MINA, 11 January 2006 — Yesterday morning there were no police cars rushing by, no convoys of ambulances tearing toward the hospitals. The sun rose on a scene that was eerily quiet in the Mina camps. For the first time in five years, on this Eid Al-Adha we were woken by the beeping of the alarm clock, not the wailing of sirens. Early in the morning our phones weren’t ringing incessantly with news agencies demanding confirmation of some horrible rumor of deaths on the Jamrat Bridge. It was wonderful! In the past our first destination on this day used to be the emergency wards of the hospitals. Thanks be to Allah, this year we slept well and woke up to the smiling faces of pilgrims returning after performing the stoning ritual.
After a difficult day at Arafat on Monday, many journalists were among the first to reach Mina. The tent town was still mostly empty because all the pilgrims were massing in Muzdalifah to spend a night under the stars and to collect pebbles for the stoning of the devil ritual. Imagine our surprise then when on a quick visit to the Jamrat area we saw hundreds of people stoning Jamrat Al-Aqaba. At midnight barbers were already busy shaving the heads of male pilgrims. Strange.
The weather on Monday night was especially cold and since our media group was riding two-wheeled scooters, we could feel the chill in the breeze as we headed toward Mina. Our thoughts immediately went to the pilgrims camping in Muzdalifah in their ihram under open skies. The pilgrims that we spoke to yesterday morning said that they were shivering most of the night. They added that they didn’t feel miserable though because there was some sort of spiritual warmth that kept them going. Throughout the night they recited verses from the Holy Qur’an and contemplated their resolutions for leading a totally new life.
Thus far this is the most successful Haj ever witnessed and the credit should go to all the Haj agencies. They have been working in tandem and in complete harmony to ensure that the rituals are moving forward peacefully. The Interior Ministry, the tawafa organizations, the Haj Ministry, the Boy Scouts, various country missions — so many dedicated individuals working in teams have played a part in making this a smooth exercise.
Yesterday there was some crowding at the Jamrat, which is normal. This year it was easy to see, however, that the lessons in crowd management have been well learned. All the pilgrims were made to follow a designated route on the Jamrat bridge and once they completed the stoning they had to take a specific path to return to their camps. This ensured that there was no clash between the oncoming and returning pilgrims. In the past, pilgrims who had completed the ritual would take the same route through which they had come, resulting in complete chaos. This is now forbidden.
Of course knowing all the ins and outs of Haj takes years of experience. With numerous news outlets springing up throughout the Muslim world, every year more journalists are at the holy sites to cover the pilgrimage. The management of some news organizations believes that anyone can be sent to cover Haj. In some cases this person can even be far removed from the scene. There is no doubt that a person sitting hundreds or thousands of kilometers away from Mina may be able to give reports on the activities taking place. The basics of the rituals never change. They have been so for the past 14 centuries and we all know the sequence of events over the five days of the pilgrimage. What we don’t know is how the pilgrimage will eventually unfold. Without being immersed in the life of the pilgrims, a journalist is unable to add special details to the copy and the reports will be dull and colorless.
Now who exactly qualifies to be a journalist reporting on Haj is certainly debatable. One Indian television station has in fact taken on the manager of a “boufiya” restaurant in Makkah as their star reporter for the pilgrimage. It seems that they had a small disagreement with their star reporter of previous years over compensation. When they found out that the “boufiya” manager would work for free, the TV station signed him on. One can only speculate about the specific angle that the TV station’s management hoped the “boufiya” correspondent would bring to their Haj coverage. Perhaps by tomorrow he can be including liver and egg sandwich recipes in his reports!
Excellent reports are coming to the attention of the media concerning the new policy of the Fawaz Abdul Aziz Al-Hokair Company, owners of numerous retail establishments across the Kingdom including Geant. Al-Hokair have given their employees, which number in the thousands, the opportunity to perform Haj at corporate expense. Mir Haider from Bangladesh working in a distribution center for one of the company’s clothing stores in Riyadh and Keralite Zainul Abedeen, a driver at the company, were fulsome in their praise for Al-Hokair’s generosity. This was the first year that such an offer was made and the company allowed any employee who met the government’s requirements for the Haj permit to join Al-Hokair’s “hamla” (Haj offer). The only money that the Al-Hokair employees paid for the Haj was SR350 for the sacrifice. The employees said that all in the group were praying for the welfare and continued success of Al-Hokair’s management.
As the afternoon of Eid Al-Adha progressed in Mina, the sun hid behind a bank of clouds. A pleasant breeze was blowing and more and more pilgrims came out to the street dressed in their best, colorful clothes. Everyone was smiling and the men kept rubbing their hands over their unusually shaved pates. Most looked very tired but satisfaction shone in their eyes. These pilgrims have accomplished a large task and now is the moment for a bit of relaxation and joy. Eid Mubarak.
