How young hajis are modernising Mecca

Modern-age Haj: a Muslim pilgrim takes a selfie at the Grand Mosque in Mecca , September 6, 2016. Ahmed Jadallah / Reuters

MECCA // The Haj is no longer an old person’s ritual as a new generation of youthful Muslim pilgrims has transformed both the annual rites and Mecca itself.

“The younger you are, the easier it is,” says Saniah, a British pilgrim who, at 25, was on her second trip to Islam’s holiest site in Saudi Arabia.

Twelve years ago Saniah and her family came for Umrah. This year, she says she has returned for the Haj not only as a religious obligation but for “a radical change of life”.

Saniah is among roughly 1.5 million people from across the world attending the Haj which began formally on Saturday. With a soft drink in one hand and a cone of French fries in the other, Saniah eats with her husband at one of the many modern commercial centres dotted around the Grand Mosque in Mecca after performing Friday prayers.

“In early generations young people waited to be old before doing the pilgrimage,” Saniah says. “But the new generations, we’re more aware of our religious obligations.”

Smiling, she adds that the long Haj marches and prayers under a burning sun “are easier to bear when you’re young”.

Omar Saghi, author of “Paris-Mecca, Sociology of the Pilgrimage”, says the Haj is no longer “the mystical horizon of an entire life but a rational event” which has become almost routine.

Mohammed, 33, who travelled from Paris, says a number of their friends have already made the pilgrimage. Their travel agency told them it was also making arrangements for many other young couples.

“It’s an obligation and so, as soon as we had the means and while we’re healthy, we decided to do it,” says Mohammed, a physical education teacher queuing at a fast food counter with his wife Madiha, 28, a student of education science.

“Rather than buy material things like a car, better to spend our money on something that is going to benefit us on a spiritual level,” she says.

Mohamed Khazma, who works on the security team at a hospital in Tripoli, Libya, is searching for a table to eat his fried chicken. At 27, he says he is delighted he was able to gather enough money to come to Mecca, because “it’s an opportunity that not everybody has”.

The rising number of such young people, “more educated and already used to tourism and mass consumption”, has slowly helped to change the face of Mecca, says author Omar Saghi. “The big (advertising) signs, the big companies, capture this new clientele that the classical market of hotels and family restaurants can’t satisfy.”

Saniah recalls that, during her first visit to Mecca 12 years ago, they ate in the street. “It’s a lot better (now). We have the option of five-star service.”

Mohamed Khazma, on the other hand, wants nothing to do with the shopping centres, their air conditioning, restaurants and shops.

“I forget all of that,” says the young man who sports a short trimmed beard and long grey jalabiya robe. “I take my Quran, some dates and some water and I stay in the Grand Mosque from afternoon until the middle of the night.”

The Parisian Mohammed admits all the modern conveniences are “very far from the time of Abraham and the harshness of the desert” thousands of years ago. “We often wonder if all of that is in line with our spiritual quest. The shops, the luxury, the commercial centres — it clouds the spiritual aspect.”

* Agence France Presse