Islam

=== Pilgrimage ===
{{Main|Hajj|Umrah}}
{{See also|Holiest sites in Islam}}
[[File:A packed house - Flickr - Al Jazeera English.jpg|thumb|right|Pilgrims at the [[Great Mosque of Mecca]] during the [[Hajj]] season]]

The Islamic [[pilgrimage]], called the "{{transliteration|ar|ALA|ḥajj}}" ({{lang-ar|حج|link=no}}), is to be done at least once a lifetime by every Muslim with the means to do so during the [[Islamic calendar|Islamic month]] of [[Dhu al-Hijjah]]. Rituals of the Hajj mostly imitate the story of the family of [[Abraham in Islam|Abraham]]. In [[Mecca]], pilgrims walk seven times around the [[Kaaba]], which Muslims believe Abraham built as a place of worship, and they walk seven times between Mount [[Safa and Marwa]], recounting the steps of Abraham's wife, [[Hagar]], who was looking for water for her baby [[Ishmael in Islam|Ishmael]] in the desert before Mecca developed into a settlement.<ref>{{harvp|Goldschmidt|Davidson|2005|p=48}}</ref><ref>{{harvp|Farah|1994|pp=145–147}}</ref><ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Hajj |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica Online}}</ref> The pilgrimage also involves spending a day praying and worshipping in the plain of [[Mount Arafat]] as well as symbolically [[Stoning of the Devil|stoning the Devil]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Peters |first=F.E. |title=Islam: A Guide for Jews and Christians |date=2009 |isbn=978-1-4008-2548-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HYJ2c9E9IM8C&pg=PA19 |page=20 |publisher=Princeton University Press |access-date=7 October 2014 |archive-date=28 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231228023112/https://books.google.com/books?id=HYJ2c9E9IM8C&pg=PA19#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> All Muslim men wear only two simple white unstitched pieces of cloth called [[Ihram clothing|ihram]], intended to bring continuity through generations and uniformity among pilgrims despite class or origin.<ref>{{cite book |last=Cornell |first=Vincent J. |title=Voices of Islam: Voices of tradition |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g5LNUS0ciAAC&pg=PA29 |access-date=26 August 2012 |year=2007 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-275-98733-6 |page=29}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Glassé |first1=Cyril |last2=Smith |first2=Huston |title=The New Encyclopedia of Islam |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=focLrox-frUC&pg=PA207 |access-date=26 August 2012 |date=1 February 2003 |publisher=[[Rowman Altamira]] |isbn=978-0-7591-0190-6 |page=207}}</ref> Another form of pilgrimage, [[Umrah]], is optional and can be undertaken at any time of the year. Other sites of Islamic pilgrimage are [[Medina]], where Muhammad died, as well as [[Jerusalem]], a city of many Islamic prophets and the site of [[Al-Aqsa]], which was the direction of prayer before Mecca.<ref>{{cite book|author=Michigan Consortium for Medieval and Early Modern Studies|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p44kAQAAMAAJ|title=The Meeting of Two Worlds: Cultural Exchange Between East and West During the Period of the Crusades|publisher=Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University|year=1986|isbn=0918720583|editor1=Goss, V. P.|volume=21|page=208|editor2=Bornstein, C. V.|access-date=15 January 2023|archive-date=28 December 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231228023032/https://books.google.com/books?id=p44kAQAAMAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>[[Yaroslav Trofimov|Trofimov, Yaroslav]]. 2008. ''The Siege of Mecca: The 1979 Uprising at Islam's Holiest Shrine''. [[Knopf]]. New York. {{ISBN|978-0-307-47290-8}}. p. 79.</ref>