All are equal on the haj, but some just more than others
The haj is supposed to be a time when Muslim pilgrims from all walks of life forget the material aspects of life on earth to wipe the slate clean of their sins and declare their acceptance of Islam as God’s ultimate religion for mankind. The simple white robe and sandals the male pilgrims wear are meant to symbolise the equality of all the faithful in the eyes of God. While these spiritual aspects are certainly present at the annual event, pilgrims are also confronted daily with scenes reminding them today’s haj is far from the way it started out 1,400 years ago. But most of them seem to come to terms with that.
The vast majority of the 2.3 million Muslims here come from some of the world’s least democratic, poorest and most corrupt nations where wide social disparities prevail mainly to unequal opportunities and poor education. The scenes at the holy shrines during haj do not contrast much from what the majority of pilgrims endure back home, but they all strive to achieve the spiritual purpose of their journey to Mecca. At the end of the day, it boils down to what sort of treatment a Muslim can afford to get at the haj. The disparities can be as wide here as anywhere else in the Muslim world.
It’s hard to imagine how some pilgrims clear their minds of earthly life’s material comforts when they are booked into one of the luxury hotels that surround the Grand Mosque and overlook its cube-shaped Kaaba. The $600 a night fee for a room at one of these hotels is far beyond the means of most pilgrims.
Some customers don’t even bother to go down to the Grand Mosque to perform the five daily prayers. “They stand in front of the window to pray and at the same time watch other pilgrims praying in the mosque,” a receptionist at one of the hotels told me.
The poorest of pilgrims may not ever see the inside of a hotel at all. They tend to squat at or around the Grand Mosque and sleep in the open, while others rent a small room at one of thousands of squalid buildings a bit further away. If they have no lodgings, many camp where they can.
Only the fittest and most influential can touch the Black Stone on a side of the Kaaba cube in the middle of the Grand Mosque, around which pilgrims circle seven times. If the pilgrim happens to be a foreign or local dignitary, Saudi policemen just push and shove to clear the way to the Black Stone, which many Muslims believe to have supernatural powers.
I once saw a female pilgrim well in her 50s reduced to tears and pain after a Saudi policeman used full strength to shove her away and clear a path for a visiting Qatari prince.
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Resident FaithWorld Expert
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Am I the only one who is disgusted by some of the sentiments of the previous postings?
The materialism and complexity of modern life will lead to inequalities and inhumanities such as are described in this article, but please don’t abuse the sincerity of the individual Muslims who embark on their own personal Hajj. Modern life is complicated. Deal with it and don’t leap to judgement – or worse the whole-scale dismissal of a noble religion. Shame on you.
I am a secular atheist with some lovely Muslim friends doing the Hajj this year. I wish them well however they are doing it, and pray (!) that they are not the cause of any inhumanity to their fellow Ihram pilgrims.
Peace be with you.
Philip. Bristol.
causing inha