The over one thousand pilgrims who died in Mecca are due to three factors: the particularly torrid climate, which reached 51.8 degrees, but which in reality also existed in the past; the chronic disorganization of the Saudi authorities, incapable of managing approximately two million “regular” pilgrims, plus tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands of “clandestine” pilgrims; the religious fanaticism inherent in the ritual of pilgrimage to the main shrine of Islam, which all able-bodied Muslims are required to undertake at least once in their lives.
The presence of “illegal immigrants” has a significant weight in this latest tragedy. Suffice it to consider that, according to the AFP, of the over one thousand deaths, 658 are Egyptians and, among them, 630, or almost 96%, are illegal immigrants. In order to participate in the pilgrimage as a regular person, it is necessary to acquire a very expensive official permit. And this is how illegal immigrants, unable to afford it, sneak in and hide in the human tide of regulars. Unfortunately, illegal immigrants are more likely to suffer the consequences of the scorching heat, both because they have to flee every time they glimpse the Saudi police so as not to be arrested; and because they cannot access air-conditioned spaces.
Mecca is located in the lowest valley, the most suffocating on earth, there are no trees but only dry stones, the rocky mountains surround the city depriving it of air, there are no waterways, the sun bakes the pilgrim’s skin like Hell fire. Even before Muhammad (570 632), the Arab tribes had the custom of making the pilgrimage to Mecca, where there was the most important pagan sanctuary where 360 idols including Allah were worshipped, in order to demonstrate their faith by suffering. Only by suffering due to the harsh climatic conditions did they acquire merit from their gods. The pilgrimage to Mecca is a pagan rite inherited from Islam. According to the Quran, Sarah, Abraham’s wife, was jealous of her slave Hagar. Then Abraham took Hagar and their son Ishmael to Mecca where he abandoned them. Ishmael was thirsty and Hagar went up the hill of Safa praying to Allah to help her. She ran towards Marwa Hill, again praying to Allah to help her. After traveling seven times between Safa and Marwa, about 400 meters away, Allah sent her the Archangel Gabriel who struck her foot on the ground and made water flow from the source of Zamzam.
When Ishmael grew up, Allah appeared to Abraham in a dream telling him that he should give his son as a sacrifice. Abraham took Ishmael to slaughter him and offer him to Allah. Satan appeared to him at the “jamra”, a stele or stone column, in al-Aqaba, a town near Mina in the direction of Mecca. He ran after him but Abraham ran faster. The Archangel Gabriel led Abraham to two more stalks and Satan appeared to him. At each stele Abraham threw seven stones and walked away. Since then, pilgrims have performed the ritual of stoning Satan by throwing seven stones against three separate walls to commemorate Abraham’s triple victory over Satan. The ardor with which the pilgrims rush to stone the three steles of Satan is so uncontainable that, due to overcrowding, there have been repeated massacres of thousands of pilgrims who end up trampled. When Abraham prepared to cut Ishmael’s throat, the blade slipped across his neck without wounding him. Allah sent in his place a 40-year-old ram which Abraham slaughtered in Mina. And this is how the “Festival of the Sacrifice” or “Festival of the Slaughtering” concludes the pilgrimage rite.
And it’s in this
context, that Muslims, even if they mourn the dead of the pilgrimage to Mecca, console themselves with the certainty that being dead and buried in the holiest of Islam’s lands will elevate them directly to the Paradise of Allah.
