Labbaikallaahumma labbaik

301 Views Mon, 15 Jan 2007 at 12:39 am

The presenter on the Midori meeting yesterday was Yose and Verro who was just returned from their hajj pilgrimage. Hajj is one of the pillars of Islam and must be performed at least once for muslims who are capable of doing it. So many wonderful and touching stories I have ever heard related to this. Whether it is the one that have to make a saving for his/her whole life so that they manage to fulfill their dreams (and even also wishing that they will somehow does not have to return, that is to die in the holy land), and also many spiritual experiences they encountered during the hajj. It is the time when the reward and punishment is paid instantly, so that we have to always try to purify our heart. Always emphasizing that we do the Hajj only and only for Allah. Labbaikallahumma labbaik … Here I am O Allah, here I am, fulfilling your call.

Regarding to this, Ustadz Zaitun in the preparation for the Hajj (the manasik) usually always start with this emphasis. There are three conditions that one’s deed (ibadah) will be accepted by Allah: 1) moslem, 2) ikhlas, and 3) the ibadah is done following the predefined rule taught by the prophet Muhammad sallallaahu’alaihiwasallam. Ikhlas means that we purify our intention that we do the ibadah only due to Allah. Related to the Hajj, the ikhlas condition is hard. Very hard indeed. Because this is one of the kind of ibadah that is impossible to be hidden from others. You can silently do your fast and nobody may never know, you can find a hidden place to make your sholat. But how do you explain that you’re missing for two weeks or even more to make the travel to Mecca . This is especially true in Indonesia when the title ‘Pak Haji’ [the title given to ones who have performed the pilgrimage] is an elite status that a lot of people hold respect to. So there it is. Purify our intention. Purify our intention for every ibadah that we make.

When will I be able to do my own pilgrimage? I am praying to Allah I will be given chance to make it, given the health, the wealth, and the time so that I can make it. The sooner the better, especially when my body will be still strong enough to withstand the physical challenge during the hajj.

The story does not end here. In the way back to the lab, I was talking to Bang Maink. He had one comment (the following is the reconstruction of his comment by me) : “When people are doing the Hajj, it is easy for them to really feel the word ‘Labbaikallaahumma labbaik’, I am fulfilling your call Ya Allah… but, what should be more important is, after the hajj can we feel the same for other call from Allah? The call to make jihad [*], the call for seeking knowledge, and so on”. I was speechless. The way my friends here can see and think of things not only from one point-of-view never stop to amaze me. I am lucky to have such friends around here. Really.

Labbaikallaahumma labbaika - labbaika laa shareeka laka labbaika - innal hamda wan na’mata laka wal mulka - Ia shareeka laka …

[*] please do not think that jihad means becoming a suicide bomber, go to Afghanistan or Iraq and make war with the US troops, etc . I may have to write about this later.

Additional Note: recently I read this interesting article (in Bahasaa Indonesia) about the spiritual experience during the hajj. Read it here. The story is presented in 4 series. Read them all, hopefully you may get ’something’ from it. I did .