The Peaceful Reflection of the Hajj

A new book on the hajj has prompted Ahmadie Thaha to reconsider what remains to be said about a pilgrimage studied for centuries. The book, written by Dr Fahmi Salim, arrived after Salim asked whether Thaha would accept a copy, a gesture the columnist welcomed with particular pleasure as a book collector.

“Hajj: From the Purification of the Prophetic Mission to the Revolution of Awakening” runs to 360 pages. Its first edition appeared in June 2026, or Muharram 1448 AH, under the imprint of the Al-Fahmu Institute.

Thaha writes that he initially approached the book with questions. His personal library already contains extensive Indonesian and Arabic works on the hajj, including texts on Quranic interpretation, hadith, Islamic jurisprudence, history and the thought of classical and modern scholars. What new perspective, he wondered, could another book offer?

Salim’s answer, Thaha says, lies in refusing to limit the discussion to the technical rules of pilgrimage, from ihram and circumambulation to sa’i, standing at Arafat, the stoning ritual and prayers. Salim reads the hajj as a process of human transformation: a journey that subdues the ego, strips away worldly status and leads believers toward an equal identity as servants of God.

The book also presents personal spiritual experience as a possible source of concrete social renewal. It describes the hajj as a school of life, where Muslims relearn their relationship with God and with one another. Thaha is especially drawn to three final subsections on morality, unity and peace, which synthesize the ideas of scholars including al-Ghazali, Ibn al-Qayyim, al-Sa’di, Sayyid Qutb and Muhammad Rashid Rida.