From the Two Holy Sanctuaries:
A Rich Experience of Mecca and Medina

February 27, 2007

It is possible to divide travel writers into two distinct groups: authors who are content to report the physical stages of travel and striking events that happen along the way.. and then authors who report the interior experience of travel. We could term the works of this latter group Cognitively Rich Travel Texts (CRTT). These works transmit some of the most precious information possible: how a person living at a particular time mentally processed the world.

A new book from Amal Press entitled From the Two Holy Sanctuaries: A Hajj Journal by Gibril Fouad Haddad falls into that latter category. Take for instance the following passage describing a part of the circumambulation of the Kaaba:

Upon nearing the Yemeni corner... I waded my way closer to the Ka'ba to enable myself to touch the Yemeni corner according to the Sunna. Once I reached it, I leaned over and touched it with my right hand, then brought up my right palm to my lips to kiss it. I read in the book of our beloved Shaykh... that the Yemeni Corner, along with the Black Stone Corner, stands on the bases laid by our father Ibrahim... As I turned the corner I recited the prophet's most frequent invocation in his blessed life: "Our Lord! Give unto us in the world that which is good and in the Hereafter that which is good" (2:201)... I also remembered the Prophet's remark as I felt a delightful, refreshing breeze upon turning the Yemeni corner: "I find the rescuing wind (nafas) of the Most Beneficent coming from Yemen." [23]

Few pilgrims give us a glimpse of what was running through their minds as they complete the prescribed rituals.. and what gave meaning to their experience. Haddad shows himself to be steeped in Islamic tradition. Seemingly every step he takes is informed by this tradition. In that short paragraph he makes reference to the Sunna (established traditions), a book written by his Shaykh, a Quranic invocation, and then a traditional remark of Muhammad.

This layer or references and tradition makes for a rich internal experience (and this could apply to all travel experiences, not just that of the hajj). Many pilgrims do not experience their world in this layered rich manner, and they complete the circumambulations because that is what they are supposed to do.. and likely a guide is there telling them what to do and when. But a CRTT such as this one by Haddad gives a sense of what is possible for the pilgrim.. the extent to which actions can be made meaningful through deep knowledge of tradition.

Having described in detail the experience of Medina and Mecca, Haddad moves on to a more controversial topic: the diminishment of the pilgrims' experience by contemporary hostility to certain pilgrimage traditions. This complaint is made more powerful since we have already witnessed how richly he responds to the holy places. One can feel his exasperation at the efforts to prune back his experience:

Sadly, during our stay in the Two Holy Sanctuaries, we and the other pilgrims were bombarded with an incessant flow of disinformation promoting, for the most part, the undesirability of visiting the Prophet in Medina. This false teaching was pushed on the people, time and again, in ten-minute pep talks after prayers in neighborhood mosques, in post-maghrib hour-long talks in the Two Mosques, on the audio cassette tapes that were distributed freely, in the free handbooks written in various languages... [31]

It is traditional for pilgrims to make the journey to the city of Medina where Muhammad is buried.. This is not part of the official rituals of the hajj, but it is nevertheless standard and expected part of the hajj experience. The religious establishment of Saudi Arabia is Wahhabi.. a strict sect that has worked to purify Islam from extraneous practices. Incredibly this purifying zeal is turned on the practice of visiting the tomb of the Prophet at Medina.

It is interesting to read this thumbnail sketch of the channels of "disinformation" that are open for Wahhabi teaching: short pep talks in the mosque, hour long talks after evening prayer, audio cassettes, and free handbooks. It is a list of the kinds of informal methods of mass communication that pass under our radar screens.. literature that does not make it into any library and speeches that are not recorded or broadcast anywhere.

Arriving in Arabia the rich experience that Haddad desires is immediately challenged by this strict group. The final chapter in this short book is a defense of the practice of the visitation of the Prophet's tomb, using hadith and traditional authorities to defend his point. In conclusion Haddad writes:

Those who deny this reality are only cutting themselves off from its immense benefits. [44]

What those benefits might be are open for all to read in the first chapter of the book as Haddad describes his experience of Medina. It is rare enough to find a travel narrative that is so careful about the interior experience of travel.. but this book gains added interest in its willingness to engage in a traditional polemical defense of that experience which the author deems so valuable.. and we might learn from this that rich interior experience is something that can and should be defended.