Hajj, Manifestation of Unity

Abstract

Hajj is the greatest outward symbol of both tawhid and the ummah—including implicitly the latter’s integrity and unity. The inner reality of the Hajj is tied to the idea of walayah and the waliullah. Muslims, in embodying these ideas, will be able to achieve higher and higher forms of unity, empowering them for the cause of Allah in this world and engendering for them the heavenly states of the hereafter.

Sectarianism is one of the greatest impediments for such achievement in the path of the Muslims. This article delineates these themes and provides the general direction that individual Muslims are to follow.

Keywords: Hajj, tawhid, Muslim unity, ummah, walayah, Imam, transcendental unity of Islamic sects, sectarianism, Shia-Sunni unity, Shia-Sunni polemics.