Hajj Countdown - 3 Weeks
Monday November 2, 2009
The annual pilgrimage (Hajj) is one of the five "pillars" of the Islamic faith. All those who are physically and financially able are required to make this journey to Mecca at least once in their lifetime. The 2009 pilgrimage season approaches amidst some confusion about swine flu vaccination requirements, travel bans, and other concerns. Nevertheless, nearly 3 million pilgrims are expected to arrive in Mecca during the coming weeks.
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As Salaamu Alaikum. What I have to say may not go down well, but it is something that may not have been considered by the Saudis, the world media and Muslims in general.
It is undeniable that the Hajj is the most intimate interaction between Muslims and Allah. Yet the world media, with the blessings of the so-called ‘Custodians of the Two Musjids’, have cast that intimacy into the public domain. Viewers have been treated to scenes of sobbing men and women, who have had their ‘me-time’ with their Creator spied upon by the telephoto lenses of high-tech equipment. And, amongst others, scenes at the stoning of the symbolic Shaitaan with determination etched on their faces – one on-line newspaper used the word ‘grimace’.
How long this invasion of privacy been going on is anyone’s guess, but what I saw last year left me cursing the Saudis for allowing such close-up images from even being captured, let alone broadcast. The Haramain and therefore Hajj and Umrah have long been out-of-bounds for non-Muslims. Yet the Saudis circumvent that ban by taking the Hajj to the non-Muslims. At the same time the personal and private time of pilgrims with their Creator is made public, and at times interfered with, when pilgrims become aware of the cameras.
Despite the fact that English is the most widely spoken language in the world, the coverage by Iqra TV (last year) would easily create an impression that Islam is for Arabic-speakers. The presence of cameras and reporters amongst pilgrims distracted many, as was evident by their display of ‘nafs’ (pride) by waving and trying to get on the tapes of various cameras.
With the demands of Hajj, one cannot but wonder at the quality of the niyyat (intentions) and supplications of those making despatches to TV and radio stations worldwide. Perhaps theirs was a ‘working’ Hajj? Likewise of those using cellphones to ‘keep in touch’.
I suppose some Fatwah will justify the Saudi decisions. But, intrinsically, the admission of non-Muslims to traditionally out-of-bounds areas and the violation of intimate moments of pilgrims beseeching Allah are both wrong.
Strangely, with all the technology employed by the Saudis, they have failed to install an adequate public address system. This failure necessitates the employment of a ‘repeater’ to pronounce Takbir, Sajda, Qiyam, Jalsa, etc after the Imam during Salaah. Shame.
My call to Muslims is that they do not invade the privacy of pilgrims by viewing images that allows them to distinguish people performing the rituals. My call to the media houses is that they re-think their reporting strategies to exclude close-up images, especially during the performance of the rituals.
My call to the Saudis is to pronounce a ban on the use of cameras during the days of Hajj, when pilgrims are in Ihraam. This type of ban was once in place. It is time to re-introduce it.
Mahmood Vawda
Durban
South Africa