Establishing Tawhid in Hajj

Question:
Honorable Shaykh, this questioner sent a fax asking: How do we achieve, or how is it achieved, the oneness of Allah (tawhid) in this blessed obligation of Hajj?

Answer:
Achieving tawhid is required in the entire life of the Muslim, in Hajj and in everything else. Achieving tawhid means purifying it from the impurities of shirk (associating partners with Allah) and bid'ah (religious innovation). This is the achievement of tawhid: purifying it from the impurities of major shirk and minor shirk, and from innovations and newly invented matters. It is achieved in Hajj all the more so, because the pilgrims come with hearts directed toward Allah, hearts that are compassionate, fearful, and also desiring good. There is no doubt that Hajj is a lesson for the Muslim from which he benefits in the rectification of his creed and the healing of what he has of ignorance through beneficial knowledge. He provisions himself with knowledge, thereby achieving or establishing his tawhid upon knowledge and insight, and upon the Sunnah and clear proof from the Shari'ah of Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He. A person may be in his country heedless, or he may not have anyone to alert him to the flaws in his tawhid. So when he comes to Hajj and sees the people all circumambulating one Lord, staying at 'Arafah, spending the night at Muzdalifah, and at Mina remembering one Lord, Allah, this is what attaches his heart to Allah alone, with no partner for Him. He may have attachments to the dead or to shrines, and he realizes that there is no place for such attachments to other than Allah, and that they are invalid, and that it is obligatory to direct all his acts of worship to Allah . There is no doubt that the pilgrims benefit in the sincerity of tawhid by what they see of the unity of the Muslims and their turning to Allah all together, not mentioning an idol, a grave, a living person, or a dead person in supplication or seeking refuge, nor a tree or a stone, but rather they make it for Allah . He benefits from this in the purity of the creed, the rectification of the creed. He returns to his country, and he has come to know tawhid, and the sincerity of tawhid to Allah, Mighty and Majestic.