Very few Jews realize that for more than 1.000 years, while the Ka’ba in Makka built by Prophets Abraham and Ishmael was polluted by idols, Jerusalem’s First and Second Temple – Bait ul Muqaddas—Beit HaMiqdash stood, and the Jewish festival of Hag Sukkot was celebrated as a Hajj, a pilgrimage festival.

In Biblical times the Hebrew letter g was sometimes pronounced g as in gym, and Hag was pronounced Hajj. The Hebrew word Hag comes from hagag to circle and the Arabic word Hajj literally means ‘to set out for a place’.

The Torah declares, “Celebrate Hajj Sukkot for seven days after you have harvested the produce of your threshing floor and your winepress. Be joyful at your festival—you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, the Levites, the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns.

“For seven days celebrate the festival to the Lord your God at the place the Lord will choose. For the Lord your God will bless you in all your harvest and in all the work of your hands, and your joy will be complete. Three times a year all your men must appear before the Lord your God at the place he will choose: at the Hajj of Matzah, the Hajj of Weeks, and the Hajj of Sukkot.” (Deuteronomy 16:13-16)

The Hajj of Sukkot was chosen by Prophet King Solomon to dedicate the First Temple in Jerusalem. (1 Kings 8:2). Hajj Sukkot was so important during the centuries when Solomon’s Temple stood that it was often called simply “the Hajj” (1 Kings 8:3; 8:65; 12:62; 2 Chronicles 5:3; 7:8) perhaps because of the great numbers of Jews (and Non-Jews) who came up to the Temple in Jerusalem,

On each of the first six days of Sukkot, it was traditional to circle the Temple altar while reciting psalms. On the seventh day of Sukkot the custom was to circle the Temple altar seven times. As the Oral Torah says: “It was customary to make one procession around the altar on each day of Sukkot, and seven on the seventh day.” (Mishnah Sukkah 4:5).

The ritual slaughter of Qurbani (Korban in Hebrew) Halal/Kosher animals toward the end of all the ritual reenactments comes to teach everyone that: “Their flesh and their blood do not reach Allah, but the devotion from you reaches Him.” (Quran 22:37).

This is the same basic understanding that the Hebrew Prophets and the Rabbis gave to the........

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