Perhaps you went over the past 3 years? You should know that the mutwwas have been significantly, significantly curtailed since before, as have restrictions on non-salafi practices, ever since the whole WOT began, and the saudi govt had reason to distance itself from extremism. When I went there you couldnt pray where you wanted or how you wanted without getting rebuked or even hit with a stick by mutawwas if it were different.
i could honestly post lots of references for the takfiriness here, but I just dont want to get into a sectarian debate. if you insist I will PM them to you. just one reference, you realise it isnt the barelvis or the sufis who write “Kafir Kafir Shia kafir” on your walls and bridges in pakistan, its an organization known as ssp. however, as far as the kicking in the guts is concerned, that isnt fabricated, I have seen stuff like that happen. Moreso, you dont need to read very far back in the newspapers (written before the WOT and falling out of favour of the wahhabies) to read the kind of brutality their police weilded over non-wahabi/salafist groups, particularly shias. I forget whether or not you regard shias as Muslims.
At any rate, you do not need to defend all their actions, since I believe now salafists tend to disassociate themselves from the saudi govt and its forces anyway.
Thats the wrong atittude to have in life. It promotes things like suicide. We have to care for our families and not leave everything on Allah.
I think the problem is that the number of people have increased so much that such tragic events will become more likely. When Islam was starting there were far fewer people. Saudi Arabia should try to limit number of Hajis along with other options.
I assume you have a job? If so, why? Shouldn’t you instead devout all your time to the study of Islam and Allah will provide you with the material things? Allah helps those who help themselves.
Not caring about the blessing of life and health that Allah has blessed you with is tantamount to committing suicide which as you should know is haraam. Failure to take proper precautions and being careless is not what Allah has asked of us. You are misunderstanding Islam I’m afraid.
mAd_ScIeNtIsT’s concern for his family is not only natural but part of being a good Muslim. I know people like from the Tableeghi Jamaat believe in giving up completely the worldly life for “spiritual” growth, but there’s is the wrong way and not the way of the Prophet (saw).
Oh no, you can ask Him for everything, but doesn’t except anything unless you work for it. Look at this analogy. You can go jump of a cliff if you want but don’t expect to live unless you have a parachute. That is the minimal amount of work required from humans, the rest is up to Allah’s will. But if you don’t even try to bring a parachute and leave everything to Allah, you will likely die.
Because Allah has made this world a place of cause and effect, nonetheless, as a muslim my faith tells me that I have a job because of the mercy of Allah and He has made my job a means of providing me my butter and bread. He is the only Al Razzaq.
Did you do anything to get this job or was it handed to you simply because you prayed to Allah?
I think some of us need to read Surah Yaseen with meaning to better understand the gift of life. Life must be protected and cherished, not discarded needlessly, even for Hajj. Hajj is for the spiritual and religious growth of a person, it is not meant as a death camp or a place where people are herded around like cows and trampled on.
With the increasing Muslim population, things will only get worse. That is why the number of people attending Hajj need to be limited as the safety limit has already been broken.
first of all im pretty sure that no pilgrim goes there with the intention of stamping over his fellow pilgrims, the stampede was caused by luggage falling of passing buses, this led to a pilgrim tripping over the luggage and that caused a knock-on domino effect, this time it seems to have been caused by a genuine accident,
on the day the stampede occured the flow rate of pilgrims was 150,000 per hour through the gates(CNN newsreporter), that is a huge huge number for anyone to manage, add the fact that there are pilgrims from all over the world of all colour, creed, age, physical condition etc you can imagine it takes one minor thing to cause panic.
i think the authorities have done a competent job in coping with the logisitics of hajj, the stoning times have been extended, the pillars have been extended into walls so to increase the numbers of stoning at one time, as crescent said there are plans to totally rebuild the jamarat and talks of 5 or 9 levels to be constructed, the authorities year by year analyse how the hajj went and then look for solutions to improve the facilities!! another point of the authorities i love is their zero tolerance towards any trouble makers in regards to religion… say or try anything silly there and you’re finished!!
as it becomes easier for people to perform the hajj im sure the number of people wanting to go will improve, limiting the number of people allowed(im sure that already exists in a quota form for each country? not too sure though), but can you imagine a person in the UK/USA decides to go hajj and the authorities turn round and say sorry mate the hajj is fully booked for the next 7 years? although i do think that hajis who have performed it once should not be allowed to go for a certain number of years.
