Bismi Llāhi r-Raḥmāni r-Raḥīm
Allāh ‘Azza wa-Jalla has holy places. And He ﷻ has holy times. He ﷻ granted them to Ummati Muḥammad ﷺ, to mankind so that they benefit from them. He ﷻ gave these beautiful things. It is for the body and soul. It may be a suffering for the body, but it is a relief and beauty for the soul. And it is beneficial for the body too.
These worships: prayer, fasting, ḥajj. Ḥajj and ‘umrah. Of course, the time of ḥajj is once a year. In old times, not everyone could go to ḥajj. It was difficult. Its difficulty was different and the difficulty of this time is more different. So not everyone is meant to go. There may be an obstacle for various reasons. It is the wisdom of Allāh ﷻ. We can’t say anything about it. In old times, people wouldn’t go just for ‘umrah. They would go to ḥajj. And they would perform ‘umrah after ḥajj. They would only do it once in their lives. But now they can. They can just go. It is more easy to go for ‘umrah any time. Anyone who wants can go.
But for ḥajj, what is important now is to perform ḥajj before ‘umrah. They say, “We are waiting our turn. It isn’t coming. Let’s do ‘umrah until our turn comes.” If you spend the money you saved for ḥajj on ‘umrah and then your turn comes for ḥajj and you cannot go, this is wrong. But if you have allocated a sufficient amount of money for ḥajj aside, then you can make ‘umrah. Then, whenever you are granted to go to ḥajj – that intention is already there. Every year, with the permission of Allāh ﷻ, that reward is written to you. Because every year – we know some people who’ve spent fourteen years waiting for ḥajj. They get hopeful every year, “We will go this year.” They make an intention with that hope. If they didn’t go, Allāh ‘Azza wa-Jalla does not turn them empty-handed. They attain that reward. The second year is the same. Until they go to ḥajj.
As we said, without wasting that money, put it aside. After that, if one is able, he can go to ‘umrah so that he can see: he will have visited our Holy Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam and he will have seen the Ka’bah. Because a person has never seen them in his life. So it is good to see them, to take from their virtues. Because every deed you do near the Ka’bah has one hundred thousand rewards. Each rak’ah has the reward of a hundred thousand rak’āt; each prayer has the reward of a hundred thousand prayers. A grant. All of them will be beneficial to those people. But “I went to ‘umrah now” and next year or later, you were granted ḥajj, but you couldn’t go, that time you lose a great reward.
So today, Shukr to Allāh ﷻ, our ḥajjis are going to ‘umrah. Our sister Rukiye Hanim, your ḥajji Anne, Sultan Anne; ḥajji Mehmet and Shaykh Baha’uddin Efendi, were destined to go to ‘umrah, Shukr to Allāh ﷻ. When Allah ﷻ destines it, it’s great. Places like these are where people benefit. The real benefit is in going there; nowhere else. “I went to London, I went to Paris,” I don’t know where, “I went here and there.” They have no benefit. When doing it for dunyā, it is of no use. These beautiful places which are for ākhirah are the beneficial places. May Allāh ﷻ grant us. May Allāh ﷻ accept it. And in shā’a Llāh, may their blessings and rewards be written to us as well, to those here and to those listening, in shā’a Llāh. May Allāh ﷻ grant ḥajj many times to those who haven’t been to ḥajj, in shā’a Llāh. Wa min Allah at-Tawfiq.
Al-Fatiha.
- Mawlana Sheikh Muhammad Adil ar-Rabbani
25 January 2025/ 25 Rajab 1446
Lefke, Cyprus