Leader Hails Hajj as Ritual for Promoting Islamic Unity

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei commended the Hajj pilgrimage as a global and civilizational ritual aimed at promoting the Muslim community’s unity against heresy, oppression, arrogance and human and non-human gods. 
“Without Hajj, the Islamic ummah will collapse,” he said on Wednesday, in a meeting with a group of Hajj officials and pilgrims, Leader.ir reported. 
He described Hajj as a global appointment, adding that an invitation for everyone at any epoch to gather at a certain place in specified days indicates the important and manifold benefits of this divine call. 
Unity of the Muslim community and its confrontation with arrogant evil forces is among these purposes, according to the Leader. 
“Among numerous worldly benefits of Hajj is that Muslims in this huge congregation demonstrate their power against the Zionist regime and the influence of arrogant powers, and stand up to the oppressors of the world,” he said. 
He also pointed to the other-worldly interests of the ritual, calling on pilgrims to pray to God and cleanse their hearts of everything that is in opposition with Him. 
Ayatollah Khamenei later stressed the importance of being informed about global affairs and conditions of Muslims in the world, saying Hajj is an opportunity to gain real knowledge about other nations and international issues, so that false news by lying agencies would not lead people away from the realities. 
“Ignorance of the world would cause the destruction of any society … all individuals and authorities must take it seriously to learn about the enemies’ goals, methods, policies, strengths and weaknesses,” he said. 
Another important function of Hajj, according to the Leader, is that it demonstrates Islam’s opposition to geographical, racial, social and other distinctions between people. 
Homogeneity and sameness of all pilgrims, of any race, history and culture is among the valuable secrets of this ritual, he said. 
Ayatollah Khamenei urged all Hajj officials to promote a culture whereby the word Hajj would remind today’s youth of fundamental concepts such as creating civilization, unity against oppressors, having an extraterritorial view, removing distinctions in human societies and the like. 
He said the 1979 Islamic Revolution has revived the capacities of the Hajj ritual to some extent, but stressed that its entire potential still needs to be unlocked so that its basic objectives will be reached. 
Before the Leader’s speech, Abbas Hosseini, head of the Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization, presented a report of measures to facilitate the process and improve services for Hajj applicants.