Haj is over. The pilgrims now prepare to depart, to make their long and for many difficult journeys home — home to the ordinary lives and worlds they normally inhabit.
It has been a remarkably successful Haj. There have been no incidents. That, considering three million people took part, is no small achievement. Although there can be no such thing as absolute safety when millions gather in a limited area, lessons have been learned from earlier years. Every possible precaution has been taken to prevent stampede, especially during the stoning ritual that in the past has led to tragedies, some with considerable loss of lives. The small Jamrat bridge always seemed inadequate to cope with the ever-increasing number of pilgrims. But that is a thing of the past. It is four levels now — ground floor, plus three additional stories. This plus the presence of more than 300,000 security personnel facilitated the smooth flow of pilgrims.
Sadly, there will still almost certainly be stories of pilgrims left stranded by incompetent or unscrupulous travel operators. It happens every year despite the best efforts of the authorities to regulate the business. But even that cannot take away from what has been an extremely fine operation. The authorities can congratulate themselves on a job well done. And not merely the authorities. Thousands of Saudi volunteers were on hand to help pilgrims, an overwhelming majority of them new to the holy sites and most of them non-Arabic speaking.
For the pilgrims, Haj has, as ever, been a chance to strengthen and refocus their own faith. It has been an experience of a lifetime. They now take that stronger faith back to their homes, whether in nearby Jeddah or the furthest recesses of the globe, to guide and inspire them in the ways of love, compassion and peace — for the rest of their lives.
The global economic crisis certainly made its presence felt, not just in the grand mufti’s sermon at Mount Arafat, when he attributed it to human greed and the use of interest, calling on Muslims to return to Islamic principles and to unite in a single economic block. It was felt in the smaller contingents coming from the US and Europe too. So in one sense, the secular intruded on the sacred at this year’s Haj. But only in one sense, because there is no difference between the two in Islam.
It is an understanding of that indivisible unity between the ordinary and the extraordinary, between the mundane and the divine, that the pilgrims take home as a resource for their future conduct. The experience of being just one individual in a numberless sea of pilgrims, all with the same hopes, the same fervor, the same devotion, all equal in the sight of God, with no difference between rich and poor, between old and young, between white, black and brown cannot but have affected anyone there, made them better people.
We must hope that the cleansing, purifying, inspiring experience of Haj is lifelong in its effects and that back home, inspired, they will show the understanding and tolerance that is central to Islam.
