Risalah Haji (رسالة حج) [A Treatise on the Hajj]

Abstract

A small kitab (religious book) entitled Risalah Haji in Arabic-Jawi script, with a logo of a crescent moon and a shining star encircling the title, and a black-and-white photograph of the Masjid al-Haram and the Ka'bah with two minarets and pilgrims crowding the courtyard. The small writing on the curve of the crescent appears to name the circle of compilers or publishers of this treatise. Treatises of this kind were commonly published in the mid-twentieth century as manasik (ritual) guides for prospective hajj pilgrims from Aceh and the Malay world: explaining the conditions, pillars, obligations, and recommended acts of the hajj and umrah, the procedures of ihram, tawaf, sa'i, wuquf at Arafah, mabit at Muzdalifah and Mina, the stoning of the jamarat, the prayers to be recited at each place, as well as the etiquette of the journey and of visiting Medina. The photograph of the Masjid al-Haram on the cover shows the mosque before the large-scale expansion of the second half of the twentieth century, so the book is also valuable as a historical document of hajj administration and of Jawi religious literature.