From Pepsi to Hira Cave

Ismatillah A. Nu’ad*

For Moslem haji is a special religious service because not everybody can do it. There are material and nonmaterial conditions that have to be fulfilled. In relation with the non material condition it is interesting to focus on the experience of haji Farid Esack, a liberal Moslem who shared his experiences in his work, On Being a Muslim (2002).

One day Esack was lost from his journey to Hira Cave, the historical site where Muhammad the Prophet first received his revelation. The orthodox Saudi government is very strict on permitting people on doing their religious service especially in traditional holy sites that is why there is no road sign that leads to certain places. So Esack could only follow other pilgrims who already knew the road to Hira Cave or as he confessed, just follow the Pepsi cans that scattered all over the steep road to the mouth cave.

For Esack the experience was unforgettable because he was quick to loss his religious mood and spirit because of the empty Pepsi cans along the road. His experience also made his liberal thoughts active which previously has been warned not to during his pilgrimage. He instantly realized that the capitalism business has reached holy sites.

His experience with Pepsi cans was not the only one, because in some corner of the cave, as he describe in his book, he also found graffiti written on the cave wall such as “Jalima and Fatimah were here in 1967″, which describes that a couple once declared their love in haram land.

The act of fouling the holy site was concerning. It is not only destroying the central site of Islamic culture but also put the morality of Moslem in to question. Because one character of a good Moslem is to not act fasad (destroying). Often the amoral act of littering or making graffiti on walls were ignored unlike if it is corruption or collution, still those are the act that Moslem has to avoid.

The Pepsi can which lead the way to Hira cave has to be a valuable lesson for Moslem either before or after the pilgrim, because this case is the reflection of what our character and potential are. A good Moslem should be able to suppress the negative tendency so it won’t result in actual negative action because it is clearly affecting others. All sins damage not only the individual but also other people. For individual it became a reflection of how the sin has damage his morality, while the damage for others reflected from material and moral damage.

The Haji pilgrim will give a number of different experiences, even odd experiences. There are million of people who came to the holy land every year, each of them experiencing different things. Some might find it bad some might find it sweet. Wise man once said that if one should find bad experience during his pilgrim then it is the reflection of how bad his behavior in life and vice versa if one should find sweet experience then it is the result of his right doing.

As if God is personally touching those who done the pilgrim. Maybe it is because the pilgrim is a physical and metaphysical visit of a human to the house of God (bitillah) where human is symbolized to going back to God after a long journey of life. Mekah in al-Qur’an is called ma’ad, a place to go back (Q.S.,28:85). A human is “home” before going “home” in the real meaning. Al-Qur’an describes that all part of life is the journey of coming back to God (Q.S.,2:285 and 3:38).

Wouldn’t it be great if one set forth to a pilgrim with the determination to go back to the hanif way of God, so that after he got back from the pilgrim he is a changed man, making no more damage in life, no more damaging or abusing other people, and dedicate his whole life to be useful to others Wallahu ‘alam.

Ismatillah A. Nu’ad, Associate Researcher at Kantata Research Indonesia, author of Progressive Fundamentalism: Toward Islamic World New Order (Indonesian Edition), lives in Jakarta, Indonesia.