The Pilgrimage

Photo Essay by Bahram Mia, #ShotOniPhone

Every year towards the beginning of the final month of the Islamic Hijri calendar, millions of Muslims from all over the world begin a spiritual migration, descending on the two holy sanctuaries of Madinah and Makkah.

The journey known as the Hajj, is the 5th foundational pillar of Islam, and obligatory upon every able bodied and sane Muslim who has the financial means to do so.

The pilgrimage sees Muslims follow in the footsteps of their father Abraham (A.S), his wife Hajjar and their son Ismail. It is said that the body remembers, but for the Muslim so does the soul. And as Muslims tread on the well beaten Abrahamic path, something unspoken is triggered as they are thrown into an ocean where the seas of the timeless past and the present converge, remembering their oath of "أَلَسْتُ بِرَبِّكُمْ"

The pilgrimage is also a commentary on the human condition, from race to economics, as one is exposed to the disparate realities of privilege experienced by Muslims the world over. But as is the belief of Muslims, the pilgrimage offers a cause to pause, to act to better the condition of one's fellow man; as men and women from, in the words of Malcolm, "every rank and colour" stand side by side drawn before the magnificent Kaaba.

Coping with the arrival of between 2-4 million people, each trying to get to the same place at the same time, is also a daunting logistical challenge for the Saudi authorities, who in recent years have had to respond to the stampeding deaths of pilgrims and growing environmental concerns. Infrastructure development has been key in responding to these challenges, and the cities of Makkah and Madinah can in places feel like construction sites.

A concerted effort has also been made by authorities under the leadership of Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman to restore historically significant sites and buildings, breaking from a long standing tradition of closures and neglect of heritage areas under previous leadership.

The challenges the pilgrimage brings though aren’t without reward, offering an $8 billion injection into the Saudi economy, with many migrants who live in the country making a substantial amount of their years earnings from the Hajj.

This is the pilgrimage.

Madinah al Munnawarh (City of Light) is the resting place of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, many of his family and companions. Although the Pilgrimage and all its rites occur in Makkah, for Muslims the hajj isn't truly complete without visiting the city of the Prophet ﷺ, whose burial place under the famous green dome built by the Ottomans is considered more sacred than the Kaaba itself.

The Green dome is the crown jewel of the structure of Masjid Al Nabawi (The Prophet's Mosque), with all life in the city revolving around it and the great burial ground of Jannat Al Baqi attached to it.

The Masjid complex is surrounded by a series of hotel chains boasting all the usual luxuries of life, occupied mostly by Muslims from the developed world. Traditional bazaars and products are accompanied by multinational flag bearers of capitalism. Starbucks, H&M, MAC; materialism beats on the fortified gates of the Masjid Nabawi, but is kept at bay by the presence of the Chosen One ﷺ.

The material experience of the city for pilgrims from the developed mostly Western world, is in stark contrast to those pilgrims from the developing and third world, who often walk several kilometres under the unforgiving Arabian sun in order to access the masjid.

Once there, it is not uncommon to see them forgoing their accommodation to sleep and stay exclusively within the Masjid Nabawi itself, so as not to miss a single prayer in it, a moment with their Prophet ﷺ.

Madinah and its surroundings are also home to a number of significant historical Islamic sites. Under the patronage of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman, a number of restoration projects for these sites have commenced, with some all but complete. The Salafist position of previous administrations saw most of these heritage sites in terrible condition, with some being destroyed.

From the planes of Badr to the foothills of Uhud, from Qiblatayn to Quba, each of these places hold the historical memory of events that had a seismic influence on not only the history of Islam, but of the world. Madinah was the first manifestation of Islam as a cogent social, economic and political force in a plural society, and set the blueprint for every subsequent Islamic civilisation to follow from the Umayyads to the Ottomans.

The existence of the city as we know it, formerly known as Yathrib, serves as a guide for Muslims on how to handle the question of refugee settlement and the movement of displaced people. The Muslims were refugees from Makkah fleeing persecution and death when they were taken in by the Ansar, or helpers, in Madinah. The treatment and integration of the refugees by the Ansar has many lessons that can be implemented in the modern context, where the question of immigration and settlement is a divisive lightening rod, both in the East and the West.

The renewal projects in Madinah have seen pilgrims flock to its historical sites by the busload, where migrants and refugees from countries like Yemen and Afghanistan, as well as locals set up bazaars to sell an assortment of items; oud, honey, naturopathic medicine, with some offering polaroid photography to pilgrims. Like monsoon rain to the Savannah, the economic impact of the pilgrimage for such migrants is significant.

The Hajj injects approximately $8 billion USD into the Saudi economy, with the Umra (lesser pilgrimage performed throughout the year) generating around $4 billion USD a year. Combined, the Pilgrimage is the second biggest revenue generator for The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia after the hydrocarbon industry.

 Makkah Al Mukarramah

Approximately 80km inland from the Red Sea between a corridor of mountains lies the holy city of Makkah. At the center of this ancient city is Masjid al Haram, the heart of which is the magnificent Kaaba. Despite the towering skyscrapers surrounding it, the Kaaba is undeniable. This ancient and simplest of stone structures is more majestic and grand than Everest itself. Time and space seem to collapse and bend around it, while the energy it emits seizes the gaze.

The blur of humanity endlessly circumambulating this unadulterated manifestation of Oneness inspired Malcolm to write "during the past eleven days here in the Muslim world, I have eaten from the same plate, drunk from the same glass, and slept on the same floor - while praying to the same God - with fellow Muslims, whose eyes were the bluest of blue, whose hair was the blondest of blond, and whose skin was the whitest of white. And in the words and deeds of the white Muslims, I felt the same sincerity that I felt among the black African Muslims of Nigeria, Sudan and Ghana."

Before entering Makkah Muslims are required to be in a state of ihram and to perform the Umrah upon arrival. The Umrah, known as the lesser pilgrimage, contains many of the rites of the Hajj to come and is performed by Muslims in ihram, a white seamless two piece garment, representing what Muslims are buried in and according to the Islamic tradition, the ontological reality of man who enters this world with nothing and departs from it with nothing. The Masjid Al Haram complex, an area no larger than 88 acres, sees millions of people enter it every day of the Hajj season, a logistically mammoth task for the Saudi authorities.

The flow of human traffic is directed by guards, who sometimes have the reputation of being too stern and firm, a demeanour that may be understandable considering the barriers of language and the task at hand. Millions of bodies also means the need for cleaning and waste management, a job that is undertaken by the cleaners of the Masjid al Haram, who are said to hold perhaps the most honorific job in the world for Muslims. The cleaners work extremely fast and efficiently as one unit, like a murmuration of starlings, they zip across the Masjid Al Haram in their green uniforms, somehow causing no disruption to the movement of millions of pilgrims. Coming from mostly IndoPak backgrounds, they stay in Saudi Arabia for months with some staying for decades. Pilgrims can be seen often giving tips to them, bolstering their earnings which they send to their families abroad.

Like Madinah, Makkah is home to a number of significant historical sites, many of which have undergone restoration after years of neglect which garnered criticism from Muslims the world over. The Saudi authorities have even created tourism campaigns around some like ‘Hike Saudi’, drawing on the rise of spiritual tourism amongst Muslims with disposable income in the West and those in the GCC. Perhaps the two most visited and significant of these sites are the great mountains of Nour and Thawr.

The cave of Hira at the peak of Jabal (Mt) Nour is where the Prophet Muhammad (saw) received revelation for the first time. It offers sweeping panoramic views of the desert Arabian landscape of Makkah. Tens of thousands of people ascend the mountain during the Hajj season, but the peace felt at the peak is juxtaposed by the hustle and bustle of the climbers on the way to the top and the detrimental environmental impact they make which can be seen on the mountain. Thousands of plastic bottles and rubbish is strewn across the mountainside as hikers try to hydrate against 40 degree plus conditions. Whilst waste management infrastructure is in place, it's difficult to implement on the mountainside itself.

The overall environmental impact of the Hajj is a monumental problem that the Kingdom faces. Every day of the Hajj period the landfill of Makkah is reported to receive 4.6 thousand tonnes of municipal solid waste (MSW), generated mostly by food, plastic waste, paper and cardboard. The MSW alone across the 5 official days of Hajj produces 169,204 tonnes of CO2 emissions. In 20 years time, with the push from the Kingdom to increase the number of pilgrims, it is expected that 44 million tonnes of MSW per day will be produced.

This is compounded by the sheer scale of pollution and waste brought about by other factors such as aviation, land transportation, electricity generation and liquid waste from sewage and slaughterhouses. The Saudi Green Building Forum (SGBF) has been formed to tackle many of the environmental concerns the Kingdom faces, and seeks to meet the Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman’s vision of net carbon neutrality by 2060.

Hajj

The 5 days of Hajj begin on the 8th day of the Islamic Hijiri calendar called Dhul Hijjah. Pilgrims make their intention, wash and enter into Ihram on the 8th day, then begin the journey to the city of Mina from the outer suburbs of Makkah. Most Westerners travel to Mina by bus, while some from less privileged countries make the 7km journey by foot. As part of the rites of Hajj, pilgrims are required to stay in Mina for one day and sleep overnight.

Mina, also known as “The Tent City” is a desert plain that gets transformed into a makeshift city for 5 days in the year, equipped with medical facilities, food vendors, sewage systems and the like. Pilgrims spend the day and night in prayers, listening to sermons, participating in inshad and in quiet contemplation inside air-conditioned tents. Some chose to forgo these tents and stay out under the desert sky to experience the Hajj as their Prophet ﷺ and his companions would have experienced it.

The next morning during dawn, pilgrims begin to make their way to the plains of Mt Arafat, the most important day of the days of Hajj. Groups from privileged countries often wait hours for their buses to come and take them to Mt Arafat, with some choosing to join the less privileged and walk the 12kms under the unrelenting Arabian sun as it beats down on them.

Much like in Mina, pilgrims spend the day on the plains of Mt Arafat in prayer and contemplative remembrance, usually inside tents. As the sunsets over the mountain, pilgrims then journey towards the plains of Muzdalifa, 9km as the crow flies, by any means of transport; foot, bus, pick-up trucks and bikes.

Pilgrims collect pebbles or small stones while at Muzdalifa and sleep the night there under the stars. As dawn breaks on the 3rd day of Hajj, pilgrims make their way to the Jamrat to perfrom Rajm, or stoning, with the stones they had collected in hand.

The Jamrat sees pilgrims throw stones at 3 stone pillars that according to Islamic tradition, represent a rejection of the devil and the overcoming of the desires of the self for the Supreme Self (as part of the rites of Hajj, pilgrims return to perform the Rajm at Jamrat on the 4th and 5th day of Hajj).

After stoning the pillars, pilgrims then make the 10km journey towards the Kaba, where they perform the circumambulation of the Kaba, drink from the well of Zamzam, oscillate between the hills of Safa and Marwa, then break their ihram by cutting their hair (women cut only a lock while the men shave their hair) and sacrificing an animal whose meat is used to then feed the poor and needy.

The final act of the Hajj sees pilgrims perform Tawaf al Wada, the farewell circumambulation of the Kaba. In the final analysis, it is the belief of Muslims that despite their diversity of language, ethnicities, culture, the disparate privileges they experience of class, wealth, status and political rank, all of this multiplicity originated from the One, and in that in final circumambulation as individual bodies become one giant blur folding onto the oneness of the Kaba, in their diversity they are one with the One.

Photos and Words by Bahram Mia