THE FIFTH CHAPTER
On the esoteric meanings of the Pilgrimage (Hajj), its rites, and its requirements
Know, O brother—may God grant you success in walking His path—that the Pilgrimage which God made mandatory upon everyone capable of performing it, according to the Almighty’s saying: "And [due] to Allah from the people is a pilgrimage to the House—for whoever is able to find thereto a way" 1 . The outward matter is well-known to the people of the outward: it is the journeying to the House situated in Bakka (Mecca) which was built by Ibrahim and Isma'il—may glory be to them both. Seeking it is an obligation for the common folk who stop at the outward appearances of things rather than their esoteric realities, and whose understandings have not crossed over to the manifestation of the "indication" within the "allusion" of the phrasing. Thus, they were veiled by the wall and the mountain from the Cause of Causes (Illat al-Ilal).