M. Din Syamsuddin

Reflections From Makkah: Prof. Din Syamsuddin on Hajj

For more than four decades, Prof. Dr. M. Din Syamsuddin has stood at the centre of Indonesia's religious life, guiding the Muhammadiyah movement, chairing the Indonesian Council of Ulama, and opening pathways between Muslim communities and other faith traditions around the world. Yet among the many formative experiences of his life, the Hajj pilgrimage to Makkah remains one of the most quietly transformative. In interviews and writings shared through his personal archives, he has returned again and again to what he learned in the deserts of Arafat, Mina, and the sacred precincts of the Masjid al-Haram.

For Australian readers, whether Muslim or non-Muslim, his reflections offer a rare window into a ritual performed annually by nearly two million people, including hundreds from Sydney, Melbourne, and Perth. The Hajj is at once deeply personal and strikingly universal, and Prof. Din's voice carries the authority of a scholar who has also walked that same path.

The Spiritual Awakening of Pilgrimage

When Prof. Din speaks about the Hajj, he often returns to a single word: tawba, the Arabic term for turning back to the Divine. For him, the pilgrimage is not a checklist of rites, but a profound turning of the heart. In the quiet hours before dawn, when pilgrims gather in ihram and prepare to walk towards Mina, he describes a stripping away, the shedding of social rank, professional identity, and the trappings of a busy public life.

Several rites recur in his reflections as particularly formative:

This inward renewal resonates strongly with Muslim Australians preparing for their own journeys from places like Lakemba or Coburg. Many speak of the months before departure as a time of reflection, when ordinary routines of brekkie with the family and arvo prayers take on deeper weight. Prof. Din notes the same turning inward is open to every pilgrim, whether from Jakarta, Cairo, or western Sydney. the significance of the Surabaya interfaith conference on his official site explores how his own renewal has shaped his wider peace work.

The Hajj, in his view, is also a return to origins. He often recalls how the rituals performed by the Prophet Ibrahim thousands of years ago feel startlingly present, as if one were stepping into a continuing conversation between humanity and the Divine. That sense of continuity, he argues, offers guidance for those navigating a fragmented modern world.

Brotherhood Beyond National Borders

In one of his more memorable reflections, Prof. Din describes standing shoulder to shoulder with pilgrims from dozens of countries and feeling the boundaries of citizenship simply dissolve. He has shared this insight in forums from Jakarta to Geneva, and it carries particular resonance in Australia, a country built on migration and shaped by its multicultural compact.

He often recounts how a Pakistani labourer, a Nigerian student, and a European convert stood beside him in the same row, each wearing identical white garments, none distinguished by dress or dialect. For an Indonesian scholar who has spent much of his life engaging with global institutions, this lived equality felt more real than any declaration signed in a conference hall. It is a vision of human kinship that aligns with values Australians often celebrate at events like the Parramatta Lanes Festival.

The Australian Muslim community knows this brotherhood well, gathering each year to farewell departing hajjis from Melbourne Airport and Sydney's international terminals. Family members wave tearfully as buses pull away, knowing their loved ones will return changed. Prof. Din's writings remind these families that the change they anticipate is the fruit of a genuine encounter with diversity bound by a single intention.

Lessons in Humility and Equality

Few moments in the Hajj embody humility as clearly as the standing at Arafat. Prof. Din has written that the long hours of standing under a relentless Arabian sun teach the pilgrim something no university seminar can replicate. When wealth, status, and reputation are set aside, what remains is the unvarnished self before the Divine.

He links this lesson to the ethical challenges facing pluralistic societies, including his own reflections on how Islamic ethics can guide public policy in pluralistic societies. In that piece, he argues that the humility absorbed at Arafat can inform a politics of listening, where leaders of different communities approach disagreement with the same posture of openness that the pilgrim adopts before God.

For Australians observing the annual Eid al-Adha, these reflections carry practical weight. The ethical disposition shaped by the pilgrimage can strengthen community leaders, schoolteachers, and local councillors in the patient dialogue that holds diverse suburbs together. It is no coincidence that Prof. Din pairs his Arafat reflections with his long-standing work on interfaith cooperation.

The Hajj as a Mirror for Australian Muslims

Across Australian mosques, the Hajj season is a time of collective anticipation. Imams in Brisbane and Adelaide deliver sermons about the spiritual meaning of the rites, while community groups organise briefings about health and logistics. Prof. Din's reflections arrive each year as a compass, pointing pilgrims toward the inner purpose of the journey.

He has observed that Hajj can deepen the Australian Muslim sense of belonging to a global ummah without erasing the identity of being Australian. He often encourages younger Muslims to see their pilgrimage as a way of strengthening their contribution to the country they call home. A hajji returning to Parramatta brings back not only spiritual merit but renewed capacity for civic service, family devotion, and neighbourly kindness.

In this light, the Hajj becomes a mirror. The pilgrim sees their own life reflected against the lives of millions, and the strengths and weaknesses of their own community become clearer. Prof. Din has spoken of this mirror as one of the pilgrimage's quietest gifts, often revealed only in the weeks and months after returning home.

Carrying Peace Home From Arafat

Peace is a word Prof. Din returns to often, and the Hajj is, in his telling, a wellspring of it. The Arabic salam, with its roots in wholeness and reconciliation, suffuses the rituals from the tawaf around the Kaaba to the symbolic stoning at Mina. He has argued that the pilgrim who internalises these meanings carries home a vocation to be a peacemaker.

This is also why his work on the role of Sufism in promoting interfaith harmony flows naturally from his reflections on Hajj. The mystical currents within Islam, he suggests, amplify the peace-bearing impulses awakened in the pilgrimage. For Australian readers, this may explain why Muslim communities in Lakemba and Brunswick often host interfaith iftars and walk alongside Christian and Jewish neighbours in solidarity marches.

A short list of practices he recommends for returning pilgrims might include:

A Pilgrimage That Continues

Prof. Din's reflections ultimately suggest that the Hajj does not end at the airport. The rites are completed in a matter of days, but their meaning unfolds across a lifetime. He has spoken of his own Hajj as a chapter that continues to be written, each year revealing new insights as he returns to his responsibilities in Muhammadiyah and the Council of Ulama.

For Australian Muslims, the same lesson applies whether heading to King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah or welcoming an elderly parent home in Punchbowl. The pilgrimage is a beginning, not a destination. The inward journey that began at Arafat can be renewed each morning, in the discipline of prayer, the patience of work, and in building bridges with fellow Australians.

You are warmly invited to explore more reflections through this thoughtful companion resource, where additional insights on pilgrimage and spiritual practice await. You can also return to the main site for further writings, photographs, and archived statements that continue Prof. Din's decades-long conversation on religion, peace, and shared humanity.