Contrary to all forecasts, Mina is hot, not cold. The sun is out in full force and one can see beads forming on the wrinkled faces of many elderly pilgrims. This city of tents was a quiet refuge from the hustle and bustle of Makkah on Sunday night. It was not to last. By dawn the trickle of incoming pilgrims had become a flood. Sadly, many wore an air of confused desperation. Many pilgrims were unable to locate their camps amid the sea of white tents. They kept asking uniformed men for the way to their temporary lodgings. All the camps are numbered, but the exact division of the tent city is not clear. Knowing just the camp number is not enough to be able to find a specific location.
Mina is a small city; it is a valley and as far as your eye can see, tents cover every open space. They have been neatly arranged, row after row. The entrances to many of the tents are decorated and festooned with colorful banners. This helps pilgrims identify their temporary residences from among so many that all look the same. Huge balloons of different colors hang in the sky over certain locations to help pilgrims find their tents. Security officers are everywhere: on every bridge, street and crossing. They will not allow any vehicle to park, even for a minute, on the roadsides.
Is it a bridge or is it a complex? That is the question that journalists have been asking themselves since they first landed here on Sunday night. In the past, the road leading to the Jamrat, the place where Satan is symbolically stoned by pilgrims, was indeed a bridge in the conventional sense. It was more like a flyover. But now it is a huge concrete complex with multiple entry points and exits. Nearly SR4 billion has been spent on the third phase of the project. The first and second phases were inaugurated by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah last year. The complex’s foundation has been designed for 12 stories. When complete, it will be able to accommodate five million pilgrims. Right now, ground plus two floors are complete and will be in use this year. The dense crowds and stampedes that had become a routine Haj story will now be history. That is for sure.
First timers are naturally awed by the arrangements and logistics. Everyone is talking about the wonderful job done by Saudi authorities for this Haj. Even those of us who have been here before are finding this pilgrimage to be the most highly organized ever seen. The area is clean. Transportation is very organized. There are no queues for toilets or ablution facilities. Even frayed tempers are at a minimum this year. Very few illegal squatters and even fewer plastic tents are under the bridges. With the logistics under control, the pilgrims are feeling increasingly confident that their journey of a lifetime will be a success.
When the pilgrims arrive in Mina, they come with mixed feelings of trepidation, joy and reflection. They think of the rituals they must perform so there is trepidation. They count themselves lucky to be in the tent city on this day of the lunar month. Their joy is unequaled. And the whole exercise reminds them of life gone by, the wrongs they committed and the time they wasted. So it is natural to reflect on the past and pray for inspiration in the future. On Tuesday on the plains of Arafat they will bare their hearts to God and beseech Him to forgive them and bless them with the fulfillment of their fondest desires.
Once again many pilgrims from former Soviet republics such as Dagestan are in Mina this year. These Muslims take as long as six months to reach Makkah. They move in a caravan and sell goods at numerous markets in countries on the way to Saudi Arabia. One is reminded of the three main caravans that set out to Makkah until the 19th century. According to an article in the highly reputable and respected Saudi Aramco World magazine, the Egyptian caravan set out from Cairo, crossed the Sinai Peninsula and then followed the coastal plain of western Arabia to Makkah, a journey which took from 35 to 40 days. It included pilgrims from North Africa, who crossed the deserts of Libya and joined the caravan in Cairo. The other great caravan assembled in Damascus, Syria and moved south via Madinah, reaching Makkah in about 30 days. After the capture of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks in 1453, this caravan began in Istanbul, gathered pilgrims from throughout Asia Minor along the way, and then proceeded to Makkah from Damascus. The third major caravan crossed the peninsula, coming from Baghdad.
One improvement from the pilgrims’ side is that the Haj awareness campaigns launched by individual nations appear to be paying off. There is more of an understanding that Haj is a duty that should be completed as early in life as possible. In the past, most of the younger pilgrims were from Malaysia and Indonesia. This year many young pilgrims from India and Pakistan are present as well. Improved economies in those nations have allowed more people the opportunity to perform Haj and it is good to see younger Muslims making the effort to put their improved finances to good use.
Here is an interesting Haj nugget worth mentioning: It seems that one of the most spectacular pilgrimages ever made was that of Mansa Musa, the King of Mali. In 1324, he set off across the Sahara with 500 assistants, each carrying a golden staff weighing six pounds. He was followed by 100 camels, each carrying a load of gold weighing 300 pounds. Mansa Musa was truly pious and very generous — so much so that 12 years after his stay in Cairo, the price of gold had still not recovered. He distributed the bulk of his fortune to charity in Makkah and Madinah, returning home practically a pauper, but having assured himself of the praises of posterity.
