collections of Ḥadīth, is adopted for the devotional acts of ḥajj. And it was by Divine revelation that Holy

Prophet Muḥammad was led to adopt them.

The only change introduced into the features of ḥajj, after Abraham, seems to have been the placing of idols in the Ka‘bah and other important places of the ḥajj. Thus two idols, the Usāf and the Nā’ilah, were placed on the hills of Ṣafā and the Marwah, respectively (IJ-C. II, pp. 26, 27). The Ka‘bah itself had within it 360 idols, all of which were thrown out by the Holy Prophet at the conquest of Makkah. Some other minor changes were introduced. For instance, the tribes of Quraish and Kanānah, who styled themselves the Ḥumṣ, as a mark of their strength and vehemence, used to stay at Muzdalifah, thinking it beneath their dignity to join other pilgrims in going forth to the plain of ‘Arafāt. This distinction was evidently an innovation on the part of the more powerful tribes: and as Islām tolerated no distinctions, they were ordered to go forth to ‘Arafāt along with the others. Another change was the prohibition to go naked while making circuits round the Ka‘bah (Bu. 25:66). Another ḥadīth shows that before Islām people did not leave Muzdalifah, where the night was passed, until they saw the sun shining. The Holy Prophet abolished this practice and ordered the march from Muzdalifah to begin before sunrise. It may be that the polytheists of Arabia connected it in some way with the worship of the sun and the change may have been ordered to destroy “a solar rite,” but evidently it was to facilitate matters for the pilgrims to enable them to start immediately after saying their morning prayers, that time being more suitable for moving from one place to another as the heat of the sun was avoided. This also seems to be the reason why the march from ‘Arafāt was deferred till after sunset.

Asceticism combined with secularism

Islām discourages asceticism in all its aspects. It condemns monkery outright, and speaking of the Christian practice, the Holy Qur’ān says: “And (as for) monkery, they innovated it — We did not prescribe it to them” (57:27). Yet Islām lays the greatest stress upon the spiritual development of man, and its four main institutions — prayer, zakāt,