The weather conditions improved for the Standing at Arafat. When we left Mina in the morning the weather was cool but bearable. Within one hour of leaving from Mina we reached our temporary office at Arafat, thanks to our motorbikes, which allowed us to bypass the heaviest of the traffic. There was no serious problem with the sun this year, although all measures were in place to cool down the pilgrims if necessary. However, with the partially cloudy weather and low temperatures, there was never a need to turn the sprinklers on. This is quite a change from the weather conditions at Haj two decades ago.
As the Islamic calendar is a lunar calendar, it shifts by about 11 days annually in the Gregorian calendar. This also results in Haj moving through all the seasons of the year over a 33-year period.
It is also of interest to note that due to the shifting of the Islamic calendar, this is actually the second Haj that took place in 2006. The last Standing at Arafat was on Jan. 10 this year.
Telephone connectivity at Arafat was quite good compared to the struggles with connectivity experienced in Mina. The difficulties in using the cellular networks in Saudi Arabia during the Haj have led Saudi Binladin Group, the Pilgrim Establishments (Hamlat), Saudi Electricity Company and many other organizations providing services at Haj to subscribe to PTC’s telecom services, better known as the Bravo network.
Four of Bravo’s employees normally assigned to work in Riyadh, were providing support services during Haj. Mohammed Aijazuddin and Mohammed Akbar Khan, both radio frequency engineers and Mohammed Shakir Rahman and Mujtaba Ali, operations and maintenance engineers, all from Hyderabad, joined Bravo’s Western Province team to ensure that the network is optimized during the holy rituals. Bravo’s network is a business communications network, not open to individuals. This means that unlike the Kingdom’s two GSM networks, it is not under extreme pressure during Haj and will not have service outages. One feature of Bravo’s services, “Push to Talk,” allows a user to “push” a message out to 99 other Bravo users by pressing just one button. This is extremely important in an emergency situation when directions need to be given for an assembly point or when specific information on a crisis must be provided quickly to many people.
Bravo’s engineers were at Arafat constantly checking that the network was in top form.
One standard Haj feature that is not running optimally this year is transportation by motorbike. The authorities announced before the Haj that all motorcycles must be registered and could only be operated by licensed drivers. This has led to the police confiscating hundreds of motorbikes and scooters as reported by us on Thursday. It’s not surprising that this is the case.
Before Haj, the Saudi Research and Publishing Company, the publisher of Arab News, sent out a group of 11 people to register for motorcycle driving licenses. Of that group, only three people succeeded in getting the licenses.
The process to get a motorcycle driving license is very painful. Before even appearing at the traffic police station, a company letter, blood test, eye examination, completed license application and an SR225 fee are required. Then it is necessary to be fingerprinted. Next comes the actual motorcycle driving test. After that there is a road sign test in Arabic. A police report must be issued stating that the applicant is not a criminal and has no outstanding traffic fines. Then the applicant must show that he has adequate road insurance. Only after all these procedures are completed can the license be issued. It took four days of running back and forth between government offices, and standing in line for hour after hour, before just three of our team managed to qualify for the motorcycle license. With so few of the group having the ability to operate the motorbikes, we are now more in demand for our driving skills rather than our writing skills! I must advise my respected mother and father that all that time I spent cruising around town on a motorbike during my college days did turn out to be useful after all.
Once in Arafat, it was immediately apparent that Masjid Al-Nimra was the focus of activities for many of the pilgrims. As many pilgrims as possible tried to pray within the confines of this historic place. We also saw that many pilgrims were resting under the neem trees. Major landscaping efforts were begun more than a decade ago at Arafat and the trees are watered year round by the authorities — although they are actually only needed on this one day each year. Planting trees is just a tiny part of what the Saudi government has done in the last decades to improve the pilgrimage and make the rituals accessible to Muslims from around the world. Billions of riyals are spent annually in infrastructure and service projects for the Haj. The Saudi government and the country’s generous people never complain about how much of the nation’s GDP is spent on these projects. As Arab News Editor in Chief Khaled Almaeena mentioned in an interview with Riz Khan on Al-Jazeerah’s English broadcast on Thursday, Saudi Arabia never looks at Haj as a burden and the people of Makkah and Madinah are especially helpful and courteous to all the pilgrims.
Despite heroic efforts to improve the pilgrimage year after year, Western news agencies, in particular, never hesitate to attempt to politicize the holy rituals. This year, rumors of the dangers from potential terrorists at the Haj are being propagated by numerous Western news agencies. There is not a shred of evidence of such danger, but these reports keep multiplying. The fact is that the pilgrims are too busy with the rituals to care about politics. The journey of Haj is jihad in itself. So many pilgrims save for their entire lives to make the trip. Then there is the struggle through all the paperwork required for this journey.
Finally, there is the long journey itself to the Haj and then back home again.
Throughout it all the Saudi government is standing by, free of charge, to be of service. With the successful completion of the Standing at Arafat, tens of thousands of security personnel are being brought in to Mina to try and ensure the safe completion of the stoning rituals.
There is no time for politics. At Haj, prayer is the preoccupation.
