Friday, September 5, 2025

Hajj: Pilgrimage Rebranded, Not Invented

An Evidence-First Audit of Islam’s Central Rite

Executive Summary (for SEO & skimmers)

Thesis: The Islamic Hajj did not emerge ex nihilo. The Qur’an and earliest Islamic sources themselves acknowledge a continuity of pre-Islamic Arabian pilgrimage rites—timing, geography, terminology, and core gestures—which Islam reframed under an Abrahamic narrative and standardized under Muhammad’s leadership. This piece documents that continuity with primary texts, epigraphic evidence, Greco-Roman notices, and early Islamic historiography, then identifies the logical fallacies in the claim that Hajj is a uniquely Islamic invention.
Bottom line: Hajj is best explained as pilgrimage rebranded, not invented.

Introduction: If Hajj Were New, the Evidence Would Look Different

Religions inherit landscapes. They inherit places, routes, months, markets, taboos, songs, and gestures. When a movement claims to have introduced a central ritual, good method asks: What did the land already do? What do the earliest texts admit? What do inscriptions, outsider reports, and economic patterns reveal? If Hajj were a completely new Islamic creation, we would expect (1) novel vocabulary, (2) new ritual geography, (3) new festival timing, and (4) wholesale invention of gestures. Instead, we find the opposite: pre-Islamic Arabian pilgrimage to the Meccan sanctuary and other shrines—with the very root ḥ-g-g (“to make pilgrimage”) attested long before Islam—and a set of rites retained, reordered, and reinterpreted under a new monotheistic brand.

This investigation follows the evidence wherever it leads. It names and dissects the logical fallacies that sustain the “purely Abrahamic, uniquely Islamic origin” claim. It also supplies primary citations and peer-reviewed scholarship so the argument stands on data, not devotion.

Conclusion preview: The sources demonstrate that Hajj is continuity plus reframing—not invention.

Method: What Counts as Evidence Here

Primary texts: Qur’an (with verse citations), early hadith/canonical law books, Ibn al-Kalbī’s Book of Idols, Ibn Hishām (Sīra), Greco-Roman geographers (e.g., Ptolemy), and Arabian inscriptions (Sabaic/Nabataean) that record the root hgg and pilgrimage customs.
Secondary scholarship: F. E. Peters on Hajj and Mecca; W. Montgomery Watt; Robert G. Hoyland on pre-Islamic Arabia; Gerald R. Hawting; Patricia Crone & Michael Cook; Christian Robin and A. F. L. Beeston on epigraphy/linguistics.
Logic: We identify and label fallacies (e.g., special pleading, argument from silence, equivocation, post hoc narrative, ad hoc rescue, No True Scotsman, self-sealing claims) and apply them to the origin thesis.

Part I — The Linguistic and Epigraphic Trail: ḥgg Before Islam

1) The Semitic Root Is Older Than Islam

The very word Hajj derives from the Semitic root ḥ-g-g, attested in North and South Arabian inscriptions centuries before Muhammad and cognate with Hebrew ḥāg/ḥag (festival/pilgrimage). In Sabaic texts, hgg denotes cultic visitation and ritual acts connected with sanctuaries.[1] Beeston and Robin document multiple occurrences in inscriptions long predating the 7th century CE, demonstrating that pilgrimage as an institution was embedded in Arabian religious life.[2]

Implication: Islam did not invent the concept of pilgrimage in Arabia. It adopted an existing semantic and ritual complex.

2) Inscriptions and the Sacred Months

Pre-Islamic Arabian polities regulated sacred months and sanctuary zones (haram), suspending hostilities to allow safe travel for trade and cult.[3] The Qur’an itself acknowledges “the four sacred months” (Q 9:36), not as innovation but as already operative. Inscriptions and classical references confirm the regional norm of sacral truces, fairs, and pilgrim safety—institutions Islam later ratified and reorganized.

Evidence standard: Independent, pre-Islamic epigraphy + Qur’anic acknowledgment of an inherited calendar = continuity.

Part II — Qur’anic Admissions of Pre-Islamic Rites (Continuity by Confession)

3) Safa & Marwah: Rehabilitation, Not Invention

“Safa and Marwah are among the symbols (shaʿāʾir) of Allah; so whoever makes Hajj or ʿUmrah to the House—there is no blame upon him to traverse between them.” (Q 2:158)

A new rite would not need to say “no blame.” Early Muslims hesitated because the saʿy (running between the hills) was strongly associated with pre-Islamic cult linked to idols Isāf and Nāʾila, as Ibn al-Kalbī records in Kitāb al-Aṣnām (Book of Idols).[4] The verse rehabilitates a preexisting practice under monotheistic semantics.

Logical point: The Qur’an’s wording presupposes prior usage and moral hesitation—classic evidence of rebranding.

4) Sacred Months and Garlanded Offerings—Acknowledged as Existing

“Do not violate Allah’s symbols or the sacred month, or the offerings, or the garlanded…” (Q 5:2)
“Allah has made the Kaʿba… the sacred month, and the garlanded animals…” (Q 5:97)

Garlanding sacrificial animals (al-qalāʾid) is a pre-Islamic custom retained in the Qur’an’s legal vocabulary. You cannot “retain” what did not exist. The text absorbs the rite and reframes it.[5]

5) Hunting Bans During Ihram: An Old Category, New Rule-Set

“O you who believe, do not kill game while you are in ihrām.” (Q 5:95)

The term ihrām denotes an existing state of consecration observed by Arabian pilgrims, associated with taboos (hunting, marital relations, grooming). The Qur’an regulates this status, not inaugurates it.[6]

6) Arafat and the Correction of a Quraysh Innovation

“Then depart from where the people depart and ask Allah’s forgiveness.” (Q 2:199)

Early sources report that Quraysh (al-Ḥums) haughtily avoided standing at ʿArafāt, remaining instead at Muzdalifah, unlike the rest of Arabia.[7] The verse does not invent the stand at ʿArafāt; it corrects a Meccan exception to a wider, older rite—again, continuity, not novelty.

Part III — The Geography and Economy of Pilgrimage Before Islam

7) The Kaʿba as a Pre-Islamic Sanctuary and Idol House

Pre-Islamic Mecca housed numerous idols within/around the Kaʿba; early Islamic tradition names Hubal and others.[8] Destroying idols in 630 CE presupposes that idols were there. The Qur’an legislates what to do with garlanded offerings, sacred months, and ihram within the Harām—all of which function as preexisting sanctuary infrastructure.

8) Markets and Fairs Timed to Pilgrimage

The great fairs—ʿUkāẓ, Majanna, Dhuʾl-Majāz—clustered around the pilgrimage season, servicing trade, poetry, and arbitration.[9] This economic ecology is not explained by a sudden post-610 invention; it reflects an older calendar aligning ritual and commerce. The Qur’anic chapter Q 106 (Quraysh) alludes to seasonal security and caravan movements—a commercial life dependent on Mecca’s sacral status.

9) External Notices: Macoraba and Sacred Temples

Ptolemy (2nd c. CE) lists “Macoraba” in Arabia Felix, widely identified by many scholars as Mecca (though some dissent).[10] Diodorus Siculus (1st c. BCE) mentions a highly revered Arabian temple visited by tribes.[11] While correlation is debated, the pattern—Arabian sanctuaries of supra-tribal pilgrimage—predates Islam. Even on cautious reading, Islam emerges into a world already doing pilgrimage.

Part IV — Ritual Continuities: What Islam Changed, What It Kept

10) Tawāf (Circumambulation) and the Black Stone

Circumambulating the Kaʿba (tawāf) and touching/kissing the Black Stone are documented in early Islamic sources as pre-Islamic practices that Islam retained while purging polytheistic meanings. ʿUmar famously addressed the Stone: “I know you are a stone; you neither harm nor benefit; had I not seen the Prophet kiss you, I would not have.”[12] The remark only makes sense where preexisting ritual magnetism for the Stone already existed.

11) Naked Tawāf Banned

Early reports record that some pagans performed tawāf naked, a practice prohibited by Muhammad after Mecca’s conquest.[13] You ban what already exists. Again, regulation and reform, not invention.

12) Talbiyah (Pilgrim Chant): Polytheistic Line Removed

Pre-Islamic talbiyah included the line “except a partner who is Yours; You own him and whatever he owns.” Islam removed the shirk clause, retaining the call-and-response structure and much of the formula.[14] That is classic rebranding: same melody, different lyrics.

13) Sacrifice at Minā and Stoning the Jamarāt

Animal sacrifice at Minā and stone-throwing at the pillars (jamarāt) are part of the Meccan pilgrimage complex presented as normative in early Islamic law, with pre-Islamic antecedents discussed by historians of Arabia.[15] Islam’s legal discourse fixes order and meaning rather than creating the acts from nothing.

14) Standing at ʿArafāt and Overnight at Muzdalifah

As above, the stand at ʿArafāt appears as pan-Arabian norm with a Quraysh deviation corrected by Q 2:199; the Muzdalifah overnight (al-Mashʿar al-Ḥarām) is woven into the inherited geography (Q 2:198-200).[16] Precision is standardization, not invention.

Part V — The Abraham Narrative: Theology Retrofitted onto an Older Complex

15) Qur’anic Abrahamization

The Qur’an frames the Kaʿba as built by Abraham and Ishmael (Q 2:125-129) and casts Hajj as a response to Abraham’s call (Q 22:26-29). This is a theological narrative. Outside Islamic scripture, there is no independent ancient evidence tying Abraham to Mecca.[17] Conversely, the ritual ecology (months, fairs, shrine economy, tawāf, saʿy, sacrifices) is abundantly Arabian and demonstrably pre-Islamic.

16) What Rebranding Looks Like in Religions

Rebranding keeps the container and route, cleans the content, and renames the story:

Continuities: routes, months, sanctuary taboos, circumambulation, saʿy, sacrifice, stoning, chant structure.
Revisions: purge idols, ban nudity, remove polytheistic lines, condemn Quraysh’s ʿArafāt omission, impose monotheistic semantics, restrict access to monotheists (post-9 AH).
Narrative overlay: Abraham built the House; Hajj is Abraham’s legacy.

Result: a recognizable ritual with new theological packaging.

Part VI — The 630–632 CE Standardization: From Cleansing to Policy

17) Conquest of Mecca (630 CE): Smash Idols, Keep the Circuit

Muhammad purges the Kaʿba of idols, retains the circumambulation, saʿy, sacrifice, and Arafat/Muzdalifah/Mina stations—now under tawḥīd. Retention of structure plus purification of meaning is not invention.

18) Year 9 AH (631 CE): The “Barāʾa” Proclamations

Qur’an 9 (attributed to 9 AH) announces policy shifts: idolaters are barred from the sanctuary, certain treaties are annulled, and a new confessional boundary for pilgrimage is drawn (Q 9:1–5, 9:28–29).[18] Again, this restricts access to an existing institution, not a first-time launch.

19) Year 10 AH (632 CE): The “Farewell Pilgrimage”

The Prophet’s Farewell Pilgrimage codifies practical details. Standardization finalizes sequence and meaning over pre-Islamic scaffolding. The legal schools later debate refinements, but the skeleton remains recognizably Meccan and older.

Part VII — Addressing Counter-Arguments with Evidence & Logic

Counter-Argument A: “Hajj Is Purely Abrahamic; Islam Restored It.”

Problem: This appeal leans entirely on Islam’s own scripture. There is no independent pre-Islamic documentation connecting Abraham to Mecca. Meanwhile, independent evidence for Arabian pilgrimage (root hgg, sacred months, fairs, sanctuary economics) is robust.
Fallacies:

Appeal to Authority/Self-Reference: “It’s true because our text says so.”
Ad Hoc Rescue: Whenever continuity is shown, it is claimed to be evidence of “Abrahamic survival,” without external corroboration.
Burden-Shifting: Demanding critics disprove an unfalsifiable claim.

Conclusion: With no extra-Qur’anic data, the Abraham-in-Mecca premise is unsupported. The continuity data stand.

Counter-Argument B: “Pre-Islamic Mecca Wasn’t Important; Therefore Islam Invented Hajj.”

Problem: Even scholars skeptical of Mecca’s pre-Islamic centrality do not conclude that no pilgrimage existed. The epigraphy of hgg, Qur’anic sacred months, and the fairs show a pilgrim economy in western Arabia.
Fallacies:

Argument from Silence: Lack of abundant archaeology in Mecca ≠ absence of pilgrimage in the Hejaz.
False Dichotomy: Either rich archaeology or zero ritual—there are other indicators (texts, fairs, calendars).

Conclusion: The weight of positive evidence points to regional pilgrimage that Islam harnessed.

Counter-Argument C: “If Pagans Pilgrimaged, Islamic Hajj Is Disqualified.”

Problem: This treats prior usage as contamination. But the claim under review is origin, not value.
Fallacies:

Non Sequitur: Prior existence ≠ invalidity.
No True Scotsman: Redefining “true Abrahamic pilgrimage” to exclude any counter-evidence of pre-Islamic continuity.

Conclusion: The correct inference is rebranding and standardization, not value judgment.

Counter-Argument D: “Islamic Law Details Prove Invention.”

Problem: Detailing is not inventing. New legal precision around old acts is normal in reform movements. The Qur’an’s own admissions (Q 2:158; 2:199; 5:2; 5:95; 5:97; 9:36) show the substrate preceded the legislation.

Conclusion: Law codified a ritual system already in motion.

Part VIII — Positive Argument, Step-by-Step (Formal Reasoning)

Premise 1: If Islam invented Hajj ex nihilo, we would expect new terminology, new calendar, new geography, and no Qur’anic acknowledgment of prior usage.
Premise 2: Independent evidence (inscriptions, Greco-Roman notices, early Arabic tradition) attests to pilgrimage and sacred months in Arabia before Islam, including the root hgg and shrine-centered fairs.
Premise 3: The Qur’an explicitly acknowledges and regulates pre-existing practices: saʿy at Safa/Marwah (Q 2:158), Arafāt/Muzdalifah departures (Q 2:199), sacred months (Q 9:36), garlanded offerings (Q 5:2, 5:97), and ihram taboos (Q 5:95).
Premise 4: Early Islamic measures after 630 CE ban some existing customs (idols, naked tawāf, polytheist talbiyah) but retain the core route and rites.
Conclusion: Therefore, Hajj is not an Islamic invention, but rather a pre-Islamic Arabian pilgrimage system that Islam rebranded, purified, and standardized.

By the user’s rule 7–8, if all premises are true (they are, and they are documented), the conclusion must be accepted.

Part IX — Case Studies (Text + Data)

Case Study 1: Safa–Marwah (Q 2:158)

Data: Verse acknowledges pre-Islamic association and removes stigma (“no blame”).[19]
Backstory: Ibn al-Kalbī records Isāf and Nāʾila, stones venerated at Safa and Marwah; pilgrims ran between them.[20]
Change: Islam kept the run; deleted the idol meaning.
Inference: Rebrand, not invention.

Case Study 2: Arafāt vs. Quraysh at Muzdalifah (Q 2:199)

Data: Qur’anic correction presupposes a broader Arabian norm and a Quraysh deviation.[21]
Change: Islam realigns Meccan practice with the wider custom.
Inference: The rite preexisted Islam.

Case Study 3: Garlanded Offerings (Q 5:2; 5:97)

Data: Qalāʾid (animal garlands) and hady (offerings) are not Islamic inventions; they are acknowledged and regulated.[22]
Inference: Retention and reframing.

Case Study 4: Talbiyah

Data: Pre-Islamic talbiyah preserved the Labbayka structure but included a polytheistic exception clause; Islam removed it.[23]
Inference: Same liturgical skeleton; new monotheistic content.

Case Study 5: Naked Tawāf

Data: Early Islamic reports condemn and ban naked circumambulation, a pre-Islamic practice.[24]
Inference: Reform of existing rite.

Case Study 6: Economy & Fairs

Data: ʿUkāẓ, Majanna, Dhuʾl-Majāz aligned with pilgrimage season; poets, traders, and arbitrators gathered under sacred truce.[25]
Inference: Requires pre-Islamic pilgrimage traffic and sacral calendar.

Part X — Why the “Invention” Narrative Persists (And Why It Fails)

Theological Uniformity Pressure: A totalizing claim (“This is purely Abrahamic and uniquely Islamic”) secures identity boundaries.
Textual Self-Reference: When scripture is allowed to be its own sole witness, critical controls vanish.
Argument from Silence: Limited archaeology in Mecca becomes (wrongly) a proof of nonexistence. But inscriptions, fairs, and calendars fill the evidentiary gap.
Ad Hoc Reinterpretation: Every inconvenient continuity is re-explained as a remnant of Abrahamic religion—without independent support.

Why it fails: Multiple independent lines (Qur’an’s confessions, epigraphy, fairs, law, and practice) converge on continuity + reframing. That is the historical shape of Hajj’s origin.

Conclusion: The Honest Name for What Happened at Mecca

Islam’s Hajj is not a fiat creation. It is a mature reconfiguration of a longstanding Arabian pilgrimage: same roads, same season, same sanctuary, many of the same gestures—and a new master story (Abraham), new boundaries (exclusion of idolaters), and new laws (ban on nudity, idolatry, hunting in ihram, etc.). It is pilgrimage rebranded and standardized, not invented.

If reason and evidence are the court, the verdict is decisive. The Qur’an itself—joined by inscriptions, history, and economics—testifies against the invention thesis. The most accurate, non-evasive account is: Hajj is a pre-Islamic pilgrimage refurbished under Islam’s monotheism.

Accept that, and the rest of the story comes into sharp focus.

Notes & Footnotes

[1] For the Semitic root ḥ-g-g and its pre-Islamic Arabian usage, see epigraphic surveys in A. F. L. Beeston, “Sabaic Grammar,” and Christian J. Robin’s studies on South Arabian religious vocabulary; also Robert G. Hoyland, Arabia and the Arabs (London: Routledge, 2001), 169–177.
[2] Ibid.; the root appears across Sabaic corpora denoting pilgrimage/feast. See also G. Rabin’s comparative Semitic notes and standard lexica (e.g., HALOT for Hebrew ḥag).
[3] Hoyland, Arabia and the Arabs, 145–183 (sacred months, fairs, sanctuary zones).
[4] Hishām ibn al-Kalbī, Kitāb al-Aṣnām (Book of Idols), ed. and trans. Nabih Amin Faris (Princeton, 1952), 14–17 (Isāf & Nāʾila at Safa/Marwah).
[5] Qur’an 5:2, 5:97. F. E. Peters, The Hajj: The Muslim Pilgrimage to Mecca and the Holy Places (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994), 3–34, on offerings and garlands as inherited custom.
[6] Qur’an 5:95; cf. Peters, The Hajj, 25–31 (ihram taboos and their pre-Islamic analogues).
[7] Qur’an 2:199; see W. Montgomery Watt, Muhammad at Mecca (Oxford: Clarendon, 1953), 150–152; Peters, The Hajj, 12–15, on the Ḥums doctrine and ʿArafāt.
[8] Ibn Hishām, Sīrat Rasūl Allāh (via Ibn Isḥāq), and Book of Idols on Hubal and Kaʿba idols; Peters, Mecca: A Literary History (Princeton, 1994), 33–50.
[9] Hoyland, Arabia and the Arabs, 171–179; Peters, The Hajj, 7–9 (ʿUkāẓ, Majanna, Dhuʾl-Majāz).
[10] Ptolemy, Geography 6.7.32; for the Macoraba/Mecca identification and debates see Peters, Mecca, 25–31; Patricia Crone, Meccan Trade and the Rise of Islam (Princeton, 1987), 134–142.
[11] Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca Historica 3.44; cautiously discussed in Peters, Mecca, 27–30.
[12] Sahih al-Bukhari, Kitāb al-Ḥajj (Book of Pilgrimage), report of ʿUmar on the Black Stone; summarized in Peters, The Hajj, 17–19.
[13] Sahih al-Bukhari, Kitāb al-Ḥajj; Sahih Muslim, Kitāb al-Ḥajj, reports on prohibiting naked tawāf after the conquest; Peters, The Hajj, 14–16, provides textual witnesses.
[14] Sahih Muslim, Kitāb al-Ḥajj (reports the pre-Islamic talbiyah with the “except a partner…” line); Peters, The Hajj, 10–13.
[15] Peters, The Hajj, 31–55 (sacrifice and jamarāt), with pre-Islamic antecedents; see also G. R. Hawting, The Idea of Idolatry and the Emergence of Islam (Cambridge, 1999), 60–72.
[16] Qur’an 2:198–200; Peters, The Hajj, 11–17.
[17] Qur’an 2:125-129; 22:26-29. On the absence of independent evidence for Abraham in Mecca, see Hoyland, Arabia and the Arabs, 185–188; Hawting, The Idea of Idolatry, 84–90.
[18] Qur’an 9:1–5, 9:17–29. For the re-policing of sanctuary access after 9 AH, see Watt, Muhammad at Medina (Oxford, 1956), 94–103; Peters, The Hajj, 16–20.
[19] Qur’an 2:158; see also early exegetical notes on initial reluctance due to pre-Islamic associations (Tafsīr reports; Peters, The Hajj, 10–13).
[20] Ibn al-Kalbī, Book of Idols, 14–17.
[21] Qur’an 2:199; Watt, Muhammad at Mecca, 150–152.
[22] Qur’an 5:2, 5:97; Peters, The Hajj, 25–31.
[23] Sahih Muslim, Kitāb al-Ḥajj; Peters, The Hajj, 10–13.
[24] Sahih al-Bukhari; Sahih Muslim; Peters, The Hajj, 14–16.
[25] Hoyland, Arabia and the Arabs, 171–179.

Bibliography (Selected, Credible, Verifiable)

Primary / Early Sources

The Qur’an, translations/editions: Sahih International; A. J. Arberry; M. A. S. Abdel Haleem.
Hishām ibn al-Kalbī, Kitāb al-Aṣnām (The Book of Idols), ed./trans. Nabih Amin Faris. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1952.
Ibn Hishām, Sīrat Rasūl Allāh (ed. Wüstenfeld; trans. Guillaume as The Life of Muhammad).
Sahih al-Bukhari, Kitāb al-Ḥajj; Sahih Muslim, Kitāb al-Ḥajj.
Ptolemy, Geography 6.7.32 (on “Macoraba”).
Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca Historica 3.44 (sacred Arabian temple reference).

Epigraphic, Historical, and Analytical Works

Peters, F. E. The Hajj: The Muslim Pilgrimage to Mecca and the Holy Places. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994.
Peters, F. E. Mecca: A Literary History of the Muslim Holy Land. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994.
Hoyland, Robert G. Arabia and the Arabs: From the Bronze Age to the Coming of Islam. London: Routledge, 2001.
Watt, W. Montgomery. Muhammad at Mecca. Oxford: Clarendon, 1953; Muhammad at Medina. Oxford: Clarendon, 1956.
Hawting, Gerald R. The Idea of Idolatry and the Emergence of Islam: From Polemic to History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
Crone, Patricia. Meccan Trade and the Rise of Islam. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987.
Crone, Patricia & Michael Cook. Hagarism: The Making of the Islamic World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977.
Beeston, A. F. L. A Sabaic Grammar. Journal of Semitic Studies Monograph Series; see also articles on South Arabian inscriptions.
Robin, Christian J. Multiple studies on pre-Islamic South Arabian religion and epigraphy (e.g., “L’Arabie antique de Karibʾîl à Mahomet”).
Ryckmans, G. and Dossiers on South Arabian inscriptions (CIH, RES corpora).

Final Word

Hajj is a case study in how religions transform a living ritual landscape. Islam kept the bones of the Arabian pilgrimage—routes, months, sanctuary, and acts—and rearticulated them with a monotheistic spine and Abrahamic face. That’s not a defect in historical terms; it’s an accurate description. What it is not is invention from scratch.

Disclaimer: This post critiques Islam as an ideology, doctrine, and historical system—not Muslims as individuals. Every human deserves respect; beliefs do not.

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