On accommodation for pilgrims Adamu Adamu said: “And on other fronts, pilgrims are forced to have to pay accommodation fees in advance as part of groups registered with agents approved by the Saudi government. This is compulsory even for those who have alternatives; because that is the only way the hotels and apartment blocks of members of the royal family and their friends will get patronage. They have turned the Hajj into a business enterprise.”
Unfamiliarity with Hajj operations presented as informed opinion, unfortunately, by a writer whose calling is devoid of correlation with pilgrims’ accommodation during Hajj or Umrah. Pilgrims are neither ‘forced to pay accommodation fees in advance’ nor are they required to do so directly with any hotel or apartment.
The Saudi Hajj authorities deal with their counterparts from other countries in matters of accommodation and other logistics for pilgrims; individual arrangements are not encouraged in Hajj. In Nigeria for example the state pilgrim boards and agencies act on behalf of our pilgrims, just as private Hajj operators do so for those hajjis who desire higher standard of services.
A pilgrim must belong to a group, state owned or private, for easy coordination and monitoring by Hajj Ministry officials, of standard of service rendered to pilgrims. Hajj visas are issued only to groups, barring gratis, Mujaamalah visa given as diplomatic concession to government officials, and oftentimes to those who can pay. Individual pilgrims ‘who have alternatives’ are part of the problems Hajj authorities are trying to solve by blockading their source of visa, as witnessed this year.
Many of those who wanted to be on Hajj on their individual arrangement could not make it because very few Mujaamalah visas were issued by the Saudi embassy. Most of them do not ‘have alternatives’ other than squatting with, and overstretching the facilities provided for pilgrims on group arrangement.
Hajj payments must be made early in order for state pilgrim boards/agencies and group organisers to sign contracts with other service providers in Saudi Arabia. It has nothing to do with Adamu Adamu’s assertion of the Saudi government forcing pilgrims ‘to pay accommodation fees in advance’. Nigerian Hajj authorities have always encouraged early payments by intending pilgrims to ensure efficient and speedy completion of logistics on the Saudi side, which is not restricted to accommodation.
As soon as pilgrims return for this year’s Hajj every organised group, governmental or private, springs into action to perfect strategies for new payments and arrangements for next year’s operation. That is the modus operandi of Hajj processes; it is not ‘the only way the hotels and apartment blocks of members of the royal family and their friends will get patronage’…, as Adamu Adamu claimed.
Ownership of hotels and apartments is not the exclusive preserve of members of the royal family. Adamu Adamu said the Saudis ‘have turned the Hajj into a business enterprise’. Allah has not forbidden business in Hajj (Al-Baqarah, 2:198). The pilgrimage season has been, and will continue to be, the backbone of commercial activities in Makkah, from the time of ignorance through the advent of Islam, until the end of the world.
The Hajj period is important to the inhabitants of Makkah who rely heavily on it in terms of increased financial activity in the areas of real estate, industry, trade, and the hospitality industry. Hajj makes many Makkan families generate their annual income. There are shop owners who open only during the Hajj, and close after it because they have made enough money to sustain them for the whole year. Hajj creates jobs for a lot of people: students, the unemployed and even those who are employed but take their leave during Hajj in order to earn extra income.
Islamic organisations invest in Hajj by building hotels in Makkah, especially now that America, under the pretext of the war on terror, has succeeded in stalling the movement of cash from donors to Muslim associations. Islamic organisations use returns from such Makkan investments to finance social programmes in favour of the poor, needy and distressed people around the world.
Such funds also enable them to go into Waqf (endowment) projects in the area of relief and humanitarian services – to build and maintain mosques; for the education, sponsoring and rehabilitation of hundreds of thousands of orphans around the world. They also take care of students and Muslim preachers in thousands of Islamic centres around the world.
These are not Adamu Adamu’s ‘preachers who get petrodollars in order to keep quiet and those who keep quiet in order to get petrodollars.’ No; they are people receiving whatever these Muslim bodies are able to send, despite America’s blockade to blight the light of Islam, to assist them in da’wah. They are the opposite of those other preachers and modern intellectuals who receive petrodollars from Iran in order to confound the truth!
The five star Makkah based Le Meridien Towers project provided club reservations and owner services in religious tourism. The property offered pilgrims and visitors to Makkah a chance to buy a deed of partial ownership in a range of apartments, varying from studios to one bedroom and two bedroom units. Many Nigerians have invested in this project. Or are these Nigerian investors members of the Saudi royal family?
There is also the Saudi government’s King Abdulaziz Endowment project waqf ownership of apartment which embodies the Zam Zam Tower Complex adjacent to the Ka’bah. It enables Muslims all over the world to own apartments on a long-term leasing programme. This page will not contain the names of Nigerians who have invested in this project, as well as those of investors from Malaysia, Brunei, etc.
Adamu Adamu’s accusations then that these buildings are only ‘hotels and apartment blocks of members of the royal family’ are baseless! This religious endowment is regulated by Islamic Law and was established for the purpose of raising revenue to finance maintenance and the enhancement of the Grand Mosque in Makkah and the Prophets Mosque in Madinah.
I share Adamu Adamu’s sentiments ‘that returning Nigerian female pilgrims will not help Saudi management of the Hajj.’ But I am strongly averse to his call for ‘return of the Haramayn—what remains of them—to world Muslims…’ No, as that is another name for Iran which has for ever yearned for the control of the Haramayn.
During Hajj 2008, large number of Iranian pilgrims overpowered the guards at, and entered, Al-Baqee’ graveyard, close to the Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah where they desecrated and even urinated on a grave identified as that of Aishah, (may Allah be pleased with her), the wife of the Messenger of Allah (SAW). It took the Saudi security forces some time before they were able to disperse this riotous crowd; one person died and scores injured. Is this the ‘world Muslims’ management that Adamu Adamu is advocating?
Adamu Adamu concluded his series by saying that it is only when the Haramayn return under the control of ‘world Muslims’….‘will pilgrims begin to witness that which is of benefit to them.’ This betrays ignorance of the import of verses 27 and 28 of Suratul Hajj as stated earlier.
He then connected this to a ‘comprehensive facility management of the Haramayn, effective sign posting and efficient human traffic management and effective vehicle traffic control; and, above all, hospitality to the guests of Allah and an environment that is conducive for what they are there to do…’ This is exactly what the Saudis have been doing efficiently – every pilgrim to the Haramayn can vouch for this. It is meaningless to advocate the establishment of what is already in existence.
The Saudis are humans, liable, like all of us, to committing mistakes. I hate their reliance on the West, and their role or lack of it on Palestine. But I will defend their effective management and maintenance of the Haramayn, as well as their ‘hospitality to the guests of Allah’. Adamu Adamu’s last paragraph should rather have ended with this prayer:
May Allah reward the Saudis for their ‘comprehensive facility management of the Haramayn, effective sign posting and efficient human traffic management and effective vehicle traffic control; and, above all, hospitality to the guests of Allah.’