alled his apostles to 'follow me' (Matthew 4:19) and in his journey with the travelers to Emmaus after the resurrection (Luke 24:13-35). These stories came to be associated with the pilgrimage in God's call for his people to follow him to the Holy Land. The Muslim journey will be dealt with following the Christian journey, however, in both Islam and Christianity there is a 'pull' that came to be associated with the sacred places. St. Jerome's account of the travels of Paula, a noblewoman from Rome, captures the powerful pull pilgrims describe.
             With a zeal and courage unbelievable in a woman she forgot her sex and her physical weakness, and longed to make there, amongst those thousands of monks, a dwelling for herself...And she might have done so, if she had not been summoned away by a still greater longing for the holy places...
             The main motive for pilgrims, both Christian and Muslim is a desire to see and touch the pla
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