What Does FEJ Stand For?

One of the questions we get asked a lot is what does FEJ mean, and more importantly, what does it stand for?

Our team believes that building a brand is an opportunity to convey an idea or philosophy. For us, that idea is about catering to the needs of spiritual travelers and pilgrims. Having a Muslim founding team, it was natural that our starting point would be the annual Hajj pilgrimage.

After making a few pilgrimages of our own, we had grown disillusioned with the reality that pilgrims to Makkah were being supplied with low-quality products that were not made to withstand the rigors of Hajj. Everywhere we looked in Makkah we saw torn sandals, broken umbrellas, ripped backpacks and struggling pilgrims.

WHAT WE STAND FOR  (OUR VALUES)

If nobody thought that this was a deserving sector to invest and innovate in, we felt it was time to change that. We decided it was time to give our Hajjis and pilgrims the absolute best in quality, craftsmanship, and design. If anyone needed and deserved it the most, it would be them.

From our inception, we resolved to build a brand with key values. Serving pilgrims meant that our sincerity and integrity needed to be absolute. Our promise of quality needed to be backed up with skill, expertise, and ethics.

One thing we also strive to do, as a brand, is connect deeply with our customers. Over the last two years, we’ve discovered something amazing, and many of our customers will attest to this. We are an extension of the people we serve. We are absolutely blessed to have the most inspiring customers. From the quality of their manners to their generosity with their friends and family to the lengths they go to help us improve our products. Serving them is not just a responsibility, but a great privilege.

As a business, our values are bound together by 5 foundational principles:

• Serving Hajjis to our absolute BEST capabilities
• Striving to be more accessible and inclusive to all pilgrims
• Conducting all our affairs with honesty and integrity
• Proactively seeking ethical and environmental alternatives
• Reinforcing the unity of our Ummah (community) and our humanity

WHAT FEJ STANDS FOR (LITERALLY)

We say FEJ like “fetch”, except with a hard “J” at the end. A lot of people just spell it out like an acronym. Both ways work!

In Arabic, FEJ or ( فَجٍّ ) is the word for a deep valley or mountain path. Its singular use occurs in the 27th verse of the 22nd chapter of the Holy Qur’an, called Al-Hajj. For us, we chose this name from verse 22:27 because it reminded us of the challenges that pilgrims have always endured to reach the House of Allah aka Makkah. The verse, in vivid language, describes the convergence of weary pilgrims, through inhospitable terrain, enduring hardship and hunger, in pursuit of spiritual enrichment. In this way, every pilgrim charts a unique path and carries with them their own stories, struggles, and dreams. It is that journey we seek to be a part of.

In English, FEJ fittingly stands for "For Every Journey" because each pilgrim must find their own path to Makkah, each has their own journey to Allah.

{ وَأَذِّنْ فِي النَّاسِ بِالْحَجِّ يَأْتُوكَ رِجَالًا وَعَلَىٰ كُلِّ ضَامِرٍ يَأْتِينَ مِنْ كُلِّ فَجٍّ عَمِيقٍ }

Al-Hajj, Verse 27

BUILDING A COMMUNITY

Over the coming years, we hope to build a community of spiritual travelers and invest in creating spaces to exchange stories, adventures, and advice. We hope to continue developing products that serve the lifestyle of our customers as they worship, travel and strive to be their best selves. We’re starting with an intense focus on Hajj, but hope to expand broadly into lifestyle and create exceptional products to serve our customers even better. And as we say with everything we do, bismillah - let’s do this!