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by S.H.A. Careem

More than 15 lakhs of Muslims from over 160 countries will perform Hajj this year.

From Sri Lanka over 5,000 pilgrims left for Hajj headed by Muslim Religious and Cultural Affairs Minister Rauff Hakeem.

Hajj is the fifth pillar of Islam, it must be performed once in a lifetime by every able-bodied Muslim who has the financial means.

According to a Saudi diplomat the kingdom has stressed its determination to ensure a safe and peaceful Hajj by beefing up security and health provisions.

Health and security are the main concerns throughout the season and have gained special attention since this is the first mass gathering of Muslims since the September 11 attacks on the United States.

According to 'Arab News', officials also vowed to prevent any political fallout from September 11 marring the Hajj. Interior Minister Prince Naif said the authorities were confident the pilgrims would shun politics and focus on fulfilling their religious duty.

The authorities have deployed about 2000 police and troops and 1,500 surveillance cameras in Makkah and surrounding religious sites to oversee security and maintain order.

Muslims all over the world will celebrate Hajj festival on February 23. It was on the eighth day of Dhul Hijja, the day of Al-Taiwiyah, Muhammad went to Mina and spent the day and night and proceeded to Mount Arafat followed by all pilgrims. It was here the prophet delivered his last sermon - a document of human rights.

On the eighth day of Dhul Hijja, the day of Al-Tarwiyah, Muhammad went to Mina and spent the day and night in that locality. There he performed all the prayers incumbent during that period. The following day, Muhammad recited his dawn prayer and, at sunrise, proceeded on his camel, al Qaswa, to the Mount of Arafat, followed by all the pilgrims. As he ascended the mountain he was surrounded by thousands of his companions reciting the talbiyah and the takbir. The Prophet naturally heard their recitations but made no effort either to stop them or to encourage them. He commanded some of his companions to put up a tent for him on the east side of the mountain at a spot called Namirah. When the sun passed the zenith, he ordered his camel to be saddled, and rode on it until he reached the valley of Uranah.

It was there that he, while sitting on his camel delivered his sermon in a loud voice to his people. Rabi'ah ibn Umayyah ibn Khalaf repeated the sermon after him sentence by sentence. He began by praising God and thank Him, and then turning to the people, he said. 'O Men listen well to my words, for I do not know whether I shall meet you again on such an occasion in the future.

O Men, your lives and your property shall be inviolate until you meet your Lord. The safety of your lives and of your property shall be as inviolate as this holy day and holy month. Remember that you will indeed meet your Lord, and that He will indeed reckon your deeds. Thus do I warn you.

Whoever of you is keeping a trust of someone else shall return that trust to its rightful owner. All interest obligation shall henceforth be waived. Your capital, however, is yours to keep. You will neither inflict nor suffer inequity. God has judged that there shall be no interest and that all the interest due to 'Abbas ibn 'Abd al Muttalib shall henceforth be waived.

Every right arising out of homicide in pre-Islamic days is henceforth waived. An the first such right that I waive is that arising from the murder of Rab'ah ib al harith ibn 'Abd al Muttalib.

O Men, the devil has lost all hope of ever being worshipped in this land of yours. Nevertheless, he still is anxious to determine the lesser of your deeds. Beware of him, therefore, for safety of your religion. Oh Men, intercalation or tempering with the calendar is evidence of great unbelief and confirms the unbelievers in their misguidance. They indulge in it one year and forbid it the next in order to make permissible that which God forbade, and to forbid that which God has made permissible. The pattern according to which the time is reckoned is always the same. With God, the months are twelve in number. Four of them are holy. Three of them are successive and one occurssingly between the months of Jumada and Sha'ban.

O Men, to you a right belongs with respect to your women and to your women a right with respect to you. It is your right that they not fraternise with anyone of whom you do not approve, as well as never to commit adultery. But if they do, then God has permitted you to isolate them within their homes and to chastise them without cruelty. But if they abide by your right, then to them belongs the right to be fed and clothed in kindness.

Do treat your women well and be kind to them, for they are your partners and committed helpers. Remember that you have taken them as your wives and enjoyed their flesh only under God's trust and with His permission.

Reason well, therefore, O Men, and ponder my words which I now convey to you. I am leaving you with the Book of God and the Sunnah of His Prophet.

If you follow them, you will never go astray. O Men, harken well to my words. Learn that every Muslim is a brother to every Muslim and that the Muslims constitute one brotherhood.

Nothing shall be legitimate to a Muslim which belongs to a fellow Muslim unless it was given freely and willingly. Do not, therefore, do injustice to your own selves. O God, have I conveyed Your Message?"

As the Prophet delivered his speech, Rab'iah repeated it sentence by sentence and asked the people every now and then whether or not they had understood the Prophet's words and committed them to memory. In order to make sure that the people understood and remembered, the prophet used to ask his crier to say: "The Prophet of God asks, 'Do you know which day is this?" The audience would answer "Today is the day of the greater pilgrimage." The Prophet then would say "Tell them that God has declared inviolate your lives and your property until the day you will meet your Lord; that he has made the safety of your property and of your lives as inviolate this day." At the end of his speech, the prophet asked, " O God, Have I conveyed your message?" And the people answered from all corners, "Indeed so! God be witness."

When the Prophet finished his sermon, he dismounted and waited until noon, at which time he performed both the noon and the mid-afternoon prayers. He then mounted his camel and proceeded to Al Sakharat where he recited to the people the concluding divine revelation. Today I have completed for you your religion, and granted you the last of my blessings. Today I have accepted for you Islam as the religion. When Abu Bakr heard this verse he realised that with the completion of the divine message, the Prophet's life was soon to come to a close.

The Prophet left Arafat and spent his night at Muzdalifah. In the morning, he visited first the sanctuary of al-Mash'ar and then Mina on the road to which threw pebbles against the symbol of Satan.

When he reached his tent, he sacrificed sixty three camels, one for each year of his life. All sacrificed the rest of the animals which the Prophet had brought with him from Madina. The Prophet then shaved his head and declared his pilgrimage completed.

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