Who is required to do Hajj (Pilgrimage);

Islam is the oldest religion in the World! Arabic word Islam in English means Submission. Therefore all Muslims are submitters; this in turn means that all prophets and messengers were also submitters, because they submitted to the God’s revelations. The first Muslim on earth was Prophet Adam. At the time of Adam, believing in God, believing in Last Day and leading a good life was the only criteria to follow to be a Muslim (5:69).

This trend continued with all the Prophets and Messengers who came after Prophet Adam, until Prophet Abraham arrived. Prophet Abraham was the founder of Islam with the leave of God, the way it is now.

Since our God is a Just God, and Quran tells us that the people of Adam were Muslim’s and so were the people of Abraham. This constitutes the categorisation of “Practicing and non-practicing Muslims”, i.e. those who observe the rites of Islam as founded by Abraham and those who do not follow the rites of Islam as at the time of Adam, respectively.

Since the Salat, Fasting, Hajj, Zakat came later on after Abraham. The non-practicing Muslims do not required to observe these rites of Islam. They are only required to believe in God, believe in Last Day and lead a good life (5:69).

When you read the Quran, these two categories of Muslims have been made distinct by the word “righteous” in Arabic which is called “al-mutaqeen” and “good doers” in Arabic are called “al-khaer/salaheen”. The word righteous in Quran is used each time when the rites of Islam are implied and the words “good doers” is used when the rites of Islam are not implied in the verses of the Quran.

Following is a mathematical confirmation that Hajj is only required by the “righteous”. (22:27) chapter 22 Pilgrimage (Hajj) verse 27 is describing the modern version of invitation to Hajj. This verse is especially related to today’s generation because one form of transport described here by which believers will come to do Hajj is by exhaustive means of transport, which is fuel driven means of transport, like planes, cars, buses etc. this indeed is today’s scenario!!

22 27 "And proclaim that the people (the righteous Muslim’s) shall observe Hajj pilgrimage. They will come to you walking or riding on various exhausted (means of transportation). They will come from the farthest locations."

Indeed the Arabic phrase for “the righteous Muslim’s” is almuslimin mutaqeen. Their respective geometric values are 261 & 600. When we concatenate these geometric values with (27:22) we get complete multiple of 19, confirming that this interpretation is divine and that only practicing Muslim’s are required to do Hajj and the non-practicing Muslim’s are not required to do Hajj;

22 27 600 261 = 117242119 x 19:

One more point I would like to make here, which has direct correlation with this subject. Quran mentions “God’s system” at multiple levels. One such description of “God’s system” is as follows;

33 38 The prophet is not committing an error by doing anything that is made lawful by GOD. Such is GOD's system since the early generations. GOD's command is a sacred duty.

Now how does this verse apply to this subject? It applies in a very simple but profound way. God allowed Prophet Adam to practice Islam without rites, and He allowed Prophet Abraham to practice Islam with the rites. Both these methods of Islam were made lawful by God. As the verse suggests it is God’s system that whatever He makes lawful it becomes our sacred duty to obey. Therefore, both religious practices are valid and good to follow, and it is the individual’s responsibility to follow which practice he/she would like to follow.

The disbelievers find Quran difficult to understand; they say there are many important points missing in the Quran, but look at the verse below;

54 40 We made the Quran easy to learn. Does any of you wish to learn?

We know now why the disbelievers say this. It is because they disbelieve in the detail of the Quran and they do not believe in the usage of Miracle of 19 in order to remove doubt. The onus lies with the disbelievers to take interest in the Quran and wish to learn it!!!