from site to site among these sacred precincts, all the while with hearts humbled, eyes brimming with tears, and tongues magnifying Allah and chanting the talbiyah.

Yearning for the House of their Lord has driven them on, making them—for His sake—forget family and homeland, wealth and life itself, letting go of everything dear. So what reward do you think awaits them with their Lord?

Culturally, Allah has commanded people to travel through the earth so that they may gain insight and take heed. During the pilgrimage one learns about the conditions of nations, meets their peoples, and becomes acquainted with the affairs of delegations that represent every corner of the globe. By conversing with their scholars and engaging their gifted minds, one gains clarity and knowledge, for every discipline and art has a contingent in attendance.

Socially and politically, ḥajj is a magnificent congress that gathers delegations of varied expertise, differing cultures, and diverse orientations and inclinations. When each faction meets its counterparts—forming, in effect, the “committees of a single government”—they can study their past, present, and future; discern what has set them back and what will move them forward; and identify the causes of their division as well as the means to unity, harmony, and a single voice.

Discussing their religious, political, social, and economic concerns on the basis of love and concord and in a spirit of unity and cohesion, they become a single hand against their enemy, a force to be feared by any aggressor. Thus they acquire an independent entity with its own distinguishing features, objectives, and aims; their voice is heard, their word heeded, and they are taken most seriously.

In this way Muslims regain their honor and their former eminence, establishing an Islamic state whose constitution is the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Messenger, whose motto is justice and equality, whose aim is the common good, and whose ultimate goal is security and peace. At that point the eyes of the world will turn toward them, leadership will be entrusted to them, and they will hold its reins firmly, dismantling councils founded on oppression and tyranny and building on their ruins justice and beneficence.

Thus peace will be secured, safety will prevail, and factories that once produced deadly weapons of destruction and ruin will turn to inventing tools that promote cultivation and industry and bring forth the earth’s treasures. The divine wisdom in creation will thereby be fulfilled, and fertility and prosperity, security and peace, will replace drought and high prices, fear and bloodshed.

Yet for the full realization of the work of this “congress” there must be a unified language through which its participants can understand one another—and the language most worthy of that role is the language of the Quran.