Hajj: A reminder to Nigerian pilgrims

Saturday September 14, 2013 by Vice President Mohammed Namadi Sambo at the International Airport in Maiduguri, Borno State. According to the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON), about 76,000 intending pilgrims from Nigeria are expected to perform this year’s hajj. The figure was reduced to this number from the over 90,000 seats originally allocated to […]

Saturday September 14, 2013 by Vice President Mohammed Namadi Sambo at the International Airport in Maiduguri, Borno State. According to the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON), about 76,000 intending pilgrims from Nigeria are expected to perform this year’s hajj. The figure was reduced to this number from the over 90,000 seats originally allocated to Nigeria when Saudi Arabian authorities cut the initial number of seats allocated to participating country by twenty percent.
So far, media reports indicate that flight operations in all the zones of the country designated for the airlift of pilgrims have had no hitches. Officials of the various state Muslims pilgrims’ boards appear to have done all that was required to prevent a repeat of the Mahram crisis that almost developed into a diplomatic showdown between Nigeria and Saudi Arabia during last year’s hajj exercise. No female pilgrim has been deported back to Nigeria from Saudi Arabia for lack of Mahram since the airlift of Muslim pilgrims began a week ago.
Before now, it is expected that intending pilgrims should have received training on how to perform hajj; taking note of all the essential rites. As a first step, an intending Muslim pilgrim is required to know and decide which of the three kinds of hajj (Ifrad, Qiran and Tamatu’u) he or she wants to perform. Pilgrims who depart Nigeria in these early weeks of the exercise usually go to Madinah before coming to Makkah. Others who depart the country much later usually go to Makkah first to perform hajj rites after which they go to Madinah. Pilgrims must note that no hajj rite takes place in Madinah. The presence of pilgrims in Madinah is entirely for visit purposes.
Some of the sacred and historical sites recommended for pilgrims to visit include the holy mosque of the holy Prophet Muhammad (SAW). Apart from observing the daily obligatory prayers at the mosque because of the abundant reward for that, a pilgrim is also required to offer salutations of peace to the Prophet (SAW) and his companions that lay in their graves within the mosque. The reward of a prayer in the prophet’s mosque in Madinah like the holy mosque of Ka’abah in Makkah is worth 1,000 times of the reward for the same prayer when offered in other mosques around the world. A visit to Baqi’ah, the burial ground for Madinah city since the time of the Prophet (SAW), situated just a few meters from the prophet’s mosque is recommended. At the Baqi’ah, pilgrims are advised against doing things that contradict the teachings of Islam such as asking the dead in their graves to grant their (the pilgrims’) needs or requests. At best, a pilgrim could pray to Allah to forgive the dead.
Other places recommended for pilgrims to visit in Madinah include Masjidu Qubah; Masjidu Qiblatayn; the site of mount Uhud where about 70 martyrs including Sayyidina Hamzah were buried. It is blameworthy for a pilgrim to drop his or her cap, headgear, veil, purse, or footwear, in the name of ‘sacrifice’ at any of the sites recommended for visit.
At Makkah, pilgrims arrive in their ihram, which entails the dressing up of male pilgrims in two sheets of white seamless clothes. Female pilgrims are permitted to dress up in clothes that are not necessarily white. Pilgrims should know those things they are exempted from doing while in a state of ihram. They are prohibited from quarrelling, fighting, hunting, using perfume, cutting of finger nails, and having conjugal relationship with their spouses. Engaging in each of this attracts penalty. Hajj rites include ihram, tawwaf (circumambulating round the ka’abah; Sa’yu (running between the two hills of safa and marwa); standing on mount Arafat; throwing pebbles; and shaving head. The rituals of hajj are observed within a specified period of time which is 8th to 13th of the Islamic Lunar mouth of Dhul Hajj.
One important message I have for Nigerian Pilgrims is for them to take full advantage of the spiritual benefits of the holy Land to pray for Nigeria, which has been passing through difficult times for over a decade in the hands of some wicked people called ‘leaders’. Nigerian pilgrims should pray to Allah (SWT) to deliver us from the evils of maladministration and bad governance by removing all the obstacles (human and material) that constitute impediments to progress and national development in Nigeria. We all know and believe that Allah (SWT) is All-Knowing. All-Seeing and All-Hearing; yet, we urge you to explain in your supplication how miserable the socio-economic situation in Nigeria has become. Believing that Allah (SWT) is Omniscient, tell God that our own nature of challenges is extra-ordinary; sending many to their early graves and reducing several others to walking ‘corpses’. Explain to God how bad governance has turned Nigeria into a kingdom of abject poverty, a planet of unemployment, an empire of insecurity with kidnapping, armed robbery and rape leading other crimes.
It may not be practicable to enumerate all the evils bedeviling our country to Allah (SWT) in one supplication because the list is endless. However, special appeal could be made pleading with Allah to intervene and give us credible leaders who are sensitive to the feelings of citizens. While we wish all intending pilgrims Allah’s guidance and protection in their religious trip to and fro the holy land, we equally pray that Allah (SWT) accepts their pilgrimage and other acts of worship, amin.