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Aabout Islam and the journey towards the Holy City of Mekkah for Pilgrimage.A must to watch film to know about Islam and its teachings. One of religion's most spiritual locations, the city of Mecca has been the epicenter for Islam since the beginning of time. This insightful documentary explains the history behind the legendary pilgrimage to the holy city, showcasing a group of individuals whose lives are forever changed by the indescribably powerful experience. Once again, National Geographic proves their documentaries are the next best thing to actually being there.
This one-hour long documentary filmed in 2003, follows three Muslims (one of which is Dr. O'Leary) from different countries and backgrounds as they embark on this five-day trip, and depicts what goes on in Mecca during the Hajj, showing why 2 million Muslims from all over the world gather in the holiest city of Islam during the designated month. The documentary is groundbreaking in that it presents Islam and Muslims in all their diversity, showing that Islam is a world religion.
One of the five pillars of Islam, the Hajj is required of all who can manage it at least once in a lifetime. Each year, Muslims from all over the world travel to Mecca to praise and give thanks to God, to ask pardon for their sins and renew their spiritual commitment through an elaborate series of rites and rituals. The Hajj brings people of every nation, race, and status together in worshiping God. The Hajj had ended a few weeks ago with the feast of sacrifice.
Hajj, in Islam, the major pilgrimage to Mecca, a city located near the Red Sea coast in Saudi Arabia. The term hajj means "standing before a deity in a sacred place" or "voyage to a sacred place," and Mecca is considered the most sacred of the Muslim cities. As a religious duty noted in the Qur'an (Koran) and the fifth of the Five Pillars of Islam, all healthy adult men and women who are financially able must perform the hajj at least once in their lifetime. Unlike the umra, (minor pilgrimage to Mecca), which can be performed at any time, the hajj can only be carried out during the first two weeks of the Islamic month of Dhu al-Hijja, which corresponds to the last month of the lunar year.
Only Muslims are permitted access to the region of the pilgrimage-that is, to the holy places of Mecca, Mina, Muzdalifa, and Arafat, all located in Saudi Arabia. During the hajj pilgrims must enter a state of ritual purity before they reach Mecca by performing ritual bathing and wearing the ihram, a white seamless shroud they keep for the rest of their lives as their burial garb. While in the state of ritual purity the pilgrim is denied various activities, such as sexual relations. After arriving in Mecca, the pilgrim carries out a set of rites as an individual. These rites culminate in the circling seven times, or tawaf, of the Kaaba (a rectangular building that contains the sacred Black Stone) and the quick, sevenfold crossing back and forth, or say, between two hills, Safa and Marwa. In addition to these rites, which make up the umra, the hajj includes certain other rituals performed by pilgrims collectively. Among these are the stopping on a hill in the valley of Arafat from noon until sunset, the symbolic stoning of the devil in the valley of Mina, and the sacrifice of sheep and goats.
Once Muslims have carried out the hajj, they may use the title Hajji if male and Hajjah if female. During the first half of the 20th century about 30,000 Muslims annually made the pilgrimage to Mecca. Today, the number is closer to 2 million.
 Map Mecca Located in an arid valley surrounded by rocky hills, Mecca has had religious and commercial significance for centuries. Muslims believe that one of the city's sacred sites, the Kaaba, was built by the Old Testament patriarch Abraham and his son, Ishmael (to whom Arab people trace their descent), and that a nearby well, Zamzam, was used by Ishmael's mother, Hagar. The city stood at the crossroads of two major trade routes: one connecting southern Arabia (present-day Yemen and Oman) with the lands of Egypt and Syria, and the other linking the Red Sea with the Persian Gulf coast and Mesopotamia (roughly present-day Iraq). By the time Muhammad was born in about 570, Mecca had become an important trading center; Muhammad himself came from a merchant family. After the spread of Islam and the growth of the Muslim community, the fortunes of Mecca rose and fell with the yearly ebb and flow of pilgrims. To this day, the economy of the city depends to a great extent on accommodating, feeding, transporting, and otherwise caring for large numbers of pilgrims.
Mecca was led by local sharifs, rulers who claimed descent from Muhammad, from 966 until the 20th century. In 1517, however, the sharifs of Mecca came under the authority of the expanding Ottoman Empire. During World War I (1914-1918), Sharif Husein ibn Ali, with British support, declared an Arab revolt against the Ottomans, expelling them from the city in 1916. In 1924 central Arabian ruler Abdul Aziz ibn Saud, the founder of Saudi Arabia, defeated Husein's forces and added Mecca and the Al Hijaz region to his domain. Population (1995 estimate) 770,000.
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