Memories of Haj in 1975

In 1975, on the eve of December 11, as pilgrims celebrated Eid Al Adha, an explosion was heard, followed by a fire that ripped through Mina’s city of tents, killing 138 pilgrims and injuring 151.

“Fire, was one of the most dreaded words you didn’t want to hear while you stayed in your tent in Mina,” recalls Mohammed Rashid, an Emirati in his 70s who was then in Mecca, performing his very first Haj.

No Emiratis were injured during in fire which was reported to have been caused by the explosion of a small gas tank inside one of the tents that was part of a group mostly occupied by Turkish and Nigerian pilgrims. Fireproof tents were not yet standard.

As Muslims from around the world meet this week in the holy city of Mecca to retrace the footsteps of Prophet Mohammed over 1,400 years ago, there was a time when this journey of a lifetime was truly one of the most difficult journeys in a believer’s life.

“When you went to perform Haj before, you prepared yourself and your loved ones with the great possibility that you will never come back home,” said Mr Rashid.

The Prophet Mohammed said: “O people! Allah has made it binding on you to perform Haj. You should, therefore, perform it.” The sermon was during his first and only Haj, widely known as the ‘Hajat Al-Wada’ (‘Farewell Haj’), before his death later that year.

Each year for hundreds of years, millions of Muslims from around the world heed the call, and head to Mecca to perform one of the five main pillars of Islam, required to be performed at least once in a lifetime. Those who embarked on it, would usually spend their life’s saving on this trip.

Mr Rashid is not sure how much was spent, as he went with his family, who were wealthy merchants. But he estimates it cost him about a Dh1000 per person to do Haj at the time. Costs have gone up at least twenty five times since then.

Mecca was a different place then, more mountainous, no skyscrapers, strewn with traditional homes along its terrain. Besides the actual risks from illnesses, fires, and stampedes, the trip to the holy city was riddled with difficulties and danger, including highwaymen and scam artists.

The first pilgrims arrived on foot, crossing the desert on donkeys and camel caravans. Then with the onset of modern transport, they began arriving on buses and at ports on cargo ships. Roads were being paved and modernised across the kingdom in the 1970s and air travel was limited to those who could afford this luxury.

While the official opening of Jeddah’s international airport was not until 1981, the King Abdulaziz International Airport’s Haj terminal was already working in the 1970s, where according to Al Ittihad newspaper in 1975, “the airport would operate 486 planes in 24 hours, averaging to one airplane every 3 minutes at the airport.”

“You would see people sleeping on the streets near Masjid Al Haram as there weren’t many hotels then and people simply couldn’t afford them,” said Mr Rashid. The Grand mosque houses the holy Kaaba where people pray at and make Tawaf, or encircle it.

He was one of 4,500 pilgrims from the UAE in 1975. This year’s Haj quota is roughly 4,980 people from the UAE and was reduced from 6,200 people in 2012 because of construction at the Grand Mosque. Quotas per country change annually, so that in 2003, the UAE quota was 23,000 pilgrims.

In 1975 the weather was cool during Haj with a million and a half pilgrims, compared to today’s three million plus worshippers. Every year Saudi Arabia spends millions on expansions to accommodate the growing number of pilgrims. The five star hotels around the Grand Mosque, the shops and commercialisation of Mecca has transformed a once simple town into a bustling and expensive modern city.

“You would see donkeys, horses, and you could just walk up to historic Islamic sites like the houses of Prophet Mohammed’s companions and wives, and even his own house, and then you could wander about along the mountains,” said Mr Rashid. “It was a simple place, and you could actually meet and stay with families in Mecca.”

Over the years the Saudi government has destroyed many Islamic and historic sites, includes the house of the Prophet and his companions and wives, under a Wahhabist interpretation that maintaining historic monuments or objects may give rise to shirk — polytheism.

Over the decades there have been important changes to help the pilgrims, like providing running water. Previously water lorries would distribute.

Then as now, UAE sent a medical delegation of doctors and nurses that cared for pilgrims free of charge. Illnesses remain a major concern. In the past yellow fever and malaria were common while more recently Swine Flu and Mers Coronavirus have taken over the stage. Fears over contagious deadly diseases at one of the world’s largest public gathering site remains understandable.

Mandatory vaccines like Meningococcal Vaccine (Quadruple) against meningitis, seasonal Influenza vaccine and Pneumococcal vaccine are required for the pilgrims.

This year, Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Health has banned Muslim pilgrims from Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia over concerns about the spread of the Ebola virus.

One missing feature at today’s Haj are scouts. In the 1970s, it was common to see young scouts, especially from the UAE, helping out the pilgrims by setting up tents for them.

“It is much easier now, everything is modernised, there are hospitals and modern roads and services,” said Mr Rashid. He recalled how much he walked with his family, and how even “very old pilgrims” would walk for hours to perform the different rituals, climbing and the 640 meters up Jabal Al Nour. The mountain is said to house Ghar Hira, the cave where Prophet Mohammed would meditate in and had received his first revelation from Jabreel, the angel.

Pilgrims who have gone back to Mecca after many years say they barely recognise it from these photographs of nearly 40 years ago.

From the Mecca Metro, ‘Al Mashaer Al Muqadasah’ Metro, that links Mina, Arafa and Muzdalifah with Mecca and can transport half a million pilgrims every six hours, to new bridges set up at critical locations like at the Jamarat (stoning) that helped reduce crowding where fatal stampedes have occurred in previous years, including over 1,400 in 1990.

One tradition that has not changed, is bringing back some of the holy water of Zamzam. This well is believed to be the one Ishmael and Hagar, son and wife of Prophet Abraham, drank from when they were left in the area.

“Where before you would bring back a small bottle of Zamzam, now you bring back gallons,” said Mr Rashid. “Everything is bigger and easier, but somehow, I still remember the first Haj as my most fondest, as I felt I was in the Mecca of my ancestors, like how they must have seen it when they performed Haj.”

rghazal@thenational.ae