Global Hajj Concerns And The Best Ways Forward For Ghana

THE GLOBAL Hajj meet dubbed 'World Hajj and Umrah Convention (WHUC) 2013' ended in London on the 22nd May this year. The two-day convention took stock of the difficulties Muslims face going to Mecca and Medina, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, to observe the Fifth Pillar of the Islamic act of worship (Pilgrimage).

In the Holy Quran (3: 98) the importance of the spiritual visitation to the two Holy sites is emphasise thus: ... it is the place of Abraham (the Ka'bah); and whoso enters it, is safe. And pilgrimage to the House is a duty which menthose who can find a way thitherowe to Allah.

The Holy Prophet (May the peace and blessings of Allah upon him) did not only convey this ordinance from On High but also set out in practice the religious ethics on how to go about it. For instance, he exhorts that all Muslims who are financially and physically capable and without any political encumbrance should perform Hajj at least once in their life time; that Muslims should prepare financially and physically for it; and that intending pilgrims should pay off all debts, return anything held in trust, and provide sufficiently for their family and dependants at least for that period while they were away.

To illustrate further, during the vetting of one deputy minister designate during the Mills' administration, he was addressed as an Alhaj (a handle used by those who have done the Hajj) by a member of the vetting committee. To which he gave a poignant answer. To wit, that he was not in the greatest respect an Alhaj yet, but that he would become one after forty years. I guess what he was driving at was that he was not spiritually, physically and financially adequately prepared as emphasised above.

In Ghana, the meddling of politicians--in virtually everything from fire out breaks in markets, to accidents, to whom to choose from among Muslims to be a running mate, praying for or against pink sheets in the Supreme Court to Hajj operations and now pilgrimage to Israel -- has become the identikit of all that has been wrong in our public life.

And not surprisingly, the organisation of Hajj operations by political parties in government at least since the inception of the Fourth Republic has been mired in one controversy or the other thereby always incurring public displeasure and mistrust. Usually, they put party operatives in to manage the operations and use scarce public resources to pay for some party Muslim members to go on Hajj as a golden hand shake (the civil Service too somehow is suspected of also sponsoring some Muslims for Hajj yearly). Worst still, some of these party operatives have been accused of selling government tickets to prospective pilgrims in the black market.

So this would raise some eyebrows from a section of our public that government was favouring Muslims as though it was a package for all Muslims in the country. Nevertheless, in a circular developing country like ours whose economic state has been described aptly by our president in this year's state of the nation address as the meat having been eaten to the bone about 47 percent of public debt to GDP and an external debt of about $ 11.23 billion-- the least we can do is to cut off such unproductive expenses and rather channel them to the social sector to take off the beggars from the street to start with.

In my humble opinion, i do not see how these acts and gestures by government and the Civil Service conduce to a successful Hajj in the light of some of the religious ethics enumerated above. In a related commentary, an Islamic scholar was asked that some people take cash advance from their company, to be paid back in installment and for it to be deducted at source in order to go for Hajj.

He replied that one should not do this, because a person is not obliged to go for Hajj if he owes a debt and the questioner further asked about the instance of taking a loan in order to do same. He again replied that one should not borrow money to go for Hajj, in that Hajj was not obligatory for him or her in that case, he thought. He further opined that they should accept the concession (as reported in the Holy Quran quotation above 'those who can') granted by Allah by His Grace and Mercy, and not burden themselves with a loan which they do not know whether they will be able to pay it off.

President Mills in his second year in office banned the festivities of Hampers during the yuletide ostensibly that public funds were used to purchase them and given to officialdom just to curry favour with them. In that vein, it is categorically imperative that this principle be followed through to end the meddling and mending of the ways of Hajj operations. Or such largesse should be rejected outright just as some clergy asked to be included out in the visitation to Israel sometimes this year.

Arguably i think, the above concerns notwithstanding, the crust of the matter is that of the visa acquisition process at the Saudi Embassy in Ghana. This process lacks openness, transparency, and too restrictive to only agents and government operatives. Religious visits to countries hosting World Heritage sites is not only unique to Saudi Arabia and so they ought to be innovative to make it open, transparent and accountable and their decisions subject to judicial review and Human Rights Conventions as is the case of the UK Border Agency and this could prove to be the game changer. (The best practice for the WHU 2013 was taken from the UK.)

The chairman of the convention remarks summed it all when he commented that Britain has been a great host of the Islamic Faith and that about 66,000 Muslims go for Umrah yearly and that that was ranked as the highest per capita in comparison to any country.

And, it appears the above concerns of Hajj operations had also been encountered by pilgrims from other countries. One issue of concern that was also deliberated upon on the second day of the convention was the financing of Hajj in the 21st Century- a review of Hajj Saving Funds. For example, in New York there is a Hedge Fund to help Muslims save for their pilgrimage. This could be replicated in our financial market for intending Muslims to save towards going for Hajj if there is not one already in place. Worthy of note too was the verdict by the convention that Hajj operations be wholly organised by private tour operators and that it be based on quota allocation.

The organisation of Muslims activities in Ghana has not always been problematic as some people will have us belief. The National Hilal Committee, for instance, has served us well since its constitution. To their credit, they have been successful in carrying out their mandate namely coordinating Rahamadan activities and helping government settle on days for the national Muslim Holidays of Idir- Fitir and Adha.

As the chaotic operations of Hajj in Ghana has already received its fare share of public debates and bashing, it is only fare that whichever model is adopted after this latest dissolution it be made to have a mandate to offer travel advisory services to intending pilgrims on the ethics of this all important spiritual journey of life transformation and for them to collaborate with the Saudi Embassy to review their visa acquisition process by adopting cloud computing technology towards making it straight forward and less cumbersome so that the Hajj visitation integrity and hallowed traditions are well preserved for us to derived the maximum spiritual Blessings from it by Allah's Grace.