In this his latest work, eminent Islamic scholar Martin Lings discusses the significance of the pilgrimage to Mecca in the light of the tradition of Abraham. Drawing upon his own experience of performing the pilgrimage first in 1946 and then again in 1978, as well referring to the traditional sources he describes how the Hajj, proclaimed and established by Abraham and Ishmael about 4,000 years ago, and renewed by the Prophet Muhammad some fourteen hundred years ago, has continued to be performed without a break until the present day, its spiritual meaning as profound and timeless as ever.

To read this book is to be taken far back, or rather let us say irresistably re-absorbed, into an ancestral past which belongs to all the three mono-
theistic religions. Jews and Christians, some of these to their surprise and not a few of them to their joy, will find that they have deep spiritual roots in the Arabian peninsula. Not only Jews but also Christians trace with love and with gratitude their line of liturgical descent back to David; and for him, as well as for Moses before him, the concept of what is called the Holy Land extended beyond doubt, as we shall see, far enough South to include that ancient sacred city to which this little volume is consecrated.

About the Author
Martin Lings read English at Oxford where he was a pupil and later a close friend of C. S. Lewis. In 1935 he went to Lithuania where he lectured on Anglo-Saxon and Middle English and subsequently he went to Egypt and and lectured mainly on Shakespeare at Cairo University. In 1952 he returned to England and joined the staff of the British Museum where he was Keeper of Oriental Manuscripts. In addition to writing many books he is also the author of the chapter ‘Mystical Poetry’ in Abbasid Belles-Lettres, which is Volume 2 of The Cambridge History of Arabic Literature, and the chapter on ‘The Nature and Origin of Sufism’ in Vol.19 of World Spirituality, as well as articles for Studies in Comparative Religion, Sophia, The New Encyclopaedia of Islam and the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Excerpted from Mecca by Martin Lings. 
I myself have had the privilege of making the Pilgrimage twice, in 1948 and in 1976, and it will not be out of place to quote here a passage from a letter I wrote to a friend immediately after the first of these two Pilgrimages, that is, fifty-five years ago. I had already mentioned how my wife and I had reached Mecca after midnight and how in the small hours, we had made our first pilgrimal visit to the Kaaba and performed the rite of tawaf (circumambulation) which consists of seven anticlockwise circuits starting at the Eastern corner of the Kaaba, that is, the corner of the Black Stone, and then finally making a supplication in front of the door of the Kaaba which is a little to the right of the Stone. We had then withdrawn to the edge of the central precinct where, enshrined like a miniature tomb, there is a small rock which has in it the imprint of feet. The Qur’an refers to it as Maqam Ibrahim, the station of Abraham. It was originally beside the Kaaba but it had to be moved to its present place so as not to impede the flow of the pilgrims making their rounds. While building the Kaaba Abraham had been standing on this rock, and his feet had imprinted themselves in it owing to the weight of a heavy stone handed him by Ishmael. Having prayed in front of this Maqam we went to the Well of Zamzam, to which, at that time, there was access only a few paces from the Maqam. We were each given a vessel of the holy water, and when I had drunk I poured what was left over my head. We then had to perform, as an essential part of the Pilgrimage, the rite of following the footsteps of Hagar as she hastened seven times between Safa and Marwah, two nearby rocky mounds, to see if anyone was in sight who could help her to find water.

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