Rihlat al-Hajj ila Bayt Allah al-Haram
- Author died
- 1393 AH
- Editions
- Dār ‘Aṭā’āt al-‘Ilm
Rihlat al-Hajj ila Bayt Allah al-Haram (The Journey of Pilgrimage to the Sacred House of Allah) is a travelogue and scholarly record by the Mauritanian jurist and exegete Muhammad al-Amin al-Shinqiti (1325–1393 AH / 1907–1974 CE), documenting his overland pilgrimage journey to Mecca in 1367 AH (1948 CE) alongside numerous legal, linguistic, and theological inquiries addressed along the route .
Background and Journey
Al-Shinqiti departed from Mauritania on 7 Jumada al-Akhira 1367 AH with the intention of performing the pilgrimage and subsequently returning home . Traveling overland, he initially rode a camel through Mauritanian settlements—including Kiffa, Tamchekett, Ayoun, and Néma—before selling the camel in Néma and proceeding by automobile and rail across West and Central Africa . His route took him through Bamako, Niamey, Jos, and Maiduguri, continuing across Chad to al-Junaynah and Omdurman in Sudan .
In late Dhu al-Qi‘dah 1367 AH, the party reached the port of Suakin, completed travel paperwork and health checks over three days, and crossed the Red Sea by ship to Jeddah . After lodging for two nights in Jeddah at a communal residence belonging to the Al Jamjum family, al-Shinqiti entered the state of ihram for Ifrad (isolated Hajj) and arrived in Mecca during the first ten days of Dhu al-Hijjah 1367 AH to complete the rites . Following the pilgrimage, he relocated to Medina and decided to settle permanently in the Hejaz to teach exegesis in the Prophet's Mosque .
Content and Method
The work combines a personal travel diary with dense legal and theoretical treatises, reflecting the teaching, fatwas, and judicial settlements al-Shinqiti engaged in during his transit . When acting as a judge between disputants along the journey, he established a procedure of obtaining written consent and claims from both parties prior to issuing verdicts that local scholars could subsequently verify .
Throughout the text, al-Shinqiti records detailed responses to scholarly questions posed to him by regional figures, including:
- Arabic Grammar and Semantics: A treatise written in Kiffa resolving the linguistic distinction between generic proper nouns (‘alam al-jins) and generic common nouns (ism al-jins) .
- Legal Theory (Usul al-Fiqh): An analysis composed in Tamchekett on the distinction between prescriptive ordinances (khitab al-taklif) and declaratory ordinances (khitab al-wad‘) .
- Logic: Explanations regarding conditional syllogisms (al-qiyas al-istithna'i) based on al-Akhdari's al-Sullam al-murawnaq .
- Quranic Exegesis and Hadith: An analytical examination of the transmitted report of the Gharaniq (the "Satanic verses" narrative), wherein al-Shinqiti surveys the arguments of scholars who deemed the account fabricated due to narrative disruption (idtirab), broken transmission chains (inqita‘), and textual variances, alongside how affirming scholars interpreted the report .
- Pilgrimage Rites: A defense of performing Ifrad over Tamattu‘ or Qiran, grounding the preference in the positions of the Maliki school and several early authorities .
Publication
The work was published as a standalone book by Dar al-Shorouk in Jeddah (first edition, 1403 AH / 1983 CE) . It was later included as the eighth volume in the collected works of al-Shinqiti (Athar al-Shaykh al-Allamah Muhammad al-Amin al-Shinqiti), prepared under the supervision of Bakr ibn Abd Allah Abu Zayd and issued jointly by Dar 'Ata'at al-'Ilm and Dar Ibn Hazm .
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