More than 1.8 billion Muslims are turning their eyes and hearts towards Mecca hoping to be among the lucky pilgrims who are standing on Mount Arafat today. Whether they visited the holy shrines in Mecca or not, most Muslims must have been heartbroken this year for missing out the chance or even hope of performing this religious duty this year as Saudi Authorities decided to limit the Hajj to those live inside the Kingdom as part of precautionary measures to contain the spread of Covid-19 pandemic, which has claimed the lives of more than four million people worldwide.
Only 30,000 pilgrims were allowed to perform Hajj this year, compared to three million the Kingdom used to receive every season. Only 10,000 people were allowed to make it last year.
Hajj is one of the main five Islamic pillars Muslims should perform at least once in their life if they are financially and physically capable. Unfortunately, the Covid-19 pandemic added another aspect to the people’s inability to practice this main pillar of Islam, namely the social distancing.
Hajj is much more than visiting the Holy shrines of Mecca and Medinna. It is the greatest spiritual event a Muslim would experience in his/her life. Mecca is the birthplace of Prophet Mohammed and it is where he received his first revelation. It is also the location of the Ka’ba, the first Masjed that was built for humans to worship Allah (the One God).
Even before Islam, the Ka’ba was sacred to the Arab tribes who worshipped many deities. Therefore, Arabs used to travel to Mecca every year and observe the sacred days of hajj, during which violence was forbidden and trade flourished. However, the revelation of Islam to the Prophet Muhammad in (632) restored the ancient religion of the One God to the Arab people and transformed Mecca into the holiest city in the Islamic world.
Since then, Muslims have been flocking into Mecca every year to perform this holy trip on foot, camels, boat, train or plane. Although the rituals take just five to six days, pilgrims begin preparing for the journey two or three months earlier. In the past, there was the need to organise large convoys in every country to transport pilgrims to Mecca. In the modern time, people would only need the time to apply for a visa via various religious and tourist agencies.
The continuous growth of the Muslim population prompted Saudi Authorities to embark on continuous expansions of the holy sites to absorb the increasing number of pilgrims.
In 2011, I accompanied my mother to perform Hajj, which was also witnessed by more than five million people on that year, causing terrible traffic jam at the several routs leading to the holy sites in Mecca and Medinna.
Despite the difficulties, I have personally faced while performing the rituals, I was overjoyed to see how eager this big number of Muslims are to perform this holy duty given the fact that many of them may have to spend their life savings to perform this religious duty.
The Saudi authorities, on the other hand, decided the next year to limit the number of pilgrims to no more than three million. Moreover, strict measures were imposed on domestic tourism to ensure a comfortable and safe visit for the pilgrims, the majority of whom are elderly.
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