THE EFFECTS OF ISLAMIC PILGRIMAGE ON INDIVIDUAL RELIGIOUS LIFE: A TYPING ATTEMPT

WOS: 000477983700008Worships in the life of a religious individual has important functions. Worships provide that the relationship between individual and his/her religion remains constant, and helps the individual to organize and maintain his/her life according to religious orders and prohibitons. It can be argued that the Islamic pilgrimage (hajj) affects the individual in a stronger way in terms of religion because of some of the features that contains in itself and makes it different from other worships. It can be evaluated from this point of view that hajj is performed once in a lifetime, combines financial and physical necessities, and is exprienced less frequently but in a more intense spiritual atmosphere compared to other worships. In today's world, it is seen that the individual has difficulty in allocating sufficient time for his faith and religious life. Hajj can be said to offer this sufficient time to the individual. Modern man, sometimes wants to move away from the fast life brought by modernity, set aside time for and be alone with himself/herself. For this reason, hajj can be an invaluable opportunity for modern individual who did not have time to make an internal reckoning by being alone in his/her daily life or who did not have an intellectual infrastructure for this internal reckoning. Moreover, it can be stated that the prohibition of some behaviors during the hajj which are considered as halal in daily life allows the pilgrim (hajji) candidate to go beyond his/her stereotyped lifestyle. The prohibition of harm to living beings, and the prohibition of sexuality can be evaluated in this context. Throughout the hajj, the individual controls the negative behaviors he has done before, and he/she can reflect this attitude and effort to his/her life after the hajj. In the present study, it has been tried to reveal that what are the effects of hajj on individual's religious life. For this purpose, interviews were conducted with a total of 50 hajji (27 women, 23 men) in Adana. As a result of the interviews conducted, it is determined that the hajjis decided to go on hajj with different expectations from the psycho-social perspective. Among the main motivations that pushed the participants to decide to go on the hajj, answers "to fulfill God's command" and "see the holy places" were more prominent. In addition, among the preparations made before going to hajj, answers "giving blessings to each other" and "reading books about hajj" were more preferred. Considering the findings about the experience of hajj, it is determined that hajj evokes death and life after death, and is thought as repentance in the context of purification from sin. The hajjis gave answers referring to death and afterdeath life about what they felt when they entered the ihram. In the answers to what is felt in 'Arafat, with reference to Adam and Eve's experience, repentance, ask for forgiveness, and purification from sin were highlighted by the participants. They also stated that they experienced some kind of the judgement day while fulfilling the waqfa of 'Arafat. What is felt when jamarat is stoned is "inhibiting the bad desires of the nafs", "purification from sin", and "emphatizing considering the experience of Abraham and his family with the devil". As the hajjis perform tawaf, they stated that they "experience the feeling of forgiveness", "keep away from the worldly things", "think the tawafs which Prophet Muhammad and his companions (sahabah) made", and "join the rotation in the universe". When performing the sa'i they reminded Hagar's searching for water for his son. When exiting the ihram they expressed that they "felt a spiritual lightness with the joy of getting rid of sin", "felt as if reborn without sins", and "were happy due to completely performing Hajj". As looking at the hajjis' expressions about Zamzam it is understood that this water is considered sacred by hajjis and sanctified. The most influential worships on the hajjis was the tawaf and waqfa of Arafat. The hajj directs the individual to religious experience or facilitates it thanks to a number of features within it (e.g. holy time, holy place, symbols, rituals, moving in concert with a tremendous crowd, a time frame devoted only to worship). Hajj leads to both ordinary experience that every person can experience in their lives and exraordinary experience which is unique and exceptional. While extraordinary experiences are more individual and rare, ordinary experiences have more general characteristics and are seen more frequently. It is observed that some changes in individuals' religious life after the hajj, they become more religious, and expectations of people around them change in the direction of paying more attention to religious life. In addition, paying more attention to relations with people, showing more effort to live their religion, performing worships in a more sensitive and conscious way, endeavoring not to sin again, preserving the hajj, and thinking that they gain prestige in the eyes of people after hajj are other issues that stand out. It is seen that some of the changes experienced by the individual after the hajj are internal and some of them are external. It can be thought that the internal changes will be longer, more durable and more lasting. Because it can be argued that this kind of change will be less affected by environmental factors, and the internal processes in which the individual experiences will be more effective in internal change. At the end of this article a hajji typology which is consisting 9 categories was developed with reference to the answers given in the interviews