Karl Brown - Students Choosing 1 - Hajj

I wish we had gone over the Hajj in class this semester. It is the largest spiritual journey in terms of number of people who choose to participate annually, and I feel as though Muslim culture is grossly under-represented in the United States. I covered and researched the Hajj in both of my papers that I did for this class, but the sections in our assigned textbook reading that covered it were so minimal that I wasn’t even able to use our books as a source. I guess it is just coincidence but given the magnitude of the spiritual journey I just assumed we would see more coverage in class.

I set out to learn more about the Hajj in the form of my research papers. I used books and online sources primarily, but interesting a good friend of mine, who happens to be a history major, had a lot of knowledge on the Hajj as a history major and he gave me some information also on its origins and some fun facts. I had no idea that Mike Tyson was not only a Muslim but has gone on the Hajj on numerous occasions. This completely blew my mind, as I called him out when he first stated that fact assuming he was messing with me and ended up on Youtube watching Mike Tyson don a Taqiyah before I was convinced.

 

The thing that I feel is most interesting is the Hajj is actually resulting in many individuals undergoing spiritual journeys that would not normally have done so. It’s not just famous individuals who have never gone on a spiritual journey in their life for another reason; it’s a significant portion of the population that consists of practicing Muslims. There is no other force on this earth currently in operation that pushes human beings into a path that has the potential for a life-changing spiritual journey that comes close to the Hajj, and that is very impressive.