Yathrib is the old yet traditional name of the second holiest city in Islam, Al-Madinat ul-Munawwarah; or simply Madinah. As one of those privileged by Allah (SWT) to perform this year’s Hajj, this week’s column will bring to its readers a few mental images of some amazing and other exciting narrations from Yathrib. Rather than being analytical and critical, today’s discourse would, as much as possible be narrative; leaving readers to do the analysis and read between the lines.
Today is the 7th day of Dhul-Hajj; the twelfth and last month in the Islamic lunar calendar. Every Muslim who intended to perform this year’s Hajj is now in Makkah, the holiest city hosting the divinest mosque in Islam. This writer wishes to share with readers some surprising scenarios that caught his attention while still in Madinah, before coming down to Makkah for Hajj rites.
I was once standing among a group of four people on the ninth floor in a hotel building waiting for the elevator to come up. A pilgrim (whom I will not mention his state of origin from Nigeria) showed up from one of the balconies on the floor with a wastebasket in his hand. One of us asked him what he was doing with the trashcan and he said it was a Bangladeshi housekeeper who was sitting in one corner of the veranda that asked him to go and empty the wastebasket when he came to enter the elevator; the job the Banglandeshi is paid to do.
Since most Banglanshi doing menial jobs in Saudi Arabia neither speak nor understand Arabic or English, we used Google translator to ask him why he outsourced his job to the Nigerian pilgrim. When he could not provide answers to our enquiries, we cautioned him to stop using pilgrims to do his job. This episode suggests that Bangladeshi workers in Saudi also need a re-orientation more than Nigerian pilgrims who are generally believed to lack basic and enough orientation before embarking on Hajj trip.
On another occasion, a group of pilgrims entered into the elevator to go to the ground floor. Soon after the elevator shuts its door, those of us left behind suddenly heard a sharp and deafening noise; halting the elevator’s movement downwards. As we panicked, the four Bangladeshi housekeepers sitting in one corner of the lobby paid no attention to the fate of those trapped in the elevator. We had to express open anger at their indifferent attitude before they placed calls to those in charge.
Exploring the Islamic tradition that exhorts Muslims to be kind to others, the practice (mostly by the white-skinned Asian Muslims) of tipping unskilled workers after they have cleaned a place or cleared some rubbish has, after a few years of practice, come to be institutionalized by the Bangladeshi workers. Now, if you call the attention of a Bangladeshi worker to help do what he’s paid to do, he would deploy some kind mannerism and ask to be tipped before obliging your request. Today in Saudi, Bangladeshi constitute the greater percentage of unskilled workers in the Arabian Kingdom. Before now, the population of unskilled workers was almost equally shared among Yeminis, Indians, Pakistanis, and Bangladeshi; the latter now constituting the majority. It’s obvious from observable indications that the Saudi government has a soft spot for Bangladeshi citizens. Could the country’s global ranking as the fourth in Muslim population with over 90 percent Muslim population or the high poverty rate in Bangladesh be the factors persuading Saudi to give it the entry privileges it currently enjoys including comparatively higher allocation of Hajj seats?
At one of the major motor parks called Top-10 in Madinah where I went to board a vehicle to Makkah, I saw what I hither thought was exclusive to drivers and motor park touts (agberos) in Nigeria. As soon as the taxi that conveyed me to the park slowed down to drop me, a set of Arab agberos rushed to open the passenger’s door to collect my handbag which I refused to let go from where it was hanging on my shoulder. Before I alighted from the taxi, two of the agberos were already exchanging blows; a scene that prompted me to ask whether I was in Unguwa-Uku motor park in Kaduna or Area One park in Abuja, or the sawmill garage in Ilorin where disorder, chaos, and confusion constitute the norm. Rightly or wrongly, I concluded that agberos have the same mentality all over the world. Whether partisan politicians elsewhere share the same idiosyncrasy with Nigerian politicians is what readers may wish to establish.
Now, let’s have a glimpse of an enriching moment during my visit to the digital museum located to the east of the Prophet (SAW)’s mosque. It is a ‘mono-content’ museum on the history of the building and expansion of the Holy Prophet (SAW)’s mosque. The mosque at inception was largely without a roof except for a small section that was covered with palm straws. No dome, pillars or beams existed then.
The first expansion was carried out in the seventeenth year After Hijrah (17AH) under Khalifa Umar bn al-Khattab (RA), the second Khalifa in Islam. This expansion affected only three sides of the mosque: 5 meters to the south, 10 meters to the west, and 15 meters to the north. The eastern side remained without any developments as the rooms of the Prophet (SAW)’s wives were located there.
The second expansion took place in 29AH under the leadership of Khalifa Uthman bn Affan (RA) who bought the surrounding houses of the mosque on the western, southern, and northern sides of the mosque. Materials used in the expansion included engraved stones, gypsum, piles of stones with internal stones for reinforcement, roofs from solid and valuable tectonic hardwood fixed on the piles
The third expansion, which for instance, had the use of golden ceilings materials was done under the Umayyad Khalifa Al-Walid bn AbdulMalik in 88AH. This project which covered all sides except the southern part saw the introduction of four minarets around the mosque and decorating the internal walls of the mosque.
While the fourth expansion project took place under the Abbasid Khalifa, Al-Mahdi, the fifth project was under Sultan al-Ashraf between 886AH and 888AH who built the Green Dome. Thereafter came the expansion project of Sultan AbdulMajeed al-Uthmaniyy. May Allah grant every one the privilege to visit the Prophet (SAW) and the city of Madinah. Happy Eidul Kabir (Big Sallah) in advance!
