The Origin and Consequences of the Phenomenon of the Hajj of the Poor in the Islamic Maghreb

The Hajj of the poor is a long-standing ritual in the Islamic Maghreb.Introducing this ritual based on field data and explaining its origin based onvarious continental, cultural, religious, and social factors is a task that thislibrary-based narrative and analytical research intends to do. Providing alist of different parts of the Islamic Maghreb where the ritual of the Hajj ofthe poor is held, the article introduces three areas of Asfi area (SidiShashkal shrine), the tombs of Sidi Bo Khiyar and Idris I in Walili in theMaghreb, and the pilgrimage of Khajeh Ahmad Yasvi in Turkmenistan andSheikh Bomba in Africa based on the reports. While reporting the criticismof the opponents of this ritual, with a religious analytical approach, thisarticle investigates the misunderstanding of religious texts, the agreementof the jurists of the region for the temporary closure of the Hajj, and thespecial difficulties of the Hajj travel from the Maghreb as the mostimportant religious grounds for the emergence of this ritual in the IslamicMaghreb. This research is interdisciplinary and can be classified in thegroup of the theology and Hajj studies, based on religious literature, hadith jurisprudential data, and Internet reports with an approximate approach.The result of this article is a phenomenological recognition of this ritualand the like and their contexts in religious literature, unprecedented andnew in its kind in the Hajj literature.