By Mawlana Abu Asim Badrul Islam
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
With regard to educating oneself of the significance, virtues, laws and method of hajj, hajj-goers are generally of three categories:
(1) Those who are absolutely indifferent and do not have any sense of the importance of learning and understanding before setting off for hajj. This, sadly, is a very large percentage of all those who embark on this magical ‘journey of a lifetime’. It does not occur to them in the least that there is a total of five days of hajj, and in the case of most non-locals travelling from other parts of the world, they will have to perform an ‘umrah before the actual five days of hajj, and in those 5 days they have to perform special rites in special ways, during special – and sometimes strict – times, in special locations. This category simply goes for hajj, hoping to just follow the crowd and come back home as a ‘hajji’.