Below are some extracts from the Sufi teacher Abdullah Dougan’s book, “40 Days: An Account of a Discipline” that give considerable insight on the nature of the Islamic religion today, as well as the culture of its epicentre and birthplace, Arabia. These observations were made in 1974, as Abdullah travelled to Arabia on the Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca that is one of the Five Pillars of Islam that every practicing Muslim must complete. Abdullah travelled to Saudi Arabia from Afghanistan with his student Abdul. Before being allowed entry into Arabia the two men had to swear before an Afgani High Court that they were Muslims, following which the judge told them “with a straight face” that now they were Muslims, by Koranic law they could be killed if they decided to return to being Christians. On entry into Saudi Arabia the customs inspector confiscated a book Abdullah had by the Hindu guru Ramdas, because it was “against their religion”. Abdullah observed: “This action on the part of the customs was typical of the bigotry of many Muslims, who observe only the outside part of their religion.”
I am posting this because you’d be hard pressed to find such honest and direct descriptions of a Hajj experience anywhere else, for reason that will soon become apparent, as well as a continuation from my last two posts. The Hajj is also presently a somewhat more orderly experience (or not?), perhaps because the Saudis have been embarassed into action by foreign visitors and governments, so it is important to capture this instructive bit of recent history.
Anyhow, I found reading the stories below to be a fascinating insight.
Abdullah on the meaning of the Hajj:
There are many explanations of the Hajj, by Muslim theologians, most of which follow a very literal line, as is customary in the Muslim world. Anything in the Hadith or Koran is held to be true, no matter how far-fetched to objective reasoning. The Koran, like the bible, has inaccuracies caused by the ego of writers intruding into universal truths.
On his experience at Masjid El Noor ( Mosque of Light), where he and Abdul stayed in Medina:
[..]The people who ran the school where part of the Tablig school, traditionalists trying to keep the clock back in the days of the Holy Prophet, who would slavishly follow many of the injunctions given in the Hadith or traditions of the Prophet.
Muslims maintain there are no monks in Islam, but this type of situation belied the assertion. The borthers lived the life of a monk at MAsjid El Noor, grting up at 4:30am for prayers, doing their ablutions at a cold tap which was the merest trickle and on a few occassions not even that so they would have to store water to use out of one of the spouted pots. Prayers were going on constantly as well as the five communal prayers. In between, someone was always lecturing others. There was a continual stream of visitors from among the pilgrims, for the Tablig school are the missionaries of Islam. They call themselves the Jumat (brothers) and go to other mosques to waylay people and harangue them constantly, trying to influence them back to their religion. They also attempt to convert any infidel they find interested in Islam. They are all most sincere, trying to live life to the Koran, and most are very feaful and superstitious. [..]
The Holy Prophets ideas on cleanliness wre a thousand years ahead of his time, for when the people of Europe were having baths only once a year, if at all, the Prophet had his peolpe bathing once a week. However the Law of Seven [TOD: an esoteric concept governing the atrophy of processes devoid of conscious guidance] has cought up with this, and now the Muslim people must contend for first place among the dirtiest races in the world. At El Noor there was never any hot water for a bath, and most people used no soap; this applied for wuzu, the ceremonial washing of hands and feet before prayers. Often there was no water at all because the town was so overcrowded the system could not cope. There were no flush toilets, but pans let into the floors with an adjacent tap, and even when there was water about half the users would not wash away their stool. To add to the lack of hygiene the cookhouse was adjacent to the toilets.
Most of the people there very pleasant and friendly. Many came to talk to me, some to learn, others to teach me the right way as they saw it through the Koran and Hadith. I formed the opinion that most were [overly] identified with sex and [the] devil, for these usually came up in conversation. As has been said elsewhere, Muslims are obsessed with reward and punishment, and much of their attitude towards sex is very archaic. The penalty for adultery is stoning to death, and in recent years a Christian at Jeddah killed a Muslim he caught in bed with his wife, so the Muslim’s friends and relatives killed the Christian by running him over with a truck. Most who spoke to me had not the slightest idea of sex psychology, still believing women to be the instrument of the devil. One young South African Indian who came each night for a chat summed up his primitive conception of sex when he observed that “women are the trouble”. Much latent homosexual behaviour noticed among Muslim friends stemmed from sexual frustrations. The South African Indian friend told me with a very straight face that the devil was in the toilet and you should always cough before going in left foot first, being careful to wear your hat. Whoever told him about the devil must have been referring to masturbation - it wasn’t clear why he had to keep his hat on.
[..] Having lived for 16 days with these brothers, I had become more aware just how hard it was for anyone to wake up to the inaccuracies of the exoteric teachings of Islam. The branwashing was, and is, constant.
Abdul, whom the brothers earnestly lectured about subjects of utmost importance such as in which hand one should hold a teacup in and where the right foot should be placed in prayer noted that Tabliah Jumat’s “appointed task seemed to be the emphasis of the irrelevant”.
Abdullah on Haram Sharrief, which houses the Prophets tomb:
Muslims do not believe in idols, and wherever they have conquered have destroyed priceless works of art by breaking off the faces; but unfortunately they have made idols of their shrines, with people fighting to touch a sacred place. A great deal of the pushing and shoving at Haram Sharief is attributable to this idolisation. Objectively watching people around the Prophet’s grave, one could only come to the conclusion that they have created an idol here. Nearby are some of the Prophet’s wives’ graves, and the crying and touching of the walls is no different from what goes on in Catholic countries.
In Saudi Arabia the classic Muslims law prescribes the cuitting off of the right hand as the penalty for stealing, but Abdul had his white gown cut at the pocket and the money he was carrying taken. Other people told of similar experiences. During the Hajj season the prices for everything where exhorbitant, as the shopkeepers had no conscience about profiteering.
On the other Haram Sharrief, which contains the Kabah in Mecca:
On the Friday before the Hajj started, we went to the Haram Sharrief with over a million others to do the mid-day prayers, or Jumuh. We saw armed guards tossing people off the main entrance to the mosque to make room for the VIPs who arrived hours later than the waiting pilgrims. I couldn’t get into the mosque proper, but remained in the street with thousands of others. The conditions outside were chaotic. Nearby was a truck with a machinegun mounted on its back direcred towards the main door and I wondered what would happen to the congregation if the gunner had to fire it. These precautions were taken to give protection to King Faisal and his ministers.
Mina, 5 miles from Mecca, first day of the Hajj:
[..] Many people died, and at one time the Egyptians [friends of Abdullah] counted ten dead stacked in an ambulance [TOD: they were staying opposite a hospital] Conditions were archaic, and very little water and only one hundred public toilets for one and a half million people. A great deal of time these toilets were closed through lack of water, and under guard. The streets became a quagmire of extreta and urine, especially behind the parked vehicles.
Day 2, going to Arafat and staying at a mosque called Masjid-I-Namdaram.
[..] All the passageways soon became occupied, causing complete chaos, with real fights all over the place.
As the hour of prayer drew near, peopel appeared to to become quite mad in their endevours to gain a place in which to pray. [Abdul and I] made room for two old Turks by squeezing together, but this didn’t stop two others pushing in, thus making it almost impossible for the Turks to find a place to put their heads in prayer. The hysteria of these people had to be seen to be believed. I observed to Abdul that one could easily see the mis-use of sexual energy in all these irrational actions.The Saudi government had no organisation to cope with the vast horde of people, so there was no crowd control in the mosque at all, unless they wanted to make way for some personage. The whole Saudi nation appeared to be concerned only with making money from the pilgrims, whom they exploited to the fullest limits. Every commodity was at least double the usual price, according to the friends who lived in Medina.
The pelting of stones at idols at Mina:
It was impossible to get near the idols unless you were unconcerned about getting hit by the flying pebbles, and there was such a crush within a hundred feet of the idol that you couldn’t get your hands above your head. Before attacking the situation [our friends] the Egyptians tied Ehram sheets tightly around their money and possessions, because they knew that thieves operated in the vicinity of this idol, taking advantage of the fact that if a person had his hands above
