Exploitation Of Desperate Hajj Pilgrims By Some Deceitful Hajj Agents By MYM Siddeek –

A Note on My Recent Hajj Pilgrimage Experience.

Hajj is a pilgrimage (spiritual duty) made to the Kaaba (the house of Allah) in the sacred city of Makkah in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia during the first ten days of the holy month of Dhul Hijjah, the 12th month in the Islamic calendar. It is one of the pillars of Islam, along with believing (1) there is no god but Allah, (2) prayer, (3) almsgiving, and (4) fasting during the month of Ramadan. Hajj is not obligatory for every Muslim. It’s obligatory, at least once in a lifetime, for a Muslim if he is physically, emotionally, and financially able to perform. For anyone preparing to perform Hajj, it’s an incredibly exciting time because they believe that the first ten days of the month of Dhul Hijjah offer true Muslims the opportunity to gain immense rewards, have their sins forgiven, and reach great levels of piety. In other words, it offers the Muslims an opportunity to refresh their spiritual selves, cleanse them of their sins, and draw closer to Allah.

This excitement and belief are exploited by most of the Hajj pilgrim agencies in Sri Lanka and worldwide. Therefore, the objective of this note is to briefly highlight, through my recent Hajj experience, how the Hajj pilgrims are exploited to maximise the profit of the Hajj agents.

There is an urgent need to regulate the Sri Lankan Hajj industry!

My recent Hajj experience has taught me many lessons, Masha Allah. I strongly felt that this poorly regulated Hajj industry must be fully regulated in the best interest of future Hajj pilgrims who are desperate to perform the obligatory performance (one of the five pillars of Islam) at any cost for the sake of Allah. First of all, clearly defined and explained Hajj package details in printed form or an electronic form must be provided by the Hajj agents to prospective Hajj pilgrims before they make any payment. This is because some Hajj agents say something to ‘grab’ money from prospective pilgrims but end up giving very poor quality services and facilities. The details of any Hajj package should be clearly specified or defined and should include the following:

Hotel accommodation

The prospective Hajj pilgrims should check the names of the hotels in Makkah and Madina, their star ratings and locations, their distance from Haram, and other facilities online when the agent provides the details. The agents normally distort the star rating and distance from Haram (the holy mosque) to attract prospective pilgrims. Further, the prospective pilgrims should ask for the details of the number of pilgrims in a room in the named hotel. This is because there were instances where the Hajj agent promised two pilgrims per room, charged for that, and accommodated up to five pilgrims in a room. The pilgrims should be aware that the package price for two pilgrims in a room is significantly higher than the package price for four or five pilgrims per room. In addition, they should check whether the hotel has full board, half board, bed and breakfast, or room only. This is very important because the price varies depending on the number of people in a room, star rating, distance from Haram, and food availability. I have seen with my eyes that up to seven pilgrims were packed in a room, although the pilgrims were told that there would be a maximum of four people in a room at the time of booking. The beds were attached to each other, even without a small space to put the legs on the floor when they got off the bed. They had to crawl from the leg side of the bed to reach the head side of the bed when they went to bed. But the price they offered was for four people in a room, but they accommodated seven people in the room. This type of Hajj travel agent lives on lies and deception to make money.

Shifting and Non-Shifting

Further, prospective Hajj pilgrims should check at the time of booking whether the Hajj package is a shifting or non-shifting package. In the case of a non-shifting package, the entire hotel stay in Makkah is in one single hotel without shifting to another hotel in Makkah until the Hajj is fully performed and left for Madina. In the case of the shifting package, the passengers stay a few days in a hotel in the centre of Makka and shift to another hotel, more generally, in Azeeziya. The most common accommodations provided in Azeeziya to Sri Lankan pilgrims are lodges or apartments. They are not star-rated hotels. However, there are a large number of star-rated hotels in Azeeziya. The prospective pilgrims should clarify the details before they pay an advance to the Hajj agents.

Airline

This is also a very important part of your pilgrimage. Most of the Hajj agents try to book the cheapest airline, which has more than one stop with a very long duration of transit. Therefore, the total travel time, including transit and stops, may take more than 18 hours for a standard six- to seven-hour direct flight from Colombo to Jeddah. Then, when you reach Makkah, you will be so tired. It appears that the Hajj agents are not bothered about this other than maximising their profit. At present, only Sri Lankan airlines run direct flights from Colombo to Jeddah. Do not go for any agent who offers a flight with more than one transit or stop. When the flight offered is with one transit, try to select the agent that books the shortest transit-time flight. The shortest transit flight costs much more than the longest transit flight to the agents. Therefore, many Hajj agents prefer the longer transit flights. The prospective pilgrims should ask the agent to provide these details of the flights—up and down—in documentary form before they pay any advance. You should not rush to pay an advance. In order to convince you, they may say that there are only a few places available or that only the last two places are available. They say this to make you desperate to book your place immediately and ‘grab’ your money. But you should not believe in those lies because there were places available with many Hajj agents even at the last minute this year and previous years. My agent also told me that he was giving me the last two places, which were reserved for someone else. I found out later that it was not true. Further, you should prefer the return flight from Madina to Colombo. Otherwise, your return travel might last for more than 36 hours, including road transport, if your return flight is from Jeddah with more than one stop. The majority of Hajj agents prefer return flights from Jeddah because it is cheaper for them. Therefore, select the Hajj agent who offers a return flight from Madina.

Road transport

Travel from Makah to Mina, from Mina to Arafah, and from Arafah to Muzdalifah. As part of the performance of Hajj rituals, the pilgrims stay in the above three places and perform their rituals. I have seen a Hajj agent load more than 80 pilgrims in a less than 50-seater bus to save money. Half of the pilgrims, including some elderly people, had to travel standing in the bus for more than four hours. The men and women were mixed, even with physical contact in some cases. This should not happen. The agent should have booked a sufficient number of buses for internal transport and given the details of the road trip when you paid in advance. If they squeeze all the pilgrims into a single bus, irrespective of the number of seats available, you should protest and ask the agent to book a sufficient number of buses to accommodate all the pilgrims. There is no need to rush. There are a sufficient number of buses available in Makkah and Madina. But the agents should be generous enough to book an adequate number of buses well in advance of the travel date.

Stay in Mina and Arafah

When the Hajj pilgrims stay in Mina and Arafah to perform rituals, they stay in tents. The tents in Mina and Arafah are categorised as A, B, C, etc., and even D grade. Category A is luxury, category B is premium, and category C is standard. The A and B are air-conditioned, with hard mattresses and food in the buffet. You can take and eat as much as you can during specific times. In the case of the C category, packed parcel meals are provided. Make sure which category of tent is offered to you by the agent before you pay the advance, since the price varies depending on the category. I have also seen that the agents have not booked a sufficient number of tents and mattresses to accommodate all the pilgrims in order to save money. Therefore, they have even asked the pilgrims to remove the mattresses from the tent and sleep on the floor to accommodate all the pilgrims in a single tent. A single tent can accommodate around 20 pilgrims with some space. But I have seen a much larger number of pilgrims squeezed into a single tent. The tents were fully packed without sufficient space for movement. Sometimes I had to step on the other pilgrims to move out of the tent to go to the toilet or to take wudhu (ablution). There was no sufficient space even for praying inside the tent. As a result, many pilgrims slept outside the tents in open space during the night.

Unislamic practice

An agent even asked women and men to stay in the same tent during the day and night. It was unbelievable for the many pilgrims who came with me. There were young women and young men in the same tent, although they were separate couples. The separation between men and women was see-through screens with gaps. Men could clearly see other women. Even in bus travel, when they squeezed more than 80 pilgrims into a single bus, the men and women were mixed together, as I have mentioned earlier. You would not have seen it anywhere, even under normal circumstances, even in a non-Muslim country or environment. But this particular agent did it. The agent should provide the details of the tent, the size of the tent, the number of people in it, and details of the facilities, including the category of the tent, etc., in the printed package document before you pay an advance.

Food

The food should be standard, edible food. In general,  the Hajj package includes full board (three meals a day). I have eaten the same meal all three times. I have also seen the hotel management segregate the Sri Lankan pilgrims from other country pilgrims, and the standard of food offered to other country pilgrims was better than what was given to the Sri Lankan pilgrims. Further, if the distance from your hotel to Haram is far, you will not be able to come to the hotel for all three meals. It will cost you time and money. Then you will be spending much of your time travelling every day, and the time left for your rituals will be small.

Undertake some research and shop around

Before you select a particular Hajj agent for your pilgrimage, talk to other people who have already performed Hajj with the agent and their experiences and recommendations in addition to your own research. There may be a much better agent than the one recommended by the people who have already performed Hajj. Further, you may have your own specific preferences. If you want to go with a particular agent, you should first talk to the people who have already gone with the agent. Sometimes those people might try to hide the truth and weaknesses since they are told at the end of the Hajj that if you talk about the shortcomings of the Hajj agent and problems of the Hajj, you will lose the reward from Allah. Do not believe in it. Talking about the shortcomings, lies, and deception of the Hajj agents is, in fact, a service you do for prospective pilgrims. May Allah reward you for this.

Paying to the agent

When you have selected a particular agent and obtained the documents specifying the facilities, hotel, airline details, tent details, ground transport details, etc., you should not make full payment to the agent. I would advise against paying more than 10% as a deposit or advance. If you change your mind later, after you have paid the advance to a Hajj agent, and you want to go with another agent, you can do so. The former agent should legally and morally return your deposit. Further, do not rush to make the balance payment. My advice is to drag out the balance payment for the package for as long as you can. Do not pay more than 50% of the total package price until you have seen your Hajj visa. Do not worry about the pressure from the agent to make full payment before you have seen the Hajj visa.

Sufferings

The pilgrims are given maximum suffering by some agents due to poor planning and decision-making. As soon as they reach Makkah, they are taken to Umrah without considering tiredness or weather conditions. (Umra is one of the rituals performed by Hajj pilgrims.) If you need some rest when you reach Makkah before you perform Umrah, you should tell the Hajj guide that you need to rest before they take you for Umrah. If you are very tired and the weather is very hot, tell him you want to do Umrah in the evening after Asr, Maghrib, or Isha prayer, or even the next day, after Fajr prayer. You don’t need to perform your Umrah as soon as you reach Makkah, as long as you are in Ihram. (Ihram is a sacred state that the pilgrims must enter to perform Hajj with two pieces of unstitched plain white clothing.) I have seen even the Hajj guide himself experience headaches due to the hot weather, which went up to 47 degrees between Zuhr and Asr. He took the pilgrims to perform Umrah when they reached Makkah after giving them a very short interval after travelling very long about 22 hours due to two stops and long hours of transit. There were elderly people, even more than 70 years of age, in the group. This was a very unwise act by the Hajj guide (Moulavi). (Umra involves circumambulation of the Holy Kaaba in worship in Ihram, walking seven times between the hills of Sfa and Marwah in worship, and clipping or shortening the hair.).

Muzdalifah and Jamarat

Muzdalifah is an open area near Makkah in the Hejazi region. This is a valley between Mina and Mount Arafah in which the pilgrims on Hajj spend the night in the open. It is here that the pilgrims gather pebbles to throw in Jamarat. The three pillars at which the pilgrims cast pebbles to reject sin and invoke Allah’s strength are called Jamarat. Make sure you reach Muzdalifah well before Fajr prayer so you have enough time to spend there. I have seen a group of pilgrims reaching Muzdalifah just a few minutes before Fajr and spending a very few minutes before proceeding to Jamarat for stoning. Further, you don’t need to walk to Jamarat to throw stone stones immediately from Muzdalifah. You can return to Mina, take some rest, and then proceed to Jamarat. Then you are fresh, and the distance you walk is shorter. I have seen that the Hajj guide takes the pilgrims from Muzdalifah on foot immediately after spending a very few minutes there and brings them back to Mina on foot in the hot weather, which went up to 50 degrees. More than  six hours walk in the hot sun. The pilgrims suffered a lot here, and this was the hardest of the Hajj because of the poor planning and guidance from the guide (Moulavi). This could not be so hard otherwise. This was another example of poor guidance by the Moulavi. I have never experienced such thirst in my life. Many people were suffering from dehydration. This should not happen again. Due to that, many of the pilgrims fell sick, got lost, and were found in the night. I noticed that the Moulavi (Hajj guide)  walked faster than many other pilgrims who followed him due to the hot weather, resulting in some pilgrims losing sight of him and finding their own way to return to the Mina tent. If you get lost in such weather, you may even die. There is a possibility. More than 800 pilgrims have died during this year’s Hajj. It is reported that the major cause is the hot weather.

Humble request

The Sri Lankan Hajj committee, the Department of Muslim Cultural and Religious Affairs, the Ministry of Buddhasasana, Religious and Cultural Affairs, its subject minister, the permanent secretary of the ministry, the Embassy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in Colombo, the Supreme Hajj Committee in Saudi Arabia, the Ministry of Hajj and Umra in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and other relevant authorities should take stern actions against the unscrupulous Hajj agents who live on lies and deception and deceive the innocent pilgrims who are desperate to perform the holy performances of Hajj at any cost.