Hajj, the inner dimensions

“Even after thirteen centuries [the Prophet’s] spiritual presence is almost as alive here as it was then…” When Muhammad Asad, the Austrian Jew who converted to Islam in 1926, made these comments, it was sequel to the spiritual-social impacts the Hajj exercise had wrought on him. But his experience is qualitatively different from that of Malcom X. Malcom is one Muslim who saw the light of Islam through his Hajj in April 1964.

As a former member and speaker for the Nation of Islam, a black spiritual and nationalist movement, he believed that the white man was the devil and the black man was superior. He left the Nation of Islam in March 1964, travelled to Makkah for the Hajj and was completely transformed by the experience. The Hajj exercise changed Malcom X’s perspective to life. He ceased to be a racialist forever. He eventually chose the name Hajj Malik al-Shabbaz. His memoir on his experience in Hajj is highly germane. He wrote as follows:

“There were tens of thousands of pilgrims from all over the world. They were of all colors, from blue-eyed blondes to black-skinned Africans. But we were all participating in the same ritual, displaying a spirit of unity and brotherhood that my experiences in America had led me to believe never could exist between the white and the non-white. You may be shocked by these words coming from me. But on this pilgrimage, what I have seen, and experienced, has forced me to rearrange much of my thought patterns previously held, and to toss aside some of my previous conclusions...During the past eleven days here in the Muslim world, I have eaten from the same plate, drunk from the same glass and slept in the same bed (or on the same rug)-while praying to the same God with fellow Muslims, whose eyes were the bluest of the blue, whose hair was the blondest of blond, and whose skin was the whitest of white...”

But the significance of the Hajj exercise goes beyond the socialspiritual. Rather, the Hajj is sui generis in the way it has been structured by the Almighty and practiced by His apostle such that while the pilgrim is involved with the spiritual, she is celebrating the historical, while the pilgrim is engrossed in the historical he is engaged in the eschatological, while the pilgrims are immersed in the physical they are calling attention to the geographical. Or how else do we explain the rites of the tawaf in the oldest house on earth, the Kaaba. The Kaaba, you should bear in mind, is located in Makkah. Whereas the Makkah is the epicenter of the world, the Ummul Qurah (the mother of all villages in the Quranic phraseology), the Kaaba, which is located inside the city of Makkah, actually occupies the center of the epicenter.

In other words, while the pilgrims are seen on earth circumambulating the black stone inside the Kaaba, while their voices are heard as they say “Labayka Allahuma labayk, - I have answered your call (O! Almighty), their eulogy of the divine, their circuit round the Kaaba directly corresponds to the circuit the angels round the inimitable and the indescribable throne of the Almighty. But that is not all.

Consider the “Ihram” the white garment which pilgrims adorn for the Hajj exercise. These are two loose and unsewn garments the pilgrim put on for the hajj exercise. There is nothing like this on earth. The garments are a leveler-with it the mighty is reminded of the inconsequential nature of his status with the Almighty; the lowly is reminded that as far as He is concerned, the best of all is the most pious. What about the Tawaf round the Kaaba? This exemplifies the unity of our humanity as a direct manifestation of the unity of our origin and equally the direct manifestation of the unity of our creator. Circumambulating the Kaaba, therefore, calls attention to the necessity for us as humans to constantly make the Almighty the centre of our activity; that no authority should orbit the space of our existence aside from Him.

Now my reference to the iconic way in which the hajj fuses the historical with the spiritual and the manner in which the physical is seized upon by the divine to become spiritual, I have in mind the experience of the wife of Prophet Ibrahim, Hajar and her son, Ismail. I refer to Hajar’s search for water for her son in the then barren and hungry land of Makkah. While motherly love and care in Hajar was pushing her to run between the hills of Safa and Marwa, little did she know that she was actually being given an opportunity to partake of divine redemption of humanity. Her search for water for Ismail, the Prophet, became a metaphor for humans’ search for the Almighty; the way Zam-Zam zoomed out from under the feet of her son, Ismail, became a signifier for the inexplicable ways by which despair can be turned to hope.

The Chairman of the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON), Barrister Abdullahi Mukhtar Muhammad, in this interview, speaks on the current hajj operation, and how the commission plans to make state pilgrims welfare boards economically viable to fund their activities.

How has NAHCON fared in the operation of 2018 hajj? The airlift is moving steady as planned and we have not recorded any major consular or security issue either at home or over there in Saudi Arabia. The arrival of the pilgrims, protocol arrangement and the immigration process over there are quite commendable. The previous experience of longhour delay is now a matter of history. Pilgrims are cleared with speed, courtesy to the biometric capturing that has been conducted here.

The accommodation is Medina is satisfactory, and the proximity to haram is maximum eight to ten-minute work for a slow walker. But the average time is five minutes. The feeding arrangement is okay and the menu has been packaged is such a way that even those with diabetes can take the food without injuring their health.

Movements have commenced from medina to Makkah and there is no report of breakdown of vehicles. The speed at which pilgrims are being accommodated in Makkah compared to the previous years has improved tremendously. We are happy with the operation so far and we will remain committed to ensure that we serve the pilgrims to the best of our ability.

We are indeed grateful to the Saudi mission in Nigeria and the company that handles the biometric capturing. They have been very cooperative and decentralized their operation as requested by the President. That has eased the tension and apprehension initially created in the minds of pilgrims.

To ensure that we get it right this time, we set up the central coordinating team, which is headed by my humble self. We meet periodically and sometimes daily to review the day operation and forecast the next 74 hours’ operation. That is why very few airports are very active in terms of the airlift. We try to concentrate on one departure centre, clear the pilgrims in that centre before we move to the next one. The longhour delay before pilgrims are airlifted have been reduced.

You recently inspected facilities at the FCT hajj camp. Was it a collaboration with the FCT board?

Hajj camps are owned by the state governments but the commission has to ensure that they are habitable. There is proper synergy between us and the state boards.

By the year 2019, most of the hajj camps across the country will have a befitting hotellike accommodation, not the dormitory-like that we have now. We are going to have a befitting clinics that will even be used after hajj operation and would serve the community in those areas. Water will be provided and mosques will be upgraded. We will have event centres in most of the camps and they will serve as a source of revenue for the maintenance. And the hotel-like accommodation would be used outside hajj to generate revenue for maintenance. What we are doing now is to make the best use of hajj development levy to have the infrastructure across for two purposes. One to give the pilgrims the first impression of what he’s going to meet in Saudi Arabia and secondly to use those infrastructure as a source of generating revenue, so that the revenue generated would be shared between the state and the commission. In the long run, state governors don’t need to fund hajj operation in their state. Through that revenue, the boards will be able to fund their activities, so that if there is a challenge of funding hajj activities, hajj operation would not suffer.

For hajj saving scheme, after the 2018 hajj, the proper framework would be made public on its implementation. It will enable the pilgrims save gradually, it will enable the government and the board plan for next five-year hajj. The money that will be collected would be invested in halal activities and the profit generated would be shared between the pilgrims whose money will be invested and the hajj commission.

Are there still cases overstay or absconding?

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Many years ago, after hajj activities, thousands would not return. But now, things have changed. How did we achieve the reduction? One is the civic education and second, the introduction of e-passport for hajj. Now people cannot just use the passport to go to Saudi Arabia and throw away the passport and then abscond. That e-passport has contributed greatly. And the data capturing process has also helped. More importantly is the introduction of guarantors by the commission. Anybody who wants to go to hajj must have a guarantor who must be either a jum’at imam, district head or a civil servant not below the rank of grade level 12. Those that served as guarantors for five pilgrims who absconded last year are still reporting to the DSS office, and they will not stop until those people come back. They have a time line and if it elapses without those people returning, the security agency would prosecute them for aiding absconding and human trafficking which is punishable under Nigerian law. Now people are becoming careful. If they are not sure of the pilgrim’s intention, they will not sign.