To begin today’s discourse, my gratitude to Allah yet continues for being privileged to be one of those that performed this year’s Hajj. Ummul Qurah, which is translated as “Mother of (all) Cities”, is the Qur’anic name for the holy city of Makkah. It is mentioned twice in the Qur’an in two separate verses viz: Qur’an 6:92 (in Surat ul-An’am) and Qur’an 42:7 (in Suratu sh-Shurah).
There’s an experience I wish to share with readers, which is about the old inter-group eccentricities that had existed for long among Asian Muslims in their contacts with Muslims from black Africa. I wonder why a phenomenon I encountered in my first pilgrimage to Makkah in 1994 (over 30 years ago) would still be as active as I still saw when I arrived Makkah last week.
As required by the Sunnah (prophetic practice), the first port of call for anyone visiting Ummul Qurah for any reason, religious, economic, etc, is the Ka’bah; the holiest mosque on earth. The mosque is a religious place where individuals or groups are ranked the same without grading one over another. Race, colour of the skin or eyes, status, age, and gender, have no place when Muslims stand in worship of their creator; Allah.
When I stood in between some white skinned Asians to observe the sunset prayer, Maghrib, which was the first obligatory prayer I observed in congregation at the Ka’abah (also called Haram, the short form of al-Masjid al-Haram) mosque, I struggled to endure racism throughout the prayer. Each time I tried, as required by prophetic practice, to bridge the little gap between my leg and that of the white skinned worshipper standing next to me, he moved his leg farther away from me; obviously detesting the contact of my skin, a black man, with his. I stopped moving my leg closer to his after the second attempt.
Given today’s widespread knowledge of Islam globally, it is surprising that after several decades of discriminating against God’s wish, the black race; this anti-Islamic mentality continues to survive. Allah mentions in Qur’an 49: 13 (Surat ul-Hujuraat), “O you men! We created you from a (single) male and female, and made you into tribes and nations that you may know each other; surely, the most honourable of you in the sight of Allah is he most pious …” This face of racism that has refused to die out simply reveals, in my judgement, how some verses of the Qur’an make no meaning to some Muslims particularly, the white-skinned Asian Muslims.
Before I moved out of Makkah to the Muna camp site to mark the commencement of the Hajj rites, I noticed a Marco polo luxury bus permanently stationed at the edge of the big hill hosting Anjum hotel on the side of the road that leads from the Haram mosque to Bin Laden mosque. I became curious after 48 hours of passing through the place constantly that the engine of the bus was never turned off. I, therefore, politely approached a security personnel in uniform and asked why the engine of the bus had been on 24/7. He warmly explained to me that the engine was on to power the bus’s cooling system; adding that officers on duty within the vicinity alternately go to take some time off from the perpetually scorching sun.
This is a practical expression of how serious governments take care of their safety or securiy personnel in charge of maintaining order. Recall that it was late President Umaru Musa Yar’adua who directed that rain coats and kits be provided for all the security personnel in his convoy when he once arrived Abuja airport under a heavy down pour and saw that all the policemen were being beaten by the stormy shower of rainwater.
The use of Nusuk identity card, which introduction in the past two years posed challenges to Nigerian pilgrims, has now come to stay with its huge benefits for pilgrims and the government of Saudi Arabia. With the Nusuk card, no authority has any need to ask any pilgrim of his passport or visa. The card, which is electronically generated, could be accessed from the Nusuk mobile application when downloaded into a mobile phone. The only information required for accessing a pilgrim’s Nusuk and his basic traveling details is the pilgrim’s international passport number. This Nusuk card has made it easy for Saudi authorities to identify illegal residents and migrants; further reducing the mammoth crowd usually created by illegal migrants along pathways in the holy city and down the routes leading to the Masha’ir (holy sites) of Muna, Muzdalifah, and mount Arafat.
The movement of pilgrims to Muna camp site from Makkah started after midnight on the eve of the 8th day of the Islamic lunar month of Dhul Hajj, which according to prophetic practice should commence only after sunrise of the 8th of Dhul hajj, not before. However, the huge vehicular traffic and other logistics involved in the transportation of an average of about 1.7 million pilgrims annually have compelled the Saudi authorities to ask its scholars to issue a Fatwah (legal opinion) that allows pilgrims to arrive Muna hours earlier than the traditional 8th Dhul Hajj. Scholars of Islamic jurisprudence opine that “Necessities make that which is forbidden permissible.” The huge number of pilgrims is a necessity for their early movement to forestall traffic gridlocks.
The main religious duties of Hajj involve leaving Muna after sunrise for Mount Arafat on the 9th Dhul Hajj, and then proceeding after sunset on 10th Dhul Hajj from Arafat to Muzdalifah station where pilgrims pass the night to pick up pebbles that would be used to throw at the Shaytan (devil). From 10th to 13th Dhul Hajj , pilgrims go to throw pebbles at the Shaytan.
This is the most hectic period of the Hajj exercise, particularly for Nigerian pilgrims, as they walk long distances to and from the site where pebbles are thrown at the Shaytan. Indeed, there’s no short-cut for Nigerian pilgrims from their ‘end-of-the-world’ tent in Muna to the devil’s station also in Muna. Even pilgrims who take train from the tent site to the devil’s station still have to walk long distances at both ends, which practically make the short-cut by train equal in effect to every other pedestrian route.
No pilgrim is expected to stay in Muna beyond today, Saturday 13th Dhul Hajj, 1447AH; the last day of the Hajj exercise. While we wish all pilgrims Hajj Mabrur (an accepted Hajj), we pray that Allah accepts the sacrifices of non-pilgrims, Amin.
