Socio-cultural features of Muslim pilgrimage

The present study makes an attempt to determine the features of the phenomenon of religious pilgrimage in the Muslim culture. There is revealed the genesis of the Hajj, intention of a pilgrim and the metaphysical property of pilgrimage. The study identifies the role of the Hajj in the Muslim culture, the vividness and stability of the phenomenon are explained. The influence of religious pilgrimage on formation of the other “self” of an individual is considered through a prism of comprehensive philosophical analysis of the phenomenon of pilgrimage in Muslim culture. Pilgrimage assumes autonomous efforts of a person, leaving an everyday life and coming back to the conventional environment, but being already a different person. It is revealed that the Muslim religious pilgrimage has not disappeared in centuries, moreover, it continues to remain one of the cultural phenomena aimed at changing the consciousness of an individual. Annual Hajj of Muslims is representation of anthropologic resources of their culture, their collective demonstration to the world. Religious pilgrims do not ask the question, “What should I do?”. They rather gives an answer, “Work on yourself”. Religious pilgrimage in the Muslim culture is considered not as spiritual endeavour, but rather as a metaphysical tool which allowed the founder of this doctrine to develop Muslim elite. Religious pilgrimage as a person's self-organization is not equal to a journey, as it does not presuppose the search for new impressions and admiration of the beautiful places in the world. The most important for a religious pilgrim is not his personality but how he works on himself during pilgrimage.