MINA, 22 December 2007 — The stoning ritual went very smoothly and by 1 p.m., half of Mina was deserted. Once pilgrims have completed the stoning ritual, they are free to depart Mina. Many will go back to Makkah to perform Tawaf Al-Wida (farewell circumambulation) before heading home. We started early in the morning because this was the last day of the pilgrimage; the crowds would be thinning, and by afternoon we would be on our way home. All the journalists are elated that their duty is almost done. Calls have been made to wives and children telling them to get ready to celebrate. Everyone is packing so that we can make our last rounds of Mina, write the last story and hurry home.
With the excellent conditions for Haj this year, Ghulam Muhammad Vastanvi, a well-known Indian Islamic scholar, stated that there should be a vote of gratitude to the Saudi government’s attention to making this event safe and successful. “The media always pillories the authorities when there is a problem at the Haj. This year there is only good news to report. Muslims everywhere should express their thanks to the Saudi leaders for giving such overwhelming attention to the pilgrimage at a time when their focus must be divided between many other serious concerns in the region.”
Today was cool with crystal blue skies. The sun played hide and seek. The streets of Mina are very clean this year. There are plenty of rubbish bins and the pilgrims have kept the spirit of Haj by placing their garbage in the clearly marked receptacles. The Bangladeshi janitors deserve all appreciation. They are in the streets and camps sweeping and picking up trash continuously. Many pilgrims have commented on the good services provided by these cleaners and we must offer them our gratitude for helping to maintain sanitation and so preventing the possible spread of disease.
There are pilgrims of every age. Those from the Indian Subcontinent are quite elderly. Fifty is the average age of the Indian and Pakistani pilgrims. This means that a large number are crippled and infirm. They manage to get through the rituals by helping each other, but at the end of each day they are exhausted, their bodies completely worn out. Many mentioned to this diarist that they wished they had found a way to perform Haj when they were younger. Pilgrims from the subcontinent tend to use their retirement or end of service benefits to finance the Haj.
On the other hand, looking at the Haj contingents from Indonesia and Malaysia, it is easy to see the difference. Most of these pilgrims are young adults. Societies in these nations encourage people to take on the duty of Haj before marriage.
All the tents in Mina are high-tech, fireproof ones. However, this was not the case before 1997 when a fire swept through the tent city killing 343 people. Some 11,000 such tents were erected in 1998, 17,000 in 1999, and an extra 40,000 in 2000. Each tent, made of fiberglass coated with teflon, has a heat-sensitive water sprinkler, which is linked to an alarm system, and electric lighting. The Saudi government spent $640 million on the project. The authorities then put a ban on gas stoves and the stockpiling of gas canisters because the 1997 blaze was blamed on a gas stove used in a tent. Most of the pilgrims have since then turned to fast-food outlets.
Talking about fast-food outlets, the ones that stood out here in Mina are those of Al-Baik. In a previous interview, Rami Abu-Ghazaleh, CEO of Express Foods, the company that operates Al-Baik restaurants, said their Haj operation revolved around outlets in Mina which are strategically located to serve hajis. During Haj, Al-Baik serves only one kind of meal, their signature chicken-fillet nuggets: 10 large nuggets of whole-breast fillet with fries, a bun and ketchup, for SR11.
“No one in our team looks at what we do during Haj as a job,” he said. “It is a duty that we have been blessed with: to provide the millions of pilgrims coming to Makkah with clean, great-tasting food.” He says the honor to serve pilgrims can never be translated into monetary gains. “It is worship. It is a duty.”
Abu-Ghazaleh says the municipality gives the company the green light to begin site preparation about a month before Haj. “By then we’ve already designed everything and our contractors have their orders. The plots assigned to us are incredibly small, because in Mina every square inch needs to be utilized to the maximum. Over the five days of Haj, we require hundreds of trained employees who have the stamina to work 18-hour days. The challenge is where to find them, when to train them, where to house them. Then the Mina area becomes a no-drive zone about five days before Haj, except for a limited number of delivery trucks, so delivering to the outlets is a challenge.”
Those who visited Al-Baik last night wondered why only nuggets were available in Mina. “We want the mouth-watering spicy chicken broast dipped in garlic sauce ... That is what Al-Baik is known for,” they said.
It was indeed the most organized Haj. During the eight years that I have been reporting this event, this time everything went according to plan. No sirens. No rumors. No deaths. And no international headlines! Haj Mabroor.
