After Hajj: Muslim Pilgrims Refashioning Themselves

Abstract

The Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca (Hajj) is one of the five pillars of Islam and a duty which Muslims must perform—once in a lifetime—if they are physically and financially able to do so. In Morocco, from where thousands of pilgrims travel to Mecca every year, the Hajj often represents the culmination of years of preparation and planning, both spiritual and logistical. Pilgrims often describe their journey to Mecca as a transformative experience. Upon successfully completing the pilgrimage and returning home, pilgrims must negotiate their new status—and the expectations that come with it—within the mundane and complex reality of everyday life. There are many ambivalences and tensions to be dealt with, including managing the community expectations of piety and moral behavior. On a personal level, pilgrims struggle between staying on the right path, faithful to their pilgrimage experience, and straying from that path as a result of human imperfection and the inability to sustain the ideals inspired by pilgrimage. By ethnographically studying the everyday lives of Moroccans after their return from Mecca, this article seeks to answer the questions: how do pilgrims encounter a variety of competing expectations and demands following their pilgrimage and how are their efforts received by members of their community? How do they shape their social and religious behavior as returned pilgrims? How do they deal with the tensions between the ideals of Hajj and the realities of daily life? In short, this article scrutinizes the religious, social and personal ramifications for pilgrims after the completion of Hajj and return to their community. My research illustrates that pilgrimage contributes to a process of self-formation among pilgrims, with religious and non-religious dimensions, which continues long after Hajj is over and which operates within, and interacts with, specific social contexts.

Liquid consumption and Islam: The Continual Drift Adjustment (CDA) framework

“…The five pillars of Islam activate decelerating breaks in multi-modal routines of existence and consumption: shahadah , the affirmation of Omnipotent Creator, creates the “mindfulness break” in the otherwise chaotic mind wandering in complex thoughts about the universe, eternity and death; five daily prayers create temporal breaks in a daily routine of work and rest; fasting in Ramadan creates a physiological break within the routine of food consumption; Hajj pilgrimage creates a lifestyle break by transferring one into a completely different spatial-temporal regime of worship; and finally, zakah, obligatory charity, breaks one’s obsession with wealth multiplication. Al-Ajarma (2021) discusses Muslim experiences after the performance of the main decelerating event in a Muslim’s life, i.e. the Hajj pilgrimage. …”

“…zakah, obligatory charity, breaks one’s obsession with wealth multiplication. Al-Ajarma (2021) discusses Muslim experiences after the performance of the main decelerating event in a Muslim’s life, i.e. the Hajj pilgrimage.…”

Philosophical Baseline of the Religious Pilgrimage and Its Significance for Dialogue among Religions

“…Third, studies that reveal pilgrimage and its relation to the social context. Research conducted by Al-Ajarma (2021) provides information about the function of pilgrimage that can change the social conditions of pilgrim after returning to his country (Al-Ajarma, 2021). Aspects of women's equality and matters directly related to women's issues were studied by Buitelaar (2020) and Belém (2021).…”

Hajj and Umrah management during COVID-19

“…Many researchers have studied different aspects of crowded events, and in particular those of the Hajj and Umrah. For details, refer to [ 5 , 12 , 13 ].…”