When he received the security forces commanders who took part in this year’s Haj operations, Interior Minister Prince Naif, said, “Islamic scholars in the Kingdom and elsewhere must extrapolate solutions from the Qur’an and Sunnah in order for pilgrims to have more time for the stoning ritual, be it before or after noon. This is extremely important and is their duty to save the lives of Muslims.”

He added, “I have great hope in our scholars, that they will educate Muslims and pilgrims and make Haj rituals easier for them, especially the ritual of stoning the Jamrat on the 12th of Dul Hijjah at a particular time. We saw that after the call for Dhuhr prayer, people were rushing forth in thousands to a narrow space, all wanting to stone the Jamrat.”

Prince Naif was of course referring to Thursday’s deadly stampede in Mina which claimed the lives of more than 360 people. It is quite clear from his words that he was focusing on the Shariah aspects of stoning at Jamrat before noon.

In a similar statement, Deputy Haj Minister Hatem Qadi pointed out that the main reason for the stampede was that many pilgrims insisted on stoning the Jamrat soon after noon and they stood on the bridge in large numbers, without moving forward and without allowing others to move forward in order to perform the ritual.

According to Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki, the stampede was caused by pilgrims who were in a rush to leave Mina and so carried their bags with them and by squatters who were waiting for noon to stone the Jamrat.

All these statements illustrate clearly that stoning the Jamrat after noon is the crux of the problem; it is repeated during every Haj and upsets all measures taken by government departments for the performance of Haj in an organized way. Every year, after every stampede we hear the same statements on the need for a religious solution to end the problem once and for all.

Sheikh Saleh Al-Sadlan, a professor of jurisprudence at Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University in Riyadh, says there are more than 30 solutions for ending the stampede at the Jamrat. The solutions have been presented by individuals and organizations to the King Fahd Haj Institute at Umm Al-Qura University.

These solutions, Al-Sadlan says, include a religious edict — a fatwa — allowing pilgrims to stone Jamrat before noon on the 12th of Dul Hijjah; the fatwa was issued by some Muslim scholars and the attitude toward that fatwa was not as rigid as before. “A day will come when all Islamic scholars will agree on a solution to solve the problem of stampedes at Jamrat,” he said. “There is no issue without a solution in Shariah.”

At the same time, the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Asheikh said, when asked about the possibility of allowing pilgrims to stone Jamrat round the clock, “The hallmark of the Sunnah is easiness and there is nothing difficult in it. But we cannot mix easiness and Shariah rules. Stoning at Jamrat is an easy thing. We have adequate time for doing that from 12 noon until the next morning.”

We understood from his statement published in Okaz Arabic daily that he was not in favor of stoning the Jamrat before noon.

What is the solution? Sheikh Al-Sadlan says there is nothing wrong in stoning the Jamrat before noon. Many other Islamic scholars have the same opinion but the Grand Mufti says not. Where are the 30 solutions presented to the Haj Institute? Can Islamic scholars find a solution to this problem which has already claimed the lives of hundreds of pilgrims?