Hajj
and Qurbani: Their impact on the economies of poor countries
By
Mohammad Asghar
The
early part of 2005 will bring an occasion, when a large number of Muslims
from all over the globe will flock to the city of
Mecca
in
Saudi Arabia
to perform their yearly pilgrimage. Known as hajj, it requires each
pilgrim to sacrifice at least one animal before it is declared complete.
Others, who will not be able to go to
Mecca
for any reason, will slaughter a large number of animals in their home
countries in the name of Allah.
Though
the rituals of hajj have been taking place for almost 1,400 years, but it
is not known if an objective study was ever carried out to find out what
impact these rituals have been having on the economies of the poor
countries of the world.
I
was born and raised in
Bangladesh
-a predominantly Muslim country. I know how poor my country is, and also,
how its poor masses have been surviving for generations. Keeping these two
factors in mind, I am writing this article to draw Muslims’
attention to the baneful effect that hajj and the ritual of killing
numerous animals to please Allah have been having on their nations’
economies from the day hajj was made one of the pillars of their religion.
Actually,
if we read carefully the Quran through which Muslims have been instructed
to perform hajj at least once in their lifetime, we will find that hajj
was made obligatory only for the Muslims of the
Arabian Peninsula
. Not only that, even its entire contents and the religion of Islam were
also intended only for them, and not for anyone else. The following verse
of the Quran supports this fact:
Verse
42:7: “Thus have We sent by
inspiration to thee {i.e. Muhammad} an Arabic Quran: that thou mayest warn
the Mother of Cities {i.e.
Mecca
} and all around her, - and warn (them) of the Day of Assembly, of which
there is no doubt: (when) some will be in the Garden, and some in the
Blazing Fire.”
The
speaker in the verse is Allah.
His instruction, given to Muhammad through inspiration, as mentioned in
the verse, is clear: He wanted him to preach the gospels of his religion
only to the Arabs, who lived in
Mecca
and all around her. Because the religion of Islam was designed exclusively
for those people, Allah revealed the contents of the Quran to Muhammad
only in Arabic so that they could understand them without facing any
difficulty. He had no intention for the people of other regions and places
to understand His instructions with ease; hence His insistence on making
the Quran easy only for those who knew and understood Arabic.
Allah’s
instruction on the rituals of hajj was also intended for compliance by the
Peninsular Arabs only. This is deducible from the following verse of the
Quran:
2:196:
“And complete the Hajj or ‘Umra
in the service of Allah. But if ye are prevented (from competing it), send
an offering for sacrifice, such as ye may find, and do not shave your
heads until offering reaches the place of sacrifice. …” (I
have skipped the remaining part of the verse, as it does not relate to my
discussion).
Allah
asked those intending pilgrims, who are prevented from physically
completing their hajj, to send offerings
to
Mecca
, and not to shave their heads until their offerings have reached the
place of sacrifice. This instruction came down to the Muslims in the 7th
century, when there hardly existed any easy means of transportation
between
Mecca
and, say, the Indian sub-continent.
Let
us now consider the following scenario, keeping in mind the constraints of
the old days: Mr. X, a Muslim from
Calcutta
, decided to perform his hajj, say, in the 14th century, when
almost all of
India
had fallen to the Muslim rulers. After reaching
Delhi
, he fell sick. As instructed by the Quran, he is now in need of sending
an offering to
Mecca
for sacrifice there on his behalf.
Finding
a surrogate, who is willing to physically carry his sacrifice to
Mecca
, he buys a sheep and dispatches him on his journey to the place of
sacrifice. Given the fact that there existed, in those days, no steamer or
airline service between Bombay and the present-day Saudi Arabia, can we
imagine how many months, if not years, the substitute hajji would have
taken to reach his destination safely, with the sheep in his tow?
Conversely,
let us suppose that an Arab Muslim from
Medina
failed to reach
Mecca
for hajj due to an illness. He, therefore, arranges one of his relatives
to carry an offering to the place of sacrifice. Do we know how long a time
his offering was going to take to reach
Mecca
?
A
few days, at best. The carrier of his offering reaches the place of
sacrifice not only in a few days’ time; he also avails himself of
the occasion, when all pilgrims sacrifice their offerings on the Id Day in
the
valley
of
Mina
.
From
the contents of the two Quranic verses, it is clear that:
1.
The religion of Islam was intended only for the people of the
Arabian Peninsula
;
2.
And that the rituals of hajj and Qurbani (animal sacrifice) were also
meant only for them.
Despite
the fact that the Quran does not require non-Arab Muslims to carry out the
rituals of hajj and Qurbani, a large number of them from all over the
world spend colossal amounts of money every year on them. This they have
been doing, one generation after another, without realizing the
devastating effects their actions have been having on their national
economies. The following illustration may be a ‘food for thought’
for those Muslims of Bangladesh who hold the wellbeing of their country to
their hearts:
Bangladesh
is a small country with a population of over 144 Million people.
Unemployment is rampant. Its people’s per capita income in 2004 was
a paltry sum of $400.00 dollars.
The
government of
Bangladesh
cannot implement even small but very important projects, like the
immunization of its people, without foreign help. It
can neither buy important diagnostic equipment for its hospitals nor can
it afford to feed a large number of poor people, who survive by begging
and scavenging the trashcans of their
rich compatriots.
Yet,
Bangladesh
decided to permit 40,000 of its Muslim citizens to perform their hajj in
2005. Out of this number, 10,000 will be traveling to
Mecca
on the concession fare the government-owned Airline has agreed to charge
them. Still, each of the 10,000 pilgrims will require to pay Tk.130,000 or
approximately $ 2,200.00 to the government for covering the royalty it has
to pay, on their behalf, to the Saudi government, airfare and a simple
lodging in
Mecca
. This amount does not include the money each pilgrim will have to spend
on buying at least one sacrificial animal, nor does it include other
essential expenses that they will require to incur during their stay
there. Therefore, each pilgrim is expected to spend at least another
$300.00 on these accounts, which means that each of the 10,000 pilgrims
will be spending at least $2,500.00 on their hajj related matters.
The
total amount, to be squandered by only 10,000 pilgrims in
Bangladesh
’s hard-earned foreign currency, will be a large sum of about $25
Million Dollars.
The
remaining 30,000 pilgrims will be traveling with their own arrangements.
Since they will not be entitled to discounted fares from the Airlines and,
as many of them will be traveling in Business Class and be staying in
expensive hotels in
Mecca
, each one of them is expected to spend at least $5,000.00 on their
pilgrimage the next year. In all, 30,000 Bangladeshis are expected to
waste approximately $150 Million Dollars on the rituals of hajj and
Qurbani, both of which the Quran does not require them to undertake ever
in their lives.
In
addition to spending a staggering sum of approximately $175 Million
Dollars by 50,000 Bangladeshi Muslims on their hajj and Qurbani, at least
500,000 of them will be slaughtering, if not more but at least, an equal
number of animals all over their country. Estimating that each animal, on
an average, is likely to cost about $300.00, the total amount they will be
throwing away into the drain in the name of a ritual that is harmful for
them as well as for their country is expected to be around $150 Million
Dollars.
All
together, 40,000 pilgrims and approximately 500,000 non-pilgrim Muslims of
poor
Bangladesh
are expected to make their country poorer in 2005 by approximately $325
Million Dollars. This will happen, despite the fact that most of this
money is likely to come from those wage-earners who toil day and night in
foreign lands to earn a few hundred dollars a month. Bangladeshis will
squander this huge amount of money, despite the fact that a large number
of its people, living in its northern part, do not get any food, when
suffering from monga, to feed
themselves and their children. This colossal wastage will take place,
despite the fact that many of its farmers do not have a pair of oxen to
till their lands.
I
urge all patriotic Muslims of Bangladesh to rise up and to stop their
ill-informed brethren from squandering their meager resources on rituals
that their religion does require them to perform. I urge them to stand up
and ask their government not only to discourage its citizens from
undertaking hajj but also to prevent its officials, including the Prime
Minister, from performing Umra every now and then at the cost of the
people.
I
believe that
Bangladesh
can overcome its present situation, if its people are motivated to stand
up against all kinds of wastages. Like the rituals of hajj and Qurbani,
corruption has also been eating into their nation’s vital economic
veins. By plugging only these two dangerous drains of wastage and plunder,
they can save for themselves at least a billion dollars a year. And with
this huge sum of money, they can, over a period of time, not only free
their country from its abject poverty, this would also save them from all
kinds of humiliations they have been suffering regularly at the hands of
their financial donors.
Should
not the Muslims of Bangladesh as well as of other poor nations opt for
measures that are necessary for strengthening their national wellbeing,
prosperity, respect and dignity in place of unnecessary religious dogmas, thereby
leading themselves to a position, which will allow them to stand up,
among the people of other nations, with their heads high?
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