![words from hajj words from hajj](https://i1.tribune.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/286096-KhaledAhmedNew-1320159707.jpg)
In Urdu there are many words originating from ‘hajj’ meaning many things apparently quite apart from one another. The root ‘hjj’ means to ‘intend to do something’. The root also implies ‘intending to do something big’.
Thus the intention to make a pilgrimage at Mecca is called hajj ‘hajj’. Because of the annual nature of the ritual, the Holy Quran also uses ‘hajj’ to mean ‘year’. The root also means something else. It means ‘intending to block something from happening’.
It is from this sense of blocking something that you have the Urdu word ‘ehtijaj’. It means ‘protest’. If you raise an objection to something, you are doing ‘ehtijaj’. Objection itself means to throw something in as if to block.
Reasoning itself can be an intention to block. We have the Urdu word ‘hujjat’ (reasoning) from it. The Holy Quran is itself called the final and clear ‘hujjat’ (‘baligha’). In many contexts we use ‘hujjat’ to mean objection. It is used even to convey a sense of hesitation.
When a need is given reason, it is called ‘haajat’. A person who is in need is called ‘muhtaaj’. It means that he has ‘hujjat’ for wanting something. A Persian formulation makes it ‘hajatmand’. A more formal way of saying need is ‘ehtiaj’.
In the Bible there is a prophet named Haggai. The root indicated in Hebrew is ‘somebody born during a festival’. If you pursue the root further, it takes you, like always, to ancient Syriac. There it means ‘make a pilgrimage and have a feast’.
Hajj always had a strong association with feasting. That is why the ‘big feast’ happens for Muslims on Eid al-Azha, at the conclusion of Hajj. A person who does ‘hajj’ is called ‘al-haaj’. We make it informal by saying ‘haaji’, which means nothing at all in Arabic. At times we don’t take the ‘haaji’ title seriously and may even use it insultingly. Maybe because there are too many ‘haajis’ around in these days of easy travel.
I am at times alerted by the ‘hagio-’ prefix in English words. When someone wrote Hagia Sophia to describe a famous mosque in Turkey, I thought it had something to do with ‘hajj’, but that was not true. The formulation was Latin.
‘Hagio-’ comes from Greek, meaning holy or sacred. It led to expressions like stand in awe of or to worship someone. Originally, the writer of the lives of saints was called a hagiographer.
Today, if you write a very revering comment on someone it would be called hagiographical. The art of writing praising biographies has attracted the epithet hagiography.
Anything Greek will take us to the Aryan or Indo-European group of languages. In Sanskrit the same ‘hagio-’ prefix can be seen in the word ‘yajna’ meaning worship or sacrifice. Dozens of Hindi names are derived from this word. It is also pronounced ‘jagia’ at times. The Parsis have it as ‘Yasna’ in their old Avestan language.
One thing is certain. The basis of worship has always been sacrifice. In the ritual of hajj, sacrifice (‘qurbani’) is the central act at the popular level. It makes you go near (‘qareeb’) God. Correctly, however, for Muslims the stay at Arafat is the central act of hajj.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 2nd, 2011.
COMMENTS (8)
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Interesting!
@zalim singh Exactly my feeling! But if you think of Sufism, it gives that personal space.
@ Khaled sir. Great article, refreshed our knowledge. But one small issue. Islam seems to put too many restrictions on its followers. Too many rules to follow. Too many rituals. Personally I feel, people should have devotion out of respect and love, not fear. Correct me if I am wrong.
My Cypriot friend once told me that someone who had been to Jerusalem on pilgrimage was also called a Haji in Cyprus! She attributed it to Turkish/Lebanese influence in Cyprus.
Again hats off to you Sir!
Mr Khaled Ahmed is our Steven Pinker the renowned proffessor of linguistics at MIT / Harvard and all praise to him for writing so lucidly and effortlessly sliding from one family of languages to another proving thereby that languages like humanity converge at some point . I have been reading Mr Khaled now for quite some time and found him always enlightening and entertaining . I wonder if they have a department of linguistics at the Panjab University where Mr Khaled ' s talent is utilised more fully and constructively .
Agreed also if you take the returning Hujjaj out of the Crowd then I wonder how big a crowd you would have? @Akhtarrao:
Mostly Pakistani go for Hajj after doing corruption both moral and metarial.They think after having donethis worship they will be pure, what ulema say,please do mention because this is acutually happening in our country. Many people go for Hajj when they assume some high profile and take their friends also. Several people do not cut their hair (men),knowingly that is Sunnah, but they ignore it. What is the true spirit of tis sacred Sunnah, the author should explain it for a lay man.