Hajj: How Nigerian pilgrims are exposed to danger –Emir Sanusi

PulseNg

Leader of the National co­ordinating team for this year’s hajj and Emir of Kano, Muhammad Sanusi 11, has begun what could pass for a yeoman’s job, to stop Nige­rian pilgrims from dying, espe­cially at Jamarat, in the name of performing hajj.

Sanusi who is well versed in the knowledge of Quran and principles of sharia’ah, is already going round States in the Holy Land, to engage both the pilgrims and their Islamic scholars, on the need to rethink their dogmatic position about Jamarat and think of a better way to do hajj without losing a single life.
Sunday Sun recalls that Ni­gerians and hundreds of other pilgrims lost their lives while on their way to Jamarat, to perform the symbolic stoning of the dev­il, during this year’s hajj.
But Sanusi said even if Nige­rians had not participated in the stoning, slaughtering of a ram, would make up for it, adding that “so we are dying just because of a ram. This is not acceptable.”
This is even as he said that as sacred as the Holy Ka’aba is, ev­idence are abound that it was not worth the life of a single Muslim, let alone hundreds of them.
Already, he has taken his re­form message to 21,
out of 36 States in the country, with the latest being his visit to the La­gos House in Makkah on Friday night, where he addressed pil­grims and officials from the six States of the South-West geopo­litical zone. According to the banker turned traditional ruler, the hot weather witnessed in the Holy Land during this year’s hajj, would be small compared to that of next year. And that the hot weather would continue for an­other 15 years, before it subsides.
As such, he noted, there was a strong need for Nigerians and its hajj officials to review their stay in Muna, if the Saudi Arabia authority was not willing to give Nigerians tents that are not too far from Jamarat.
“For over 15 years now, we have been staying in Muzdalifah and not Muna. I challenge any Ulama to tell me where it is writ­ten that we must stay four days in Muzdalifah.
“Lagos State is the only State out of the States in Nigeria whose tent is close to Jamarat. And as close as the tent is, you people still walk three hours to and fro, to throw your pebbles.
“Now imagine walking in a temperature of about 48 degree Celsius, with hunger, if you get to Jamarat and somebody pushes you, won’t you fall? So why must we overburden ourselves when Allah Has made things easy for us?
“Now, my view, talking as the leader of this year’s team to hajj, we will have to sit with the Saudi Arabia authority and tell them to either give us a place in Muna, near Jamarat, because where we have been staying in the last 15years or so, is not Muna but Muzdalifah, so they either give us a place near Jama­rat or we stay in Makkah, from where we go to Jamarat either on the 11or12 of Dhul Hijjah, to throw our pebbles, and our hajj still stands. In fact we can throw two in one day.
“Therefore, it will be part of my recommendation to the Fed­eral government that, if we can­not get accommodation close to Jamarat where the Arabs reside in Mina, then this year may be the last time we will sleep in Muna and Muzdallifa because we want to stone the devil.
“We have made it clear to the Saudi Arabia authority that Nigeria does not have any issue with it, neither are we interested in their Middle East politics. But they must understand that no hu­man being is superior to another in the sight of Allah, except he who fears Allah most.
“Throughout the time of the Holy Prophet, the highest num­ber of pilgrims who performed hajj at a time was 130,000. And even at that they rode on their camels and from the back of their camels they threw their pebbles. What this shows is that we must not suffer and overburden our­selves to throw these pebbles.”
Source: Sunnews