CULTURAL DIMENSIONS OF HAJJ

Abstract

This work has no aspirations to become literary criticism of the Bosniac literature but only to demonstrate strong or almost manifold influence of hajj on the culture of Muslims through these couple of examples. One always embarks on a trip with a goal to experience something unique, to discover a new world and oneself as a completely new person. Dževad Karahasan wrote the following passage on the miracle of travel: “One would always embark on a trip with the goal to change something within oneself or within ones life and thus a trip was always seen as an exchange for death. The honest people always settled their accounts and bid their farewells, since they believed, if they returned from a trip, they will come as someone else. “ Viewed from the Islamic point of view, every trip, for the sake of exploring the world, possesses certain transcendental dimensions. Travel and see is one of the commandments most often used in the Qur’an that tells us that the travel is pleasing to God, one that, in finality, helps us understand ourselves. The high point of every travel for the man of faith, is indeed the hajj. During his or her life, be in it on the volcanic peaks of Jamaica, deserts of Mauritius or alongside these Bosnian rivers and mountains, Muslim is aware of Kaba as that one point that connects him with his source. “To come to Kaba means to come to ones source’’ said Iranian S. H.Nasr. Thus, the hajj primarily and above all becomes the trip with the meaning. Hajj is an event of planetary significance and as such becomes anchorage of the whole spectrum of divergent meanings. It gathers all theological, moral and ethical, sociological, political, economic and every other dimension. We believe this work has proven the extensive and deep influence of the hajj in the culture and literacy of the Bosniacs in its many centuries long and continuous link with Mecca and Medina.