{"id":684,"date":"2010-10-13T07:42:15","date_gmt":"2010-10-13T07:42:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/cityofbrass\/2010\/10\/if-youve-wondered-why-ive.html"},"modified":"2010-10-13T07:42:15","modified_gmt":"2010-10-13T07:42:15","slug":"if-youve-wondered-why-ive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2010\/10\/if-youve-wondered-why-ive.html","title":{"rendered":"I, Pilgrim"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If you&#8217;ve wondered why I&#8217;ve been even more distracted of late, it is in preparation for the most important trip I&#8217;ve ever made in my life:<\/p>\n<div><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/cityofbrass\/IMG00155.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"IMG00155.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/75\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/10\/IMG00155-thumb-500x400-18436.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"400\" class=\"mt-image-center\" style=\"text-align: center;margin: 0 auto 20px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;Behold! We gave the site, to Abraham, of the (Sacred) House, (saying):&nbsp;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><p>Associate not anything (in worship) with Me; and sanctify My House for those who compass it round, or stand up, or bow, or prostrate themselves (therein in prayer).&nbsp;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><p>And proclaim the Pilgrimage among men: they will come to thee on foot and (mounted) on every kind of camel, lean on account of journeys through deep and distant mountain highways;&nbsp;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;That they may witness the benefits (provided) for them, and celebrate the name of Allah, through the Days appointed, over the cattle which He has provided for them (for sacrifice): then eat ye thereof and feed the distressed ones in want.&nbsp;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><p>Then let them complete the rites prescribed for them, perform their vows, and (again) circumambulate the Ancient House.<br \/>\nSuch (is the Pilgrimage): whoever honours the sacred rites of Allah, for him it is good in the Sight of his Lord. Lawful to you (for food in Pilgrimage) are cattle, except those mentioned to you (as exception): but shun the abomination of idols, and shun the word that is false.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><em><\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: right\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-style: normal\"><em>(Surat al-Hajj, <a href=\"http:\/\/quran.com\/22\/26-30\">22:26-30<\/a>)<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n<p><\/em><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>I will be keeping an (old-fashioned, pen and paper) journal for the trip, but in the unlikely event I do get (or even want) internet access I will try to post brief updates while in Mecca and Medina. I also will have a retrospective when I return.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>In the interim, don&#8217;t forget that nominations have ended and the final voting phase has begun for <a href=\"http:\/\/brasscrescent.org\">the Brass Crescent Awards<\/a>!<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><em>(photo \u00a9 Taha Raja)<\/em><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you&#8217;ve wondered why I&#8217;ve been even more distracted of late, it is in preparation for the most important trip I&#8217;ve ever made in my life: &#8220;Behold! We gave the site, to Abraham, of the (Sacred) House, (saying):&nbsp; Associate not anything (in worship) with Me; and sanctify My House for those who compass it round,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":165,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,23],"tags":[40,24,49,27,25,26],"class_list":["post-684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-pillars-of-faith","category-wanderlust","tag-hajj","tag-islam","tag-meta","tag-muslim","tag-news","tag-politics"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>I, Pilgrim - City of Brass<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"I, Pilgrim - City of Brass\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If you&#8217;ve wondered why I&#8217;ve been even more distracted of late, it is in preparation for the most important trip I&#8217;ve ever made in my life: &#8220;Behold! We gave the site, to Abraham, of the (Sacred) House, (saying):&nbsp; Associate not anything (in worship) with Me; and sanctify My House for those who compass it round,&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2010\/10\/if-youve-wondered-why-ive.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"City of Brass\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-10-13T07:42:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/cityofbrass\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/10\/IMG00155-thumb-500x400-18436.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Aziz Poonawalla\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"I, Pilgrim - City of Brass","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"I, Pilgrim - City of Brass","og_description":"If you&#8217;ve wondered why I&#8217;ve been even more distracted of late, it is in preparation for the most important trip I&#8217;ve ever made in my life: &#8220;Behold! We gave the site, to Abraham, of the (Sacred) House, (saying):&nbsp; Associate not anything (in worship) with Me; and sanctify My House for those who compass it round,&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2010\/10\/if-youve-wondered-why-ive.html","og_site_name":"City of Brass","article_published_time":"2010-10-13T07:42:15+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/cityofbrass\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/10\/IMG00155-thumb-500x400-18436.jpg"}],"author":"Aziz Poonawalla","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2010\/10\/if-youve-wondered-why-ive.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2010\/10\/if-youve-wondered-why-ive.html","name":"I, Pilgrim - City of Brass","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2010\/10\/if-youve-wondered-why-ive.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2010\/10\/if-youve-wondered-why-ive.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/cityofbrass\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/10\/IMG00155-thumb-500x400-18436.jpg","datePublished":"2010-10-13T07:42:15+00:00","dateModified":"2010-10-13T07:42:15+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#\/schema\/person\/87dfd5533a0222456bb5ad6eaf152fbb"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2010\/10\/if-youve-wondered-why-ive.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2010\/10\/if-youve-wondered-why-ive.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2010\/10\/if-youve-wondered-why-ive.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/cityofbrass\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/10\/IMG00155-thumb-500x400-18436.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/cityofbrass\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/10\/IMG00155-thumb-500x400-18436.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2010\/10\/if-youve-wondered-why-ive.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"I, Pilgrim"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/","name":"City of Brass","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Aziz Poonawalla","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#\/schema\/person\/87dfd5533a0222456bb5ad6eaf152fbb","name":"Aziz Poonawalla","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/a95\/a95f814e7f2984c887f3b03aed357433x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/a95\/a95f814e7f2984c887f3b03aed357433x96.jpg","caption":"Aziz Poonawalla"},"description":"Aziz Poonawalla is a member of the Dawoodi Bohra Muslim community, and currently lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two children. City of Brass is his weblog, which was founded in 2002 under the name UNMEDIA. He is a co-founder of the annual Brass Crescent Awards. The name City of Brass refers to the Story of the City of Brass in the Thousand and One Nights, and the poem by Rudyard Kipling of the same name: Here was a people whom, after their works, thou shalt see wept over for their lost dominion; And in this palace is the last information respecting lords collected in the dust. -- Thousand and One Nights, Story of the City of Brass IN A land that the sand overlays, the ways to her gates are untrod, A multitude ended their days whose fates were made splendid by God, Till they grew drunk and were smitten with madness and went to their fall, And of these is a story written: but Allah Alone knoweth all! -- Rudyard Kipling, The City of Brass (1909)"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/165"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}