Hajj

By Paigham Mustafa

For all individuals, without a doubt, the odds in this life are against them. However, the obstacles are there not to frustrate, but to bring out the best in you. They are designed to put you on your mettle and permit the indomitable Self you possess to reveal itself in all its glory. You develop yourself while overcoming obstacles. Frustration will force you to reconstruct your personality.

Rebuffs and setbacks toughen and harden you and, by facing challenges, you develop a mature personality. So even at times when the world appears to be stern and unkind, in the long run it turns out to be not your enemy, but your friend.

This is the essence of hajj in the Quran: not a journey to a physical site, but the requirement to confront challenges head-on. The word hajj and its derivatives mean challenge, confrontation and purposeful engagement with the real demands of life—not pilgrimage.

In Verse 2.196, the Quran instructs that individuals “shall take the challenge to promote the living system in the name of God”. If they face restrictions, they are to do what they can. If illness or injury prevents fuller action, they should expiate through self-discipline, sincere acts, or other work that benefits society. The guidance is clear: be practical, take responsibility and uphold sanctioned submissions i.e. the duties decreed by God, even when away from home. A short period of self-discipline—first three days, then seven—completes this commitment. The overall message is unmistakable: fulfilling the obligation to God requires facing real conditions with resolve, and knowing that accountability is inescapable.

This is not a ritual instruction for a ceremonial journey. It is an injunction to take up the challenge of building and sustaining a just society. The Quranic hajj requires time, effort and resources devoted to promoting Deen-Islam, the living system of ethical values that ensure peace, security and dignity for all. It calls for practical work: strengthening your neighbourhood, city and nation; reducing fear and turmoil; and applying Quranic values to social and economic life. The benefits of such a system are long-term, nourishing both the individual self and the wider society.

Those who reject this guidance face their own form of confrontation. In (Verses 40.47–48), those condemned to the consequences of their actions “confront each other in the inferno of their deeds”. Followers challenge their leaders, asking whether they can spare them from punishment. Their leaders reply that all are in the same situation, and judgement has been delivered. Here, hajj—in the phrase hajj-i-finaar—clearly means confrontation, not pilgrimage. The idea of “pilgrimage into the inferno” is nonsensical. What makes sense is confrontation with one’s own deeds and the leaders one chose to follow.

In several verses traditionally translated as “argue” or “dispute”, translators have recognised this sense of confrontation—yet, paradoxically, still render hajj as “pilgrimage” elsewhere. The inconsistency reveals the problem: translating hajj as pilgrimage produces contradictions the Quran itself does not contain.

Yet the inherited religious tradition has elevated pilgrimage to one of its central rites. Millions converge on Mecca each year to enact rituals believed to earn personal salvation. Many even hope to die there, convinced it guarantees them martyrdom and divine reward. But in the Quran’s moral framework, such motivations are profoundly self-regarding.

Pilgrimage has also become one of the most lucrative industries in the world. Travellers spend heavily on flights, accommodation, food, ritual paraphernalia and the symbolic haircut. Governments, tour operators and local businesses generate enormous profits. In 2025 alone, the annual pilgrimage industry was estimated at £16 billion, while the wider Saudi religious tourism sector is expected to exceed £200 billion by 2034. With declining oil revenues, state and commercial incentives to expand pilgrimage are only increasing.

The financial implications for ordinary people are stark. Many spend their life savings on a journey they believe God has mandated. Yet the home countries sending the most pilgrims are often among the poorest in the world. The money spent annually by a single country’s pilgrims could transform its infrastructure, eradicate illiteracy, and vastly improve public health. Countries like Bangladesh, repeatedly devastated by disasters and widespread poverty, desperately need investment in sanitation, electricity, housing and education—all far more urgent than sending tens of thousands on a ritual journey.

The Quran calls for ehsan—balancing society, narrowing the gap between rich and poor, and correcting inequalities produced by unjust distribution of wealth. It repeatedly asks believers to expend resources for social welfare, to lift others from hardship and to create communities of dignity and opportunity. None of this is achieved through pilgrimage. Spending significant sums on rituals while neglecting the needs of the vulnerable is not an act of devotion; it undermines the very purpose of divine guidance.

Money poured into pilgrimage might deliver a sense of emotional satisfaction, but the Quran is explicit that the Self is strengthened not through contrived rites but through grappling with the real challenges of life. A ritual journey to a “holy” site neither confronts oppression nor alleviates suffering. It offers personal comfort and communal spectacle, not meaningful societal change.

The human cost of misdirected resources is visible across the world. Large populations are hungry, displaced or illiterate. Many live without basic sanitation, clean water, stable electricity or safe housing. Healthcare is often non-existent. In some regions, poverty and social pressure drive families to desperate acts, such as the killing of infant girls due to dowry burdens. Millions carry the weight of debt and economic exploitation, with some driven to suicide. These are the crises that demand collective action—and funding.

The same funds used for annual pilgrimages could build hospitals, schools, universities, libraries and community health centres. They could strengthen national infrastructures, support agricultural development, reduce infant mortality and empower women. They could dismantle the very systems of deprivation that pilgrimage leaves untouched.

This is the Quranic concept of anfaq—spending from one’s resources, and contributing through taxation, to support an equitable welfare system. A society that embodies such values becomes the ummah described in (Verse 3.103) and the “justly balanced community” of (Verse 2.143). The Quran emphasises communal life precisely because personal spiritual growth is inseparable from social responsibility.

The human self develops not in isolation but through active engagement with others. Goethe observed that character is not formed in solitude but in the “hurly-burly” of life. Isolation shrinks the self; participation enlarges it. A balanced personality emerges only within a balanced society—one that harmonises competing interests through mutual adjustment, not dominance. Proportion and balance must govern both individuals and communities. The Quran teaches that human beings cultivate these qualities by modelling themselves on the Permanent Values embodied in the Divine Attributes (Verses 57.27; 112.1–4; 47.38; 65.11; 90.4).

In (Verse 94.4), the Quran states that life’s challenges expand the self. This alone shows that mysticism—withdrawal, seclusion, detachment from the world—finds no sanction in the Quran. The Quran explicitly states that Muhammad was not a mystic (Verse 52:29), and therefore belief systems built on mystical withdrawal, such as Sufism, cannot claim Quranic foundation. The Sufi aspiration to escape worldly engagement undermines the Quranic insistence on action, accountability and social reform.

Thus mysticism—and all ideologies that detach people from active responsibility—has no place in Deen-Islam (Verses 4.65; 7.75; 57.27; 33.62; 69.42). The Quranic system is dynamic, worldly and socially engaged. It asks individuals to confront reality, not to escape it.

Against this backdrop, the billions spent annually on pilgrimage become even more troubling. When vast sums are funnelled into rites believed to secure personal salvation—rites accessible only to those with financial means—while millions die from hunger, disease and preventable suffering, the question becomes unavoidable: could God, described as just and compassionate in the Quran, have ordained such a ritual?

The answer, through a Quranic reading of hajj, is no. The Quran calls not for ritual tourism but for confronting the injustices of the world. Real hajj is the willingness to expend wealth, effort and time to eradicate poverty, hunger and exploitation; to dismantle oppressive systems; to eliminate practices like slavery and dowry; and to resist aggression and injustice wherever they occur.

These are the challenges God instructs humanity to undertake. Confront them, and you have performed hajj in the true Quranic sense. Retreat into rituals, and the opportunity for real transformation is lost.

The Quranic hajj is therefore not a journey to a place but a commitment to a purpose: the moral challenge of reshaping society according to justice, compassion and human dignity. To take up that challenge is to live the guidance of the Quran.

That is hajj, according to the Quran.

© 2026 Paigham Mustafa

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Paigham Mustafa has been engaged in the study and research of the Quran since 1988 and has contributed to the print media for over 37 years. His first major work, The Quran: God’s Message to Mankind, was published in 2016, followed by The Divine Blueprint in 2022. He is also the author of How To Be Human, published in 2025. His exegesis of the Quran often challenges traditional readings, offering instead a reasoned and objective analysis of the original text. His works provide essential guidance,  helping readers gain a clearer, more informed understanding of Islam. This helps address many of the issues that stem from misunderstandings, misinterpretations, and misconceptions

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