THE DEGRADATION OF THE HAJJ

(And the Horrors of Modern Islamic Architecture)

It is reported - but Allah knows best - that the Prophet Muhammad - may peace be upon him - said, "Circumabulating the Kaaba, running between the hills at as-Safa and lapidation of the pillars during the pilgrimage are all meant for the remembrance of Allah."

When the House of Saud took control of Arabia in the early twentieth century the holy places of Islam as well as the Hajj (pilgrimage) fell into their hands. From then until today the Saudis have imposed their strict Hanbalite ideology - Wahabism - upon Arabia and, by extension, upon the rest of the Muslim world. At first they assured Muslims everywhere that the sacred sites of Islam would be put under the jurisdiction of an international committee, but this has failed to eventuate. Instead, the sacred sites of Islam have suffered under Wahabi puritanism and much degradation and desecration has occured. Most infamously, on the 8th day of Shawwal, 1345 AH (April 21st, 1925) King Ibn Saud ordered the demolition of ancient mausoleums in Medina along with tombs at the Jannat-al-Mualla cemetery in Mecca. Among these tombs were those of the Prophet Muhammad's mother, several of his wives, his grandfather and other of his ancestors.

This was just the first of many acts of vandalistic zealotry by which the Saudis have stripped Arabia of tombs and shrines and places commemorating sacred events. In Wahabi ideology all such things are idolatrous. As well, the once beautiful architecture of the Ottomans (Turks) has been demolished, cemeteries desecrated, sacred places bulldozed and tarred over while at the same time the Saudis have built huge, modern monstrosities with their oil wealth. They have "renovated" the Haram (sacred precinct) in Mecca and reorganised the pilgrimage, imposing their own ignorance upon one of the sacred obligations (the Hajj) of the Muslim faith.

It is no exaggeration to say that in some respects the Saudis have turned the sacred places into a garish, bells-and-whistles, all-electric, all-automated, air-conditioned Islamic theme park. Some of the renovations - and innovations - to the sacred precinct have been tacky and tasteless to say the least. Let us mention just three:


The Hills

An essential part of the Hajj is to re-enact the distress of Hagar as she runs between two hills (Safa and Marwah) in search of water. The Saudi authorities have now completely enclosed these two hills within a massive building and installed an automatic moving pavement (travelator) between the two. The entire symbolism of Hagar's search has been obliterated and the hills themselves have been destroyed to accomodate the building and the moving sidewalk. The authorities are in the process of adding air-conditioning to the entire complex. (Why not add hot-dog stands and Cinemax movies as well??)

Surely the Safa and the Marwa are among the signs appointed by Allah; so whoever makes a pilgrimage to the House or pays a visit to it, there is no blame on him if he goes round them both; and whoever does good spontaneously, then surely Allah is Grateful, Knowing.

The Well of Zamzam

In their renovations the Saudis have interupted the flow of the sacred well of Zamzam so that it no longer opens to the surface at ground level. The enclosure of the two hills has rendered the re-enactment of Hagar's distress meaningless, so why not destroy the rite entirely by capping the well that saved her and Ishmael from thirst? Zamzam is now an entirely subterranean "aquatic feature" - the spring that, according to legend, the Prophet Ishmael opened to the sky with his heel is now closed off and never flows to the surface. The waters of the sacred spring are treated with chemicals and pumped to "water-coolers" throughout the sacred precinct.

The Pillars of Jamarat

In 2004 the Saudi authorities replaced the ancient "Pillars of Jamarat" with long walls. The pillars are (or were) representative of Satan and pilgrims were required to throw seven stones at them in an extremely ancient rite of lapidation. The "Stoning the Devil" was a famed part of the Hajj. But the Saudis decided that the pillars which had stood as representative of Satan since pre-Islamic times were too small as targets and so replaced them with long walls that are easier to hit!

* * *

All of these innovations, and more, are supposedly in response to the massive increase in the number of pilgrims making the Hajj in recent times. No doubt this presents enormous logistical problems for the ruling authorities but it is clear that the rites themselves have been degraded and cheapened by these unprecedented changes. The Saudis - the same people who bulldozed the tomb of the Prophet's mother in the name of religious purity! - have taken extraordinary, unwarranted liberties in the name of "modernization" and have changed the whole character of the sacred precinct and the Hajj.

* * *

Hoardes at the Hajj

It is true that the number of pilgrims going to Mecca in recent times has swelled out of all control. We can sympathize with the difficulties this must present the Saudi authorities. Stampedes and people being crushed to death have become regular features of every Hajj. The authorities have rightly been criticized for their handling of the crowds and for their failure to curtail the number of people undertaking superfluous pilgrimages. Some countries have imposed quotas on the numbers that can go to Mecca each year, but it is pilgrims from the Arab countries and Gulf States - often on their fourth or fifth Hajj - that are swelling the numbers. Rather than deal with this some Saudi authorities have suggested that the best way to control the numbers is to ban women from the Hajj.

More generally, one of the causes of the problem is that wealthy Muslims everywhere have adopted Mecca as a place for a "holiday with God" - spiritual tourism - and think nothing of going to the Hajj every few years. For too many, the Hajj is supposed to compensate for their otherwise secular and godless lives. They neglect the prayer, their avoid the fast, they don't pay the zakat - but they think they can buy salvation with a quick trip to Mecca. Muslim leaders have failed to preach against this. In particular, they might have preached against making multiple pilgrimages and urged Muslims to give the sum of their airfare to the poor instead. The Hajj has become an extravagance, even to the point that it must be deemed sinful to waste money (and polluting air fuel) on multiple pilgrimages when such resources might be put to far better purposes.

Modern Islamic architecture has been undistinguished. In the main, the mosques built since WW1 are monuments to the poverty of modernism. For some reason a high proportion of smaller modern mosques seem to resemble shopping malls. The larger ones are often breathtakingly ugly and ill-conceived. Indeed, much modern architecture in the Muslim world is merely pseudo-Islamic. It has a superficial Muslim "flavour" but otherwise its soul is barren. Certainly, none of it approaches the status of "sacred". There is a huge difference between an architecture that is sacred and an architecture that is merely 'religious'. Compared to previous centuries, the modern era cannot claim to have built a single sacred mosque. Not even the Great Mosque in Mecca. The last sacred buildings constructed in the Muslim world were the later mosques of the Ottoman Empire.

In particular, the national mosques of the new Muslim nation states created in the 20th C. have been almost uniformly appalling. Let us mention but two: the national mosques of Malaysia and Pakistan respectively. Both were designed by specially commissioned European architects whose brief was to express the spiritual aspirations of modern Muslims. Both are - without exaggeration - architectural abominations and are (with due respect to the citizens of both countries) an embarassment to Islam. Observe below:

The Negara Mosque in Kuala Lumpur - modelled on the idea of an open umbrella to "symbolize the tropics"! The 18-pointed star roof was originally bright pink but - mercifully - has since been retiled blue-green.

The Faisal Mosque in Islamabad - modelled upon the (equally lame) idea of a steel-and-cement tent!

The Istiqlal (Independence) Mosque in Indonesia is not too much better. It has the ambience of a football stadium. (Worse, it has a huge red digital clock at the point of the Qibla! Worshippers pray towards the digital clock and during sermons the crowds watch the clock ticking by above the head of the Imam!)

The Istiqlal Mosque, Djakarta

Let us dare to compare such buildings with the classical monuments of the past. Someone once said, "We shape our buildings and after that they shape us." Architecture is the primary art because it sets the context for other arts. A sick architecture is a sure sign of a sick culture. Conversely, a renewal of architecture is an essential step in a renewal of a living, healthy spiritual culture. The modern buildings criticized above are all characterized by a sentimental pseudo-symbolism that has replaced real spiritual understanding. The 18-pointed star of the Kuala Lumpur mosque has no integral meaning. Some people suggest that it represents the thirteen (original) provinces of Malaysia plus the five pillars of Islam. What shallow contrivances! An umbrella as a "symbol" of the tropics, indeed! These are not "symbols" at all! What does modern man know about "symbols"? And that is what is so sorely lacking - an architecture based upon an integral symbolism. This does not mean that we must do nothing but copy the forms of the past, but it does mean that we must find modern expressions of classical symbols and symbolic understandings, for such symbols are timeless while forms change.

For intelligent, incisive studies of Muslim art and architecture the works of Titus (Ibrahim) Burkhardt are strongly recommended.