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At the beginning of this year, my mother asked me to take her to Mecca to Saudi Western Arabia to perform Umrah, or the slightest pilgrimage. Arriving in the Holy City an afternoon in January, we searched at our hotel in the imposing tower complex overlooking the Great Mosque and decided to rest until midnight. I have calculated that in such a late hour the mosque would be less crowded.
I was wrong. When we arrived in the inner courtyard around Kaaba, the cube -shaped building draped in black in the center of the great mosque considered the most sacred place of Islam, it was filled on the lips. We kept our breath and joined the crowd to start the first Umrah ritual – seven caaba sieges. Watching the wide -ranging shot on television, this scene looks harmonious and peaceful. The reality was everything else. I kept my mother’s arm for fear of being separated from me and lost or hurt in this sea of mankind.
Mecca was not always so.
Unlike the main pilgrimage of the Hajj, which is mandatory once in their lives for any capable Muslim who can withstand it and must be performed at a specific time of the year, Umrah can be undertaken at any other time.
Until a few years ago, Saudi Arabia usually did not issue visas for Umrah’s foreign pilgrims for the first two to three months after Hajj. This gap allowed city time for maintenance of critical and unproductive infrastructure for exhausted workers.
These months was once the favorite time for many Saudi and breast citizens – who do not seek a visa – to make Umrah, taking advantage of the fact that Mecca was less busy and the prices of cheaper hotels.
However, while Saudi Arabia seeks to diversify its economy away from oil, tourism has become a promising growth sector, and Muslim religious tourism in particular, which means that numbers are growing throughout the year.
Over the next five years, the government has set an ambitious objective of duplicating foreign pilgrims from about 15 million to 30MM.
Logic is clear: the government has invested billions of dollars to make the sacred places more accessible. Using them only a few months a year seemed like a lost opportunity.
This is undoubtedly good news for travel, hospitality and transport businesses that can now depend on a sustainable flow of pilgrims instead of cycling between high and low seasons. And it’s good news for 2BN Muslims all over the world that they want to visit the sacred places.
But Mecca’s full -year -long jogging means that experience is likely to worsen for visitors who will struggle to find a quiet moment for prayer and reflection and can even find themselves in danger. More than 1,300 people died in Mecca last year from extreme heat as many tried to perform illegal Hajj, meaning that they lacked access to shelters and basic services.
Authorities offer golf carts and wheelchairs for the elderly and those who can’t walk can perform laughterOr Kaaba sieges, on the second floor of the mosque away from the crowds. But this distance can remove the spiritual experience.
Authorities say they have set up a advanced cameras and sensors system to secure a quiet flow after nearly half a million pilgrims perform Umrah in a day last week, setting a new record.
A former official with the Government Program Pilgrim of the experience tells me that there must also be a focus on education. Pilgrims should be taught to walk at a gentle rhythm, be kind and not pushed or painted during rituals because it goes against God’s commands.
Saudi Arabia has faced criticism of perceives of Mecca’s commercialization. But most people, including my mother, will not be prevented from crowds or costs. Resting in marble steps outside the mosque after we finished Umrah’s rituals as the morning sun began to grow, my tired mum told me it would do eventually Do again next year.
Like most devout Muslims, she believes that difficulties will lead to more rewards from God.
ahmed.alomran@ft.com
