A lot of work goes into getting ready for hajj. We settle debts and resolve the loose ends of our financial and material accounts. We return the blender, the books, the sweater to their rightful owners–even if the rightful owners are siblings who never returned anything in their lives–because when we prepare for hajj, we prepare for death.
A couple of years ago a Muslim woman made a hajj that kept her ever mindful of death. A small hotel collapsed, killing both occupants and passersby on the street. A few days later, there was a stampede at the jamarat. When she went to the jamarat with her hajj group later that day, and after the bodies had been removed, she had to walk past their sandals which were still strewn about the street. Death is a part of hajj.
Some years ago, the tunnel through a mountain that leads to Mina collapsed and many Muslims were killed. I recognized immediately that I had walked through that same tunnel during my own hajj. There have been other jamarat deaths, there have been fires, boats have capsized. There have been deaths caused by heart attack, heat stroke and old age. Death is a part of hajj.
Before you go to hajj, make sure you have written your will according to Islamic law. Writing a will sometimes means having to come to terms with difficult situations or possibly unpleasant scenarios. We must leave our estate to the persons and in the amounts specified by Allah. Writing a will may be an exercise in obedience and in trust in Allah. All the more reason to remember that death is a part of hajj.
Leave copies of the will in one or more locations. To get an idea of what a will should look like, a template for a basic Islamic will is available at the al-Farooq Masjid in Atlanta.
