Social media communicates pilgrims’ feelings from holy sites to relatives around the world
MADINAH: Pilgrims and visitors to the Prophet’s Mosque are eager to communicate with relatives through social media during their presence in Madinah or Makkah, and social media is the easiest way to do so.
Many visitors to the Prophet’s Mosque were seen making calls from the yards of the mosque to relatives, and conveying the scenes of the great Islamic gathering. The calls carry deep emotional feelings where relatives ask Allah Almighty, to facilitate Hajj rituals for the pilgrims, accept their Hajj, and return them to their countries with their sins forgiven.
Rudwan Abdullah, a Sudanese pilgrim, said the call of a pilgrim to his family is an important matter. He was able to perform his rituals comfortably after calls to his mother, wife and children. He said he wanted to make calls to his family continuously throughout the day, adding that hearing his mother’s prayer by phone has a special impact on his heart.
Likewise, Mohammed Asad Al-Bakri, a Sudanese, said social media has provided easy and direct means of communication with relatives. On his arrival in Madinah, he was eager to get an Internet-access phone chip to communicate with his wife, children and brothers through voice and images via the Snap Chat application. In addition to normal phone calls, media applications document wonderful scenes from Madinah to become part of the memories in a pilgrim’s life, he said.
For his part, Mohammed Naim, an Indonesian pilgrim, said Hajj is a major step in the life of a Muslim, adding that it is a natural thing that a traveler, be it a pilgrim or visitor, wants to be in communication with his family, relatives or friends to let them know about his condition.
Murad Mahmoud, an Egyptian pilgrim who came with his wife to perform Hajj, said the phone has become a necessity for a pilgrim to keep in direct contact with relatives, and at the least cost, adding that he was in constant communication with his family via the WhatsApp application.