MAINTAINING THE BENEFITS OF HAJJ

Hajj is an important turning point in the life of a believer. Although performing hajj and becoming a pilgrim is a matter of destiny, staying as a pilgrim requires great responsibility and effort. 

Staying a pilgrim means maintaining the spiritual achievements of the holy journey of hajj. It means keeping busy with the worships and good deeds to win the pleasure of Allah (swt) with the awareness that the journey of the rightfulness continues. It means that the believer leads a different life after performing hajj. 

Staying a pilgrim connotes that a servant, who returned from the hajj purified from all sins as if he was born anew, exerts his utmost effort to keep this new page clean, free from sins. It is keeping the promise he made by uttering niyyah and talbiyah. It is to try to raise the level of awareness further with the waqfats of Muzdalifah and Arafat. It is an effort not to fall into the waswasa (delusions) and traps of the devil he stoned at Mina. Staying as a pilgrim means keeping relationships with family, relatives, neighbors, friends, especially all human relations in the direction of obtaining Allah's (swt) consent. It is observing the right of every living thing. It is to pay attention to one's words and behaviors with the commitment of being a role model as a Muslim. 

Being a pilgrim means reaching maturity in terms of faith and morality, beyond being a title.  It is to abide by the rights and ethics of brotherhood with the awareness of being a member of the ummah, not an ordinary Muslim. The hajj performed in the “limited days” ends, but being a pilgrim continues for a lifetime. In fact, a believer, who realizes the fact that his days are limited in life just as the days of hajj are limited and they will end someday, turns to Allah (swt) who is eternal instead of attaching to the mortal world. His only desire becomes to live a life that he can give an account of it and come into the presence of Allah (swt) with a pure heart.