news in the 24-30 November 1996 issue of the weekly periodical Nokta, which is being distributed all over Turkey...

In the article signed by Nedret Ersanel-Gül Demirbaş which was also the subject of the cover the following were said as a summary:-

‘’Hajj is one of the five musts of Islam. It is a prayer which starts at noon time on the 9^th day of the Lunar month of Zilhicce and lasts until dawn on the 10^th day. During this period it is necessary to be present at Arafat in the city of Makka and on the way back it is necessary to turn around Kabah seven times...’’

A group of scientists (Rüstem Aşkın, Hasan Herken, Sıtkı Kırca and Metin Turan) have prepared a declaration to be presented to the 32^nd Psychiatry Congress arranged by Gülhane Military Academy of Medicine in September.

The name of this important study was ‘’The Psychological Problem in the Turkish Hajji(s)/ Pilgrims’’. Here, the objective was to find out how widespread were the psychological problems among the Turkish pilgrims during Hajj, which is an act with a religious objective and which is said to be temporary migration. However, the results ontained were not favourable...

Until then, no one had thought of researching the psychological findings among the pilgrims. The said research was conducted in the Hajj Season of 1996 among 103 patients in the Makka Hospital of the Directorate of Religious Affairs. All of these patients had come to the hospital with psychological complaints. The number of the diagnosed patients were also the same. Whereas, the nos. of diagnosed patients who have not applied to the hospital, but who have

diagnosed in the small health care units is 553. All the diagnosis were made after talking face to face with each of the patients.

According to the findings of the research, out of the officially diagnosed patients 51% were males, 52% were females. The 98% consisted of those who have come to Hajj for the first time, the balance 2% consisted of those who have come twice or more times.

The holy land of Makka had the effect which is named as ‘’anxiety disorder’’ on our pilgrims who have been there to find peace. With the known definition depression which has symptoms as exaggeration, agitation and signs of over excitement are seen in almost 75% of the patients.

Among the patients who apply for psychiatric help, 25 % were in a condition which made them necessary to stay for a certain period at the hospital. All of these show that the researches are validating the impressions of the doctors.

Let us evaluate the above result which has been intensified with the statistical finding of the positive science with the hadith ‘’Divine Reason is the loss of the believer, therefore he’ll find it wherever it is’’.

In our previous essay, we have indicated that the city of Makka has a very high frequency energy level which causes excitement. This energy is enough to upset a normal brain. If the brain has been programmed from birth to have highly oriented expansions, then its positiveness will increase. Unfortunately, if the brain has already negative expansions, this energy will influence it in a negative way.

Actually, every brain with a normal setting becomes upset because of this high energy. To give a technical example, we may say that this event is similar to a satellite getting closer to Jupiter to take its photographs, but whose devices get out of order due to the high energy potential of that planet. As a result it cannot

receive sufficient information and documents and has to leave the magnetic field of the planet.

Let us look at what our Rasul of Allah is saying in another hadith....

‘’Makka is not a place for staying long or living. After having performed the Hajj, the duration of stay in Makka should last for three nights’’.

Those, who examine the history of Islam will remeber very well the life in this city before the prohecy of Hazrat Mohammad.

Starting form the ‘’Elephant Event’’ that has taken place 50 days before hte birth of our Rasul, to how the tribes couldn’t share the Kaabah among themselves, to sexual harassment (which has caused the imposing of the rule of getting veiled in Islam), to the animal like behaviour that accepted women as a merchandiseand to consider the daughters as the means to dishonesty and the feelings of inferiority.... Unfortunately, these types of behaviour that the society had was due to the negative composition of their programmes as well as the high energy potential of the city of Makka. As we have afore emphasized,this high energy caused the volumes to increase in the negative direction.

All of the above explained facts were one of the reasons which made our Rasul of Allah, that supreme person who knew every single aspect of the subject, direct his followers to migrate to Madinah even though the subject did not have any relation with his own self.

Now, a question comes to our minds....

If there is such a problem, if some defects are taking place in the structure of a

the person in way which we cannot perceive, then what is the use of going for Pilgrimage/Hajj???

We can answer as follows:-

In spiteof all of the above, you’ll have tha chance of passing to the after life realm with zero sins...

For example, if you die as a pilgrim in the holy land, then you’ll continue your life after death having zero sin... or, if at forty you’ve been to Hajj and reached the zero sin level due to your belief, then you’ll be left only with the sins belonging to the remainder of your life. If you are going to have a life time of sixty years, then you’l be left with the sins of the remaining twenty years...

Because of what has happenned, what is important is that on your return from Hajj, you should adapt the principle of living with Islamic conciousness within the framework of logic withjou going to extremes. We have mentioned above where the extravagant, unstable behaviour will be taking you....

May Allah be helping and supporting you.

Ahmet F. Yuksel