Here is a Pakistani Muslim saying he’s going to do the Hajj, and he says he’ll be away for two months. However, Al Jazeera says the process takes a few days. Is the Pakistani guy just taking an extended holiday or something?
Do tour operators sell, like, Hajj packages, that include airfare, hotel, etc.?
Are there guides that take you through all of the steps, are you expected to figure it out on your own once the plane lands?
How does the Saudi government handle the Hajj? Like, is there good crowd control now, or is it still every man for himself?*
*I know that there have been crowd crush-related deaths surrounding the Hajj in the past, but I don’t know if the Saudi government has tightened things up since then.
Guides, I’m not sure but it’s definitely organised.
In theory, as a Muslim, you’re supposed to know what you’ve go to do once there, at least the basics. It’s a really big thing, once in a lifetime for many.
In recent years the Saudi authorities have paid a good deal of attention to rebuilding various facilities there with a view to preventing the crowd crush incidents that have occurred in the past.
Numerous tour operators here advertise packages for the Haj, and the Umrah. It’s possible to fly there, or travel more slowly by other means.
I’m not Muslim but I’m fascinated by the logistics of the Hajj, so I’ve read some on it (such as the Wikipedia article). As said, the Saudi authorities have gone to great lengths to manage crowds, including hiring experts from outside Islam. I’ve also read that the number of Muslims worldwide is so large now that only a fraction can actually make the pilgrimage in their lifetime, so each country is given a quota.
Back-of-the-envelope calculations confirm this: There are about two billion Muslims in the world. The most frequented Hajj so far was the 2012 one, at 3.1 million visitors. So annual capacity is about 1/600 the global Muslim population.
That gets better once you account for it being expected only once in a lifetime. If we assume 60 adult years, then we’d be talking more like 1/10 of Muslims ever doing it.
I’m pretty sure that the requirement for the Hajj is that the pilgrim be able to afford it. I’m not sure who adjudicates whether or not a Muslim can afford the trip – the Pakistani guy in Post #1 is dirt poor; or, he was until he started making that YouTube money.
FYI, that’s 3.1 million extra people in Mecca for the four days of the Hajj. That’s a crazy number when you think about it, especially they’re all doing the same things at the same places.
I remember reading that there was some suggestion that a simple fly in fly out Hajj was perhaps not quite in the spirit.
Originally one was supposed to travel on foot. Pakistan is just about close enough to make this viable. So two months may be a reasonable time.
Especially if travel over water is allowed.
Depends upon devotion.
OTOH, there have been stories of people claiming ridiculous amounts of time off work and simply rorting the system. If you live in a dominantly Muslim country, it might be hard for any employer to argue with whatever time is claimed for a Hajj.
I recall reading that the Wahabi (fundamentalists) were taking the “no idols” prohibition to an extreme. They were slowly demolishing any historical sites around Mecca, such as the gravesite of the Prophet’s mother. The thinking was that people would be sidetracked into venerating places and people rather than Allah. I don’t know how far they got, but the article (Economist?) suggested that a lot of the historical areas had been razed - so there may not be much of interest in the area beside the primary religious site?
They’ve also spent a lot developing the site’s flow controls to minimize the dangers of crowd crushes which was a problem quite a few years ago.
Here is a gift link to an opinion piece from the New York Times a decade ago describing some of the destruction of historic structures in Mecca and their replacement by modern hotels, malls and so forth. It’s not a city I expect I’ll ever see, but I still think it’s a shame.
Not unless you’re a Muslim. Non-Muslims are prohibited from entering the city and the Saudi government has checkpoints to enforce this. You have to have paperwork, signed by an approved Imam, proving you’re a Muslim in order to apply for the permit to enter Mecca.
