I was delighted to read the article “Say no to Haj selfie!” this week in this newspaper, about the increasing habit of pilgrims taking pictures of themselves praying or just posing in Makkah, Madinah and Mount Arafat and then posting them online.
As the article rightly pointed out, the boastful attitude of many of the picture takers totally defeats the spiritual journey that every pilgrim undertakes when embarking on Haj or Umrah. Unfortunately, this is just a reflection of what people, Muslims and non-Muslims, are doing in their everyday lives, snapping nonstop selfies and immediately posting them on Twitter and Facebook with showoff captions that are meant to both say at once: Look at how great/intelligent/good-looking/lucky/happy/rich I am, and how your life sucks in comparison! And they’re by no means all teenagers or in their twenties. Far from it.
I am so tired of having to look at the stream of narcissistic snaps of friends online, which usually consist of their smiling face taking up 90 percent of the frame with just enough of the background to let you know where they are. You would think they would get sick of constantly staring at themselves, but no, they never seem to tire of their own reflection. A 44-year-old friend in the Philippines who works in a call center constantly posts photos of himself in the office with his co-workers, in what are very boring pictures unless you happen to work there too. A Saudi friend, also in his 40s, posts pictures of himself online in various mental states, sometimes sad, sometimes happy, and sometimes tired. In one he looked positively criminal. Of course, I didn’t comment on his particularly murderous looking eyes, but I wonder why would someone want the whole world to see them looking like they could kill you at the slightest provocation?
And then there is my Brazilian friend in his 30s, a high school teacher, who constantly sends me close ups of his face during the day as it progresses with captions: “Me at school,” “me resting after classes”, “me awake after my nap.” I just don’t get how these people are so unselfconscious that they just snap themselves all day long and do not feel the least bit embarrassed about being so self-centered. It’s just pure shamelessness.
This brings me to the flip side of some selfies that I find delightful: Group selfies. One of them was used to illustrate the Arab News article and showed a group of smiling pilgrims in front of the Kaaba in Makkah, all of them waving at the camera. I found that image beautiful and a testament to beauty of all Muslims and Islam. Images like that are excellent advertisements for our religion and can help attract non-Muslims to inquire about Islam and perhaps even convert. As long as the people taking pictures in the Haram or in other holy sites are not blocking the path of other pilgrims, and are being respectful, I do not see why selfies cannot be taken in moderation. As one reader pointed out, photos and videos are excellent ways of recording the Haj for future generations and of allowing them to see older relatives and family friends who are no longer alive through these images.
But apart from just taking selfies during Haj with their smartphones, all pilgrims should be given software that helps them perform their pilgrimage better, correctly, safer, and enables them to record various aspects of it such as the number of steps taken every day, map their daily steps and other such features. I recently read about a new application for phones that instructed pilgrims what to do at each stage of the Haj, i.e. what to pray, what to recite from the Holy Qur’an and how long to stay on Mount Arafat.
We must harness technology to our benefit and enjoyment. There is nothing wrong with selfies as long as we do not take them with the intention to be boastful and are respectful of our holy surroundings when doing so. But it would be much better if we really harnessed the true potential of our smartphones to have a much more productive and smoother Haj. Now that would please and benefit everyone.
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The writer is a Saudi journalist based in Brazil.
