Hajj Lessons: How to Improve our Ummah<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This is a guest post from Hesham Hassaballa, who will soon be joining the Patheos family as a columnist. October 28 marked the first day of the last month\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hajj Lessons: How to Improve our Ummah\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This is a guest post from Hesham Hassaballa, who will soon be joining the Patheos family as a columnist. 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{"id":171,"date":"2011-11-04T11:03:25","date_gmt":"2011-11-04T15:03:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahnextdoor\/?p=171"},"modified":"2011-11-04T11:13:16","modified_gmt":"2011-11-04T15:13:16","slug":"171","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahnextdoor\/2011\/11\/171\/","title":{"rendered":"Hajj Lessons: How to Improve our Ummah"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

This is a guest post from Hesham Hassaballa, who will soon be joining the Patheos family as a columnist.<\/em><\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/a>October 28 marked the first day of the last month of the Islamic calendar, Dhul Hijjah, and it marked the beginning of the Hajj season. Now, millions of elated pilgrims are descending upon the valley of Mecca to perform this truly amazing, once-in-a-lifetime event. I was blessed to perform the pilgrimage in 2003, and it was the most powerful spiritual experience of my life.<\/p>\n

When everyone is dressed in the ihram<\/em> garb, which are two white unstitched cloths (for men, and any loose, full-coverage garments for women), they are commanded by God to avoid hurting or harming anyone in thoughts and deeds. At this time, more than any other I have ever experienced, one can sense the ideal nature of the ummah<\/em>, or global Muslim community: An entire human family working together in peace and harmony.<\/p>\n

As I and the rest of the world witnessed the recent release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, after a relentless pursuit by not only his family, but the entire nation of Israel and much of the Jewish Diaspora, I lamented the state of our own ummah<\/em>. Sadly, I did not think that we, as Muslims, have the same sort of care for our own as Israel had for Gilad Shalit<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A natural question that comes out of this lament is: What can we do about it? Is there anything that we, as individual Muslims, can do to help make the ummah<\/em> better? Yes, we can support the myriad of relief organizations that tragically have no shortage of work to do helping the poor and drown trodden of the Muslim world. But is there something beyond this that we can do to make the ummah<\/em> act as if it is wearing the ihram<\/em> garb?<\/p>\n

Indeed, there is.<\/p>\n

We can begin by greeting each other with the greeting of \u201cpeace.\u201d The Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) said, \u201cSpread greetings of peace, feed (the poor and needy), behave kindly to your relatives, offer prayer when others are asleep, and you will enter Paradise in peace.\u201d Reportedly, he said this soon after he arrived in Madinah, where he built the first Muslim ummah<\/em>. And notice, the first thing he said was to \u201cspread greetings of peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

We must do the same. So many times, I have noticed that when I see a fellow Muslim and say, \u201cAssalamu-alaikum,\u201d I either get no response at all or a muffled grunt at best. Sometimes, I do get a response and even a smile, and the connection I make with that brother or sister is amazing. In fact, when we say, \u201cAssalamu-alaikum,\u201d we are doing something quite profound: We are asking God to send down His peace upon you. It is one of the best things that we can ask God to do for someone.<\/p>\n

We must do more of this. We must say, \u201cPeace,\u201d to every Muslim we see, and whenever we are greeted by a fellow Muslim, we must \u2014 I repeat, must \u2014 respond in kind. It is fulfilling the command of God: \u201cBut when you are greeted with a greeting [of peace], answer with an even better greeting, or [at least] with the like thereof. Verily, God keeps count indeed of all things. (4:86)\u201d<\/p>\n

When I visited Cairo over five years ago, everyone said \u201cAssalamu-alaikum\u201d to everyone else. Even Christians say \u201cAssalamu-alaikum.\u201d It was devoid of any real meaning for me. Although the greeting was used constantly, I felt there was a lack of meaning behind it. But here in the West, when I see a fellow Muslim smile and say \u201cAssalamu-alaikum,\u201d it means something very special, whereby I am making a connection to a fellow believer and human being and praying for their peace from the Lord.<\/p>\n

God tells us: \u201cVerily, God does not change men\u2019s condition unless they change their inner selves. (13:11\u201d The change must begin with us, and the thing that we can do right now is to \u201cspread peace\u201d amongst ourselves. When we all start to do this, the bonds of our brotherhood and sisterhood will grow in strength and quality. And, God willing, the state of our ummah<\/em> will improve for the better.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"