Sheikh Abdullah al-Daqqaq, professor and director of the Bahraini Islamic seminaries in Qom and representative of Ayatollah Isa Qassim of Bahrain, was speaking at the specialized forum “Hajj: Rendezvous of Unity,” held on Wednesday by the World Forum for Proximity of Islamic Schools of Thought.
Sheikh al-Daqqaq, addressing the forum convened as the Hajj season approaches, stressed that the principle of disavowal from polytheists is enshrined at the very beginning of Surah al-Tawbah in the Holy Quran, where God Almighty declares: “And an announcement from Allah and His Messenger to the people on the day of the great Hajj that Allah and His Messenger are free from the polytheists.”
He explained that “an announcement from Allah” in this verse signifies a proclamation from God and His Messenger to the people on the day of the “Great Hajj” that God and His Messenger dissociate themselves from the polytheists.
“Hajj, Tawaf, and Sa’i are for God alone,” al-Daqqaq stated. “The believer performs the Hajj rites for the monotheism of God Almighty. This is monotheism in worship, which rests upon two pillars: an affirmative covenant and a negating covenant — the latter being the rejection of polytheism and of any partner ascribed to God, Blessed and Exalted.”
He stressed: “Hajj is servitude to God and must proclaim the negating covenant; that is, the negation of polytheism from other than God Almighty, and the affirmation that oneness, divinity, servitude, and creatorship belong to God Almighty alone. Thus, it realizes the monotheism of worship, the monotheism of oneness, and the monotheism of lordship — there is no deity but God, no lord but God, no creator but God.”
Al-Daqqaq added: “Hajj, therefore, points to an obligation that is monotheistic, divine, and political. To preserve its devotional aspect while abandoning its political dimension — which embodies the disavowal of polytheists and of global arrogance — renders it meaningless.”
