In the news: Muslims making Mecca journey

Published: November 29, 2008

Muslims making Mecca journey

Hajj, a pilgrimage to Mecca, is one of the five pillars of Islamic faith. Muslims who are financially and physically able are required to make the pilgrimage at least once.

Imad Enchassi, imam of the Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City, said the start of the three-day pilgrimage to Mecca depends on the sighting of the new moon. He said the pilgrimage is expected to begin Dec. 7 or Dec. 8, and Eid ul-Adha will be celebrated at the end of the pilgrimage.

The Hajj and Eid ul-Adha focus on the patriarch Abraham, who Muslims consider to be the first Muslim and builder of the Kaaba, a cube-shaped house of God in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, that is the focal point of the Hajj. According to the Quran, God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his firstborn son, Ishmael, but allowed Abraham to sacrifice a ram instead. Muslims celebrate Abraham’s obedience.

Because of Abraham’s willingness to make such a sacrifice, Eid ul-Adha is also called the Festival of the Sacrifice.

SHAWNEE — "Sometimes when we struggle, we wonder, ‘Where is God in all of this?’” the Rev. Emerson Falls, president of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma, recently told students at Oklahoma Baptist University.

Falls, the first American Indian to lead Oklahoma’s Southern Baptists, challenged students to realize, "Sometimes God is near in the ‘far away.’” His message was in continuation of a study of the book "The Knowledge of the Holy,” by A.W. Tozer.

Falls is senior pastor of Glorieta Baptist Church, a predominantly American Indian church in south Oklahoma City. The chapel service also honored American Indian heritage with an original worship song by OBU senior Delana Deere, a member of the Absentee Shawnee and Ponca tribes from Norman.

Your thoughts!