Hajj in Palestine!

While the Islamic territory was split between Abdul-Malik and Ibn Zubayr, Abdul-Malik feared the influence of Ibn Zubayr’s propaganda on his people, as they were going to Mecca to perform Hajj. Thus, with the help of bribed scholars, they fabricated fake narrations from the Prophet to encourage the people to perform Hajj at Masjid al-Aqsa in Palestine, which was in his territory, instead of Mecca. To fulfill this purpose, he also built the famous Dome of the Rock building in Masjid al-Aqsa.
Under these circumstances, where any governor could change Islamic rituals in his favor, Imam Sajjad was a representative of the true Islamic values taught by the Prophet. The Imam tried to guide the bribed scholars, and warned them about their actions. The Imam’s powerful letter to al-Zuhri, one of the bribed scholars, is narrated in history. Despite the ban enforced on narrations from the Holy Prophet since his demise, the Imam tried to inform the Muslims about the actual teachings of the Prophet through his advice and character. The Imam explained the true way of performing Hajj in his Manaasik al-Hajj book in order to guide Muslims who did not even know how to perform Hajj correctly. The Imam performed Hajj more than 20 times during his lifetime. When he wore the white garments of pilgrimage and said, “Labbayk” to his Lord, he would faint. When he would regain consciousness, the people would ask him the reason for his loss of consciousness. The Imam would respond by saying, “I feared denial from my Lord (God)”. As a result, people would think that if the Imam of the time, the great grandson of the Prophet, feared the acceptance of his Hajj, then what would become of their own Hajj.