Functions of Hajj Cultural Diplomacy in Creating the Unity and Cohesion of Muslims

The title is a research paper by Hadi Sadeghzadeh published in the journal “Miqat Hajj”. The following is an excerpt from its abstract.

Status of unity in Islam

Unity is one of the most important human needs today and the emphatic commands of the Holy Qur’an and the Infallible Imams. Islam rejects any intellectual, political, religious, class, and racial boundaries; and on this basis, Islamic scholars have always strived for the unity of the Islamic Ummah and have been the heralds of unity. In their practical tradition, they have always focused on the Holy Qur’an and the tradition of the Infallibles to teach religious teachings and preserve them, and to fight against distortion, heresy, and intellectual and practical deviations among the Islamic Ummah.

Haj, manifestation of different races unified

Hajj is one of the political deeds of Islam performed every year by millions of Muslims in a single time and place, and a large number of people who come to the land of revelation from all over the world have different customs, nationalities, races, and colors.

Function of Haj

Despite all these apparent differences, there are many similarities between them, including the fact that they all move around the single House (Ka’ba) with a single purpose, deed, ritual, and even a single color of the garment, all of which symbolize unity and uniformity, empathy, interaction of thoughts, and reaching mutual understanding, interacting thoughts and understanding, approaching different cultures to each other, attention to phenomena such as participation, morality, peace, security, the ways of talking and communications, and finally removing misunderstandings and making hearts friendly to each other which are the functions of the Hajj.