“Afe lo so’ko as-shaytani”, meaning “We are going to throw stones at the devil”, said some Yoruba-speaking pilgrims from southwest, Nigeria, as they picked 49 pebbles on the floor of Muzdalifah, where they had passed the night and headed to Al-Jamarat.
Jamrah, which starts on the 10th Day of Islamic month of Dhul Hijjah, the first day of Eid-el-Adha, is the fourth rite of Hajj. The first is camping at Mina, the City of tents; from there, pilgrims would move to Arafat for the climax of Hajj exercise and return to pass night at Muzdalifah.
So, the pilgrims would continue to exchange words over how they will deal with the devil once they arrive in Al-Jamarat as they take buses to Mina and then walk to the wall (although some pilgrims board trains to Mina), while others retain the old tradition of walking from Muzdalifah to Al-Jamarat, a distance of about 4 km.
The erroneous belief about the devil being stationed at Al-Jamarat doesn’t, however, emanate from only the Yoruba-speaking Muslims; it’s an old distorted terminology celebrated by the media, which in most cases fail to convey what it really symbolises other than scary reports of tragedy of the past years of stampedes.
For instance, Voice of America (VOA) headline once read: “Muslims ‘Stone The Devil’ as Almost Million-Strong Hajj Winds Down.” Nigeria’s The Guardian also captioned it as “Muslims ‘stone the Devil’ as almost million-strong hajj winds down”, among others.
The Guardian headline immediately generated mixed reactions from Muslims who considered it blasphemous to call the Jamrah rite “stoning the devil”, while the hate and intolerant non-Muslims used different derogatory terms to describe it.
But what’s really the Jamrah? What does it symbolise?
Al-Jamarat is a concrete wall or pillar where pilgrims symbolically throw 49 pebbles of stones as part of the Hajj rituals, which is divided into the three parts, namely Jamrah Al-Ula (The first stone pillar], Al-Jamrah Al-Wusta The second (middle) stone pillar] and Jamrah Al-`Aqabah (The last and biggest stone pillar).
It’s a three-day exercise that see pilgrims pelting 7 stones each on the first day at Jamrat Al-Aqabah., the worshipers pelted another series of 7 stones on Jamrat Al-Sugra, then another 7 at Jamrat Al-Wusta, finally Jamrat Al-Aqaba.
Evidently, there is no physical devil at Jamrah. More than anything else, what the pilgrims do by pelting the symbols of shaytan, the accursed, is that in their individual lives, they are rejecting the way of the devil. The pilgrims stoned the wall as a way of reaffirming their commitment to Allah and to the ethos of Islam (its laws, discipline, way of life).
The pelting symbolises the casting of all devilish inclinations in one’s life. It means all pilgrims that participated in Jamrah are affirming their rejection of the evil ways of life and reaffirming their commitment to the way of moral rectitude. That is why, as they throw the stones, they seek Allah’s refuge from the handiwork of Shaytan. Jamrah is a way of rejecting direct or indirect devil’s worship. This is the essence of it.
The concrete walls about 30 metres long and 18 metres high are not the devil. And in fundamental ways, they do not represent the devil. They are symbols. It all dates back to the time of Prophet Ibrahim (AS). These are the points where shaytan tried to dissuade and create confusion in his heart. It was at those points the father of faith, Prophet Ibrahim (AS) rejected the whispering and suggestions of the devil.
Therefore, the pilgrims only visit Al-Jamarat to symbolically reject devilish inclinations and suggestions. This is essential for the understanding of the general public. Everything that is done is symbolic, just like some of the other activities in the course of the performance of Hajj.
