وَأَذِّن فِى ٱلنَّاسِ بِٱلْحَجِّ يَأْتُوكَ رِجَالًا وَعَلَىٰ كُلِّ ضَامِرٍ يَأْتِينَ مِن كُلِّ فَجٍّ عَمِيقٍ
Call ˹all˺ people to the pilgrimage. They will come to you on foot and on every lean camel from every distant path
(22:27)
As He stood upon the newly built house in the vastness of the desert, he began calling the emptiness to the House of God.
To an observer, His actions seem worthless. What good will his call do amidst the immensity of the desert? How will it reach the millions of people around the world to bring them to the House of God? Shouldn’t he have built it where people already were, rather than expecting them to come to the house of God? Who would traverse the difficult terrain of Arabia to come to His house?
For Prophet Ibrahim (as), the command of God was absolute and His promise certain. His job was to make the call; it was God’s promise to bring the people. Ibn Kathîr (ra) narrates that Ibraham (as) inquisitively said to Allah ﷻ, “But my voice cannot reach all peoples.” Allah ﷻ responded, “You make the call, and We will deliver the invitation to all.”
Today, millions of people around the world travel each day to visit Mecca to fulfil the pilgrimage; a worship first established that day by our Prophet Ibrahim (as) and continued every day since. What was once a barren desert is now a global metropolis, bringing people together from across the world.
It’s easy to see now the promise of God come true, but for Prophet Ibrahim (as), he knew and witnessed the truth of this command the moment it came to him all those years ago in the barren deserts of Arabia.
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