School Staged Hajj Play

The Salma K. Farid Academy, a Muslim school in Conneticut, staged a hajj reenactment with its students last year and plan to make it an annual event.  The schools head administrator, Ponn M Sabra noted that acting out the hajj gave children a better understanding of the rites than did just reading or memorizing the details of it.

Seeing  their children reenact the hajj made the event was especially meaningful for the parents who had already made hajj themselves.  Children whose parents were away making hajj gained a better understanding of what their parents how their parents fulfilled this pillar of Islam.

Hajj for the Second Generation

Convert and immigrant Muslim parents both struggle with raising their children in America.  These children grow up in America without the experience of either choosing Islam as the convert parents did or of coming from a Muslim country the way most immigrant parents did. 

This 2007 article from Gulf News talks about hajj for this second generation of Muslims in America.

Mina: The 20-year-old American tells his Haj stories a mile-a-minute, his hands moving in excitement about how he arrived in Makkah days ago, lost amid the massive crowds, and saw a man drop dead while circling the Ka’aba.

“Dude, I saw it, the guy had the most peaceful smile on his face,” Adil Muschelewicz, performing the pilgrimage for the first time, said on Sunday.

The young man from Easley, South Carolina, had arrived alone in Makkah because of a travel agent mix-up that prevented his family from catching up for three days. He was with hundreds of thousands of others circling the Ka’aba, when he saw the elderly man fall dead. The body was quickly lifted out of the crowd.

Muschelewicz didn’t know the cause of the man’s death exhaustion maybe, he said but it became one of the many powerful religious moments that have shaken him during the trip.

“I looked at his face and I looked at the Ka’aba, and it was like he was happy, he’d gotten close to God. It just went boom, like this deep bassline in my heart,” he said.

Hajj Poem for Children

This is an excellent hajj poem for children (and adults) that teaches the steps involved in making hajj.  The poem is from Loving Allah.

HAJJ

by Umm Nour/Hollie Moore

The Month of Hajj is soon to come

To Mecca the people will begin to run

Around the Kaaba they will make Tawaaf

Then, to Arafat they will be off

On Arafat the people will stand

Then the next day Eid Aludha will begin

In the Eid morning together we will pray

Then the rest of the day it is eat, run, and play

Now it is off to Moozdelifah where the pilgrims will stay

Their stop in this place is until the next day

The next place is Mina where the pilgrims will go

At this stop is the Jammrah and pebbles they’ll throw.

The tenth day of Hajj for the pilgrims is busy indeed

But for the rest of the Muslims it is the Eid.

The pilgrims are busy to Mecca they return

They have the hopes that all of these good deeds they will soon earn

One of these acts is sacrificing a sheep

Then they will trim their hair with still the hope of good deeds to reap

Again the pilgrims will make Tawaaf

Then running between Saffa and Marwa they will be off

On the 11th day of Hajj back to Mina they will go

For the next three days at the Jammrah they will throw.

The Hajj for the pilgrims is coming to an end

They are hoping that Allah accepted it all from where they began

There is one more thing that the pilgrims must make

It is seven more times around the Kaaba for Allah’s sake

Back to their lives the pilgrims return

Hoping Allah accepted all that they earned

Helping Your Children Understand Hajj

  

If you are going to have to leave children behind while you make hajj, you want to allow plenty of time to prepare them for your absence.  For some parents, making hajj is the first time they have had to be separated from their children.  The two weeks or more that you are gone will seem like a long time for them and for you.  In addition, they will miss sharing with you the holiday of Eid al-Adha. 

They may be vaguely happy that you are doing something that will please Allah,  but they are more likely to be acutely aware that you are going to be gone from them for what seems like a long time. Here are some items that will help them (and you) get prepared:

The Best Eid Ever by Asma Mobin-Uddin is a good book to help children prepare for their parents’ absence.  It tells the story of a girl who is sad at Eid al Adha because her parents are making hajj. She discovers the blessings in giving to others and that even with her parents away, Allah can give her cause for happiness.

There are two books by Saniyasinain Khan.  Tell Me About Hajj gives the history of hajj and  My Fun Hajj Book, which has coloring pages, puzzles, word searches and other activities.

Take Me to the Kaba is a DVD that explains hajj to children.   The DVD lets them see what you will see and where you will be as you fulfill the rites of pilgrimage.

The Hajj Game is a board game for the family to play that will help acquaint everyone with the details of making an acceptable hajj.

Arabic-Only Hajj Videos

Here are several  Arabic-only videos:

You can find an all-Arabic (no translation available) video on the adab at hajj by Sheik Sudais.

This video is entitled Kabah 3D and has a beautiful, but untranslated nasheed.

This video is an Arabic hajj nasheed with children’s voices and a just few English titles.