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gossip; on shaving or on cutting one’s hair or nails whilst in a state
of ihram.23
Underlying all of these various, diverse and ostensibly separate
rites, recommendations, regulations and prohibitions there is one
single idea that makes sense of them all, binds them all together,
and shows their common purpose and goal. That idea is the return
to the (subtle) heart. God says in the Holy Qur’an:
We shall show them Our portents on the horizons and
within themselves until it will be manifest unto them
that it is the Truth. Does your Lord not suffice, since He is
Witness over all things ? (Fussilat, 41:53).
And in the earth are portents for those whose faith is sure. /
And (also) in yourselves. Can you then not see? (Al-Dhariyat,
51:20–21)
These verses imply that there is a certain ‘mirroring’ of God’s
portents (‘ayat’) between the universe and human beings, such that
it has been said traditionally that ‘man is a small universe and the
universe is a large man’. Without delving into this in too much detail,
it will now be apparent that in this sense Mecca—and the mysterious
cubic, black-shrouded Ka‘bah in particular—are the true spiritual
heart of the world, and to go to Mecca for pilgrimage means to
return symbolically and virtually—if not fully or permanently in
the majority of cases—to one’s heart. Thus the inward aim and
true meaning of the Hajj is to return to one’s own true heart.
This idea explains many things, including why Mecca is the
qiblah—the direction of prayer for Muslims—for the heart is the
locus of faith, and since one prays through faith, one prays fundamentally
with, and through, the heart. God says in the Holy Qur’an:
The foolish of the people will say: What has turned them
from the qiblah which they formerly observed? Say: Unto
23 See: Al-Ma’idah, 5:1–2 and Al-Ma’idah, 5:95–97.
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