27/06 • MUSLIMS ON PILGRIMAGE

By guest contributor Dr Peter Lineham MNZM.

We cannot fail to be moved by the tragedy of 1300 pilgrims who went to Mecca to fulfil their religious duties and did not return. 

The Hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam established by Mohammad, along with zakat (giving alms to the poor), Salah (the patterns of daily prayer), Sawm (fasting, especially in the daily hours of Ramadan) and Shahada (the declaration that there is only one God and Mohammad is his prophet). But Shia Islam has five beliefs, and ten practices (which include jihad). 

To make the pilgrimage to Mecca in your lifetime is a deep desire of good Muslims. But as Muslims have scattered far beyond the Middle East, this has become a more challenging goal. In the modern world, it makes Saudi Arabia the central state of Islam. 

The Spirituality of the Hajj 

There is a spirituality that the hajj encourages. The pilgrims are expected to wear white, not to eat, not to shave, use perfume, cover the head (men), have sex, because all are equal in the sight of God.  

As they walk around the Kaaba, their hearts are wholly fixed on God and united with all their fellow pilgrims from any country. At Arafat they repent of sins and seek God’s mercy. From noon to sunset, they stand before God.  

The heart of the Hajj lies in the search for spirituality and spiritual merit. It is an act of preparation to stand before God on the last day. 

What went wrong this year? 

The Hajj is fixed for a specific part of the month (8th to the 12th), but variations in the Islamic calendar means this time period moves around. This caused this year's pilgrimage to occur at the peak of summer, where a heat wave pushed the temperature to 51 degrees celsius.  

During Covid lockdowns in 2020 no-one was allowed to make the pilgrimage. Since easing of restrictions, these numbers have been growing back, reaching 1.5 million people this year. The Saudi Government made attempts to control these numbers through a visa allocation. But these visas are expensive, and limited. While there is elaborate guidance prepared for pilgrims, with the aim to create a highly efficient and controlled supervision of the Hajj, these are huge numbers of people to manage.

If you miss out, you may be desperate to go, especially if you are growing old. 

And this was a major problem in 2024. No-one knows how many unauthorised people came on the Hajj – some estimates put the number at 141,000. Without the visa, you can’t enter Mecca, so you must walk across the desert from the border. Travel agencies promised buses to unauthorised pilgrims, but when this didn't happen, pilgrims had to walk long distances without water and in direct sunlight.  

Some Reflections for Christians 

The tradition of pilgrimage is one that we share with Muslims. Many of those who go on pilgrimage to Spain or to Canterbury have found in a spiritually helpful refocusing of their faith, although Christians have never made pilgrimage a pillar of faith as Hajj is for Muslims.  

We need to speak with great tenderness to Muslims at this tragedy in this high point of their spirituality. Often, we find it difficult to see the spirituality behind the obligations but appreciating this is a crucial step in our relationships with those from other faiths. 

How shall we pray for Muslim people? They are our near neighbours in faith, sharing with Jews our Monotheism and some of our story. They acknowledge Jesus as a Prophet. They share our Jewish background and many of our sacred spaces in the Holy land, and they acknowledge us a people of the book.  

And yet their penitence and their acts of sacrifice remind us of our differences. Our faith focuses on the incarnation of Christ and his atoning death and resurrection. We need to pray that they will see Jesus, not just a prophet but as the Saviour.  

But to long for this, must never turn into hostility to their faith, their diligent pursuit of spirituality and the path that it follows on the Hajj. Let us work together on the good we can do together, but not be ashamed of our focus that has a chronology and a map of redemption in which no-one needs to die. 

Prayer points: 

We pray for those who grieve for the loss of lives and loved ones 

We pray for those who long to fulfil their spiritual calling to go on the Hajj 

We pray for our Muslim neighbours, who often find our western society so confronting, and so defiling that they long for the Hajj 

Click here to watch our interview with Dr. Peter Lineham about the importance of praying the news.
Click here for a printable version of Pray the News.