The hadj, or sacred journey, is the pilgrimage to Mecca that all
Muslims are enjoined to make once in their lifetimes. Its purpose
is to detach human beings from their homelands and, by bringing
them to Mecca, temporarily reinstate the equality of all people
before God. One of the world's longest-lived religious rites, the
hadj has continued without break for fourteen hundred years. It is,
like most things Islamic, shrouded in mystery for Westerners. In
his new book, Michael Wolfe, an American-born writer and recent
Muslim convert, recounts his experiences on this journey, and in
the process brings readers closer to the meaning of Islam. Wolfe's
book bridges the high points of the Muslim calendar, beginning in
April with the annual month-long fast of Ramadan. In Morocco, he
settles into daily life with a merchant family in the ancient
quarter of Marrakesh. During his three-month stay, he explores the
intricate traditional life of Muslim Morocco. His accounts of this
time deepen our feeling for Islam, a faith that claims one-sixth of
the world's population. As summer approaches, he travels north to
Tangier, where he visits Western writers and Moroccan mystics. In
June, he arrives in Mecca, a city closed to all but Muslims. The
protean experience of the hadj, and the real Mecca, that most
religious and mysterious of cities, are captured in the last half
of the book. Inevitably, the buildup to the Gulf War hovers in the
background - the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait is just weeks away. Yet
it is the author's participation in the age-old rites of the hadj
that most preoccupies his thoughts, strengthening his bond to the
faith he has embraced as an outsider, developing and transforming
it, makingit personal and alive.
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