Spiritual Tourism

[Badlun]

After discussion with a friend who performs Hajj and Umra each year I started thinking on this religious obligation for Muslims. Performance of Hajj and Umra once in life is obligatory and understandable but doing it each year and many times is beyond my comprehension.

How people spend millions of dollars just to go there and ignore many other urgent social and economic obligations in their families and countries. I came to the following thoughts on this issue with the request of a free and frank discussion whether you agree with my these conclusions or otherwise.

1. It seems to be the strategy of Saudi Arabia to earn huge amount of money each year by the visits of thousands of Muslims to Saudi Arabia ?

2. Who are the economic/spiritual beneficiaries from this type of tourism?


3. What about the great spiritual centres in Non Arab Muslim world on the pattern of Mazar Sharif, Multan, Konya etc.

[Karachi]

I think they should go once or twice in life time

[khushal]

After discussion with a friend who performs Hajj and Umra each year I started thinking on this religious obligation for Muslims. Performance of Hajj and Umra once in life is obligatory and understandable but doing it each year and many times is beyond my comprehension.

How people spend millions of dollars just to go there and ignore many other urgent social and economic obligations in their families and countries. I came to the following thoughts on this issue with the request of a free and frank discussion whether you agree with my these conclusions or otherwise.

1. It seems to be the strategy of Arabs to earn huge amount of money each year by the visits of thousands of Muslims to Saudi Arabia and thus doing effective and intense marketing for this commercial event so that most of the people make it to go there and spend a lot of money on their land.

2. It seems to be the conspiracy of Arabs to make Muslims dependent on them for spiritual and religious gratification and not letting them having others holy places for their spiritual growth and satisfaction. That is why they say that there are only three holy places which are in Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem all Arab lands.

3. Arabs discourage Sufism, mysticism and spiritualism and always stress on pure monotheism so that no other spiritual centres emerge in Muslim world and Muslims always look at Saudi as the religious epicentre of Muslims. Otherwise there can be great spiritual centres in Non Arab Muslim world on the pattern of Mazar Sharif, Multan, Konya etc.

The hajj pilgramage is more and more turning into a commercial endeavor instead of what it is intended for and that is a spiritual endeavor. If you take a look at the surrounding around the Kaaba, it looks more like a commerical environment with all the luxuries and materialism.

The Kaaba in mecca was used as a commercial enterprise by the pagan arabs. They used to house idols and sell them for a profit to superstitious people. The main reason the pagans turned against the prophet Mohammad was because his message was a threat to their business and monopoly they had over the people and manipulated them for exploitation. I am afraid it is repeating again.

[Karachi]

The hajj pilgramage is more and more turning into a commercial endeavor instead of what it is intended for and that is a spiritual endeavor. If you take a look at the surrounding around the Kaaba, it looks more like a commerical environment with all the luxuries and materialism.

The Kaaba in mecca was used as a commercial enterprise by the pagan arabs. They used to house idols and sell them for a profit to superstitious people. The main reason the pagans turned against the prophet Mohammad was because his message was a threat to their business and monopoly they had over the people and manipulated them to exploit the people. I am afraid it is repeating again.

yeah that part is true. Saudi government has defiantly designed the umra/hajj pilgrimage in a way to maximize their profits

[emkhan]

This guy has no problem with those majority of kafir in the west who throw most of their salary amount in bars every weekend. On Monday, their pockets are empty and they start again and on weekend the same activities are done. But if someone goes to Hajj or Umra once a year or once a life, then you guys call extranvagance and luxury and commercial and this and that.
Come on guys open your eyes and toba obasay.

[IamDZJ]

It's up to the individual to go there with the right intention and if the luxuries are provided on the side then I don't see the harm in it. Its very unlikely that someone would go to hajj just for the luxury that comes along with it. That it should be done for the right intention is the point that needs to be enforced. Yes it still is necessary. What the Arabs do or have done to the process is their issue and only they will be held responsible for it at the day of judgment.*

[khushal]

This guy has no problem with those majority of kafir in the west who throw most of their salary amount in bars every weekend. On Monday, their pockets are empty and they start again and on weekend the same activities are done. But if someone goes to Hajj or Umra once a year or once a life, then you guys call extranvagance and luxury and commercial and this and that.
Come on guys open your eyes and toba obasay.

walay toba obosum. I shouldnt criticize of what is wrong with this picture, look what is happening in mecca.



what is big ben doing over looking the kaaba. it is not right. looking up to think about what time it is is not spiritual. worrying about the time is a materialistic aspect of life.

[khushal]

When I talk to people that just came from mecca, they dont talk about the spiritual aspect of the trip. they keep talking about how modern it is and how pretty the building are.

[badmash_khel]

Going on hajj is an aspect of muslim faith. Once you become muslim you don't think along those lines. If you accept Muhammad (saw) as the final messanger and prophet and Quran as God's word then going on hajj is not an arab conspiracy but a duty ordained by God himself. I am sure if I didn't believe in Islam I would also think like you Osho, but since we believe in the message of Muhammad (saw), then we follow it sincerely.

Hajj must be performed only once, with certain pre conditions. If your friends wants to go more than once providing he can afford it and doing it of his own free will then who are we to stop him.

[Karachi]

When I talk to people that just came from mecca, they dont talk about the spiritual aspect of the trip. they keep talking about how modern it is and how pretty the building are.

star bucks is also in that big building:



not to mention malls with the all the western brands:





Impressive Makkah Malls 1080P - YouTube

[Karachi]

Makkah has indeed been a trading city forever, but i personally really dont like these western corporate brands entering the city and killing all the local business, all the local business that was there before is dead. There should have been atleast one place in the world where we could escape westernization of every thing, makkah and Medina should have been those places, but i guess not. Money wins every where

[kakargirl]

Only people like Osho bring up these topics to demean Islam even further .
Our beloved PROPHET P.B.U.H belonged to that place QURAN talks about that place Ibrahim P.B.U.H and his beloved son Isma'il P.B.U.H built the kabah,not everyone goes for shopping not everyone comes back and talks about other things, i have heard people say ''We forgot all our problems, we felt peace,we felt protected we felt guided.

[Badlun]

I am not against Hajj which is really an important obligation for Muslims and one of the five pillars of Islam.

I wonder whether now a days the pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina really a trip for spiritual development or a means for the Saudi government to extract economical gain through Islam's insistence on the performance of the haj for all Muslims?

Once in life is obligatory but we also know that Allah is omnipresent then why make such an expensive journey to Saudi Arabia to contact God as if God is found only there? If the Haj was truly for spiritual reasons why do the Muslims who pilgrimate need to spend their hard-earned life-savings when the Saudi government can simply pay for all the expenses of the pilgrims? What about poverty-stricken Muslims to do if they can't afford to make the pilgrimage?

Some people opine that the actual reason behind Haj many times in life is actually not at all spiritual but monetary. Historically, the haj was performed by pre-Islamic Arabs and the managers of the Kaaba, namely the Quraish tribe, profited from this revenue-generating ritual because there was no other major economic alternative to it in Mecca at the time.

The present day Saudi government understands its vulnerabilities to the oil-factor as well as the fact that oil will run out one day, so what they are doing is using their oil wealth to fund Islamic conversion campaigns all around the world in the form of constructing mosques and maddressas to disseminate Wahhabi islam and convert as many people as possible. The reason is because more converts translates into more Muslim pilgrims and hence, more potential revenue coming into the country through the garb of religion.

Their aim is to mostly depend on this sort of revenue in order to maintain their comfortable air-conditioned life-style without working. The scheme is to basically make non-Arab Muslims pay for the continued comforts of the Saudi Muslims. This way Islam is nothing but an enterprise for generating wealth for the Arabs without requiring them to work but lazily act as parasites on others for their livelihood and welfare.

After having such critical thought one reaches to the conclusion that Arabs try that Islam was created by Arabs for Arabs and that's why they don't let other spiritual centres in non Arab world to flourish.

parts of this post has been taken from
Faith Freedom International :: View topic - Islamic haj: Spiritual or commercial?

[Haris]

Hello Mr Osho.
Okay, lets deal with your edited initial posting first.

After discussion with a friend who performs Hajj and Umra each year I started thinking on this religious obligation for Muslims. Performance of Hajj and Umra once in life is obligatory and understandable but doing it each year and many times is beyond my comprehension.

How people spend millions of dollars just to go there and ignore many other urgent social and economic obligations in their families and countries. I came to the following thoughts on this issue with the request of a free and frank discussion whether you agree with my these conclusions or otherwise.

1. It seems to be the strategy of Saudi Arabia to earn huge amount of money each year by the visits of thousands of Muslims to Saudi Arabia ?

2. Who are the economic/spiritual beneficiaries from this type of tourism?


3. What about the great spiritual centres in Non Arab Muslim world on the pattern of Mazar Sharif, Multan, Konya etc.

1. Evidently so. But whoever said that the Saudis are working in the best interests of Islam or Muslims? These days many Muslims (not just limited to the Arab aristocracy) live in ignorance reverting back to the actions that Muhammad (saw) and the Qu'ran taught against. This is a reality that is accepted by Muslims as it had already been foretold. The onus is upon us as induviduals to be the best Muslims we can be and collectively this will result in a fruitful outcome. That is obviously easier said than done.

2. Economically the Saudi government benefits. Spiritually the induvidual benefits. Not hard to understand is it?

3. Hajj is obligatory as stated in the Qu'ran. Pilgrimage to these other sites is not. Devoted Muslims who seek further spiritual education may visit places like Damascus, Al Quds, Istanbul, Al Azhar, Indonesia, Morroco etc.

If it is not mentioned in the Qu'ran that we must visit these places, then why promote tourism to these areas when there is no reason for it? Surely that would be a further waste of money (which you seem to be so against).

If you are a Muslim you believe that the Qu'ran is the word of Allah (swt). Therefore you must perform Hajj as Allah (swt) has decried it. Did Allah (swt) decree that we must make pilgrimage to Mazar, Konya or Multan? Please show me where he did and I will make it my duty to visit these places within my lifetime.

I know you are a hadith-rejecter as you believe it all to be evil Arab conspiraces but I am surprised that you would have similar thoughts in relation to what is stated in the Qu'ran which, with you being a Muslim, one would think that you would believe it to be the word of Allah (swt), not Arab conspiracists.




Well anyway, let us move on to your more recent post.

I am not against Hajj which is really an important obligation for Muslims and one of the five pillars of Islam.

Good to hear.

I wonder whether now a days the pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina really a trip for spiritual development or a means for the Saudi government to extract economical gain through Islam's insistence on the performance of the haj for all Muslims?

For the induvidual, pilgrimage to Mecca has always been (or is meant to be) about 'spiritual development' as you put it. No-one goes to Hajj with the thought in their head: 'I would really like to have the Saudi government extract economical gain today, I know, i'll do Hajj!'

Once in life is obligatory

Indeed it is.

but we also know that Allah is omnipresent

Indeed he is.

then why make such an expensive journey to Saudi Arabia to contact God as if God is found only there?

Because it was stated in the Qu'ran and Muslims follow the Qu'ran because it is the word of Allah (swt).

You are really asking silly questions here but let us continue.

If the Haj was truly for spiritual reasons

The Hajj is for spiritual reasons. You are a Muslim, why would you say 'if', unless you have doubts about what is written in the Qu'ran.

why do the Muslims who pilgrimate need to spend their hard-earned life-savings

Because it is an obligation as it was stated in the Qu'ran.
Of course they would be spending their 'hard-earned life-savings'....it wouldn't be through money attained through 'unearned-gambling' profits now would it?

For a Muslim, the benefits of Hajj vastly outweigh any silly materialistic monetary costs. Hajj is something that we will need to have done (if we have the capacity) before we die. Being rich is not.

when the Saudi government can simply pay for all the expenses of the pilgrims?

Indeed in an ideal world the Saudi government would exist only as an entity responsible for providing for the process of Hajj and not being a regional political player with a number of other needs (both internal and external).

But since when did we live in an ideal world?

What about poverty-stricken Muslims to do if they can't afford to make the pilgrimage?

If you cannot afford to perform Hajj or are too ill to do so then there is nothing wrong with that. It is your intention that matters.
There are many who perform Hajj for their parents who for whatever reason could not do so themselves after they had passed away.


Now I know that you are not exactly a fan of the Hadith but I will post the following for the benefit of others who may read this:

According to a narration, a woman from the tribe of Has`am went to the Prophet and said that her father was too old to sit on a mount and asked whether she could make Hajj for him. The Prophet replied that she could.
(Bukhari, Hajj, 1; Muslim, Hajj, 407)

According to another narration, a woman asked the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) about the state of her father who died before he made Hajj. He said: “Make Hajj on behalf of your father.
(Bukhari, ibid; Tirmidhi, Hajj, 85; Nasai, Manasik'ul-Hajj, 8)

Ibn Abbas narrates: A woman vowed to make Hajj but her life was not long enough to make it; she died before she could make Hajj. The brother of the woman went to the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) and asked him what he should do. The Messenger of Allah (pbuh) asked him, “If she had owed some money, would you pay it? The man said: "Yes, O Messenger of Allah“. The Messenger of Allah said: "Then, pay her debt to Allah, too, because He deserves more to be paid."
(Nasai, Manasik'ul-Hajj, 7)

There are others as well, I will spare you the full explanation behind them. Read it up yourselves.

Some people opine that the actual reason behind Haj many times in life is actually not at all spiritual but monetary.

"Some people" are wrong. The reason behind Hajj is and always has been spritual. Now, I don't know what goes through the minds of every singly Hajji but I am sure we can agree that the reason someone would perform Hajj is generally 'spiritual', atleast for the induvidual.

For the Saudi government, perhaps they may be looking primarily at the monetary side of things, but that does not at all change "The reason behind Hajj". It only indicates their intentions.

Historically, the haj was performed by pre-Islamic Arabs and the managers of the Kaaba, namely the Quraish tribe, profited from this revenue-generating ritual because there was no other major economic alternative to it in Mecca at the time.

That is correct. What they did was wrong and was why there was so much stiff opposition to Islam because it threatened their source of income which was through the display of those idols. Islamically it would obviously be best to not imitate the actions of the times of Jahiliyyah.
Perhaps what we are seeing is a resurgence of this, it is truly sad.

The present day Saudi government understands its vulnerabilities to the oil-factor as well as the fact that oil will run out one day

True. That is the case for many of the oil-rich nations, not just Saudi Arabia. They seek to diversify their respective economies because as you say the oil will not last forever.

It is because, as I stated earlier, Saudi Arabia does not exist solely as an entity to provide for the service of Hajj. It would be great if it did, but it doesn't. It has a whole load of other internal & external issues to worry about as well.

That however does not mean that Hajj is an Arab conspiracy or whatnot. It is Allah's decree and your duty as a Muslim to perform it.

so what they are doing is using their oil wealth to fund Islamic conversion campaigns all around the world

Sounds great!

in the form of constructing mosques and maddressas

Even better!

to disseminate Wahhabi islam and convert as many people as possible.

Uh, oh.

The reason is because more converts translates into more Muslim pilgrims and hence, more potential revenue coming into the country through the garb of religion. Their aim is to mostly depend on this sort of revenue in order to maintain their comfortable air-conditioned life-style without working. The scheme is to basically make non-Arab Muslims pay for the continued comforts of the Saudi Muslims. This way Islam is nothing but an enterprise for generating wealth for the Arabs without requiring them to work but lazily act as parasites on others for their livelihood and welfare.

What you say may well be correct. If there are more Muslims in the world then I am happy, as you should be. I don't care if they are 'Wahabbi', Sufi, Muʿtazilah or whatever else. If they consider themselves Muslim and want to perform Hajj then that is their business.

The Saudi authorities may indeed benefit from the increased revenue.
Maybe they will spend the money on expanding the Ka'aba or maybe they will spend it on wild parties. Regardless, it does not discredit the actual process of Hajj which as you know is obligatory because it was decreed by Allah (swt).

Also I think you are being unnecessarily anti-Arab here.
Hajj is not a conspiracy against non-Arabs. Most Arabs do not live the fancy lives that you speak of. The current state of Islam and the Ummah is not just bad for the common Afghan or common Punjabi or common Turk. It is bad for the common Muslim, and that includes the common Arab.

We do not live in a perfect world, that is reserved for the afterlife. Do what you can to be a good Muslim and work towards that afterlife and you will find peace. Nothing more is expected of you from Allah (swt).

After having such critical thought one reaches to the conclusion that Arabs try that Islam was created by Arabs for Arabs

Nonsense. If one comes to such a conclusion then they are no longer Muslim. A Muslim believes that Islam was created by Allah (swt) and is not the creation of Arabs. A Muslim also believes that the Qu'ran is the word of Allah (swt) and not the word of Arabs.

If through your 'critical thought' you have come to a conclusion other than this then what sort of a Muslim are you?

and that's why they don't let other spiritual centres in non Arab world to flourish.

Who, the Arabs? How do you know that they don't let other such centres flourish? It is like saying that because Spain is so sunny, the Spaniards are not letting the Swedes to flourish as a beach-holiday-destination.

These "other spiritual centres" do not flourish as well as Mecca does because it is not obligatory for Muslims to visit them. If it was, then they would. It's really not that hard to understand.

parts of this post has been taken from
Faith Freedom International :: View topic - Islamic haj: Spiritual or commercial?

Some final comments.
Mr Osho, I am surprised at many of the questions you asked.
Someone with very little knowledge of Islam would surely know the answers to most of them.

You are really complicating things too much and coming to weird conclusions as a result.

In my own experience, most of those who I have known who have done Hajj, do not do so again until their family members have gone too (usually they go together). Most people are not rich enough to afford to perform Hajj every year and that is fine as it is obligatory to do it only atleast once in one's life.

Also you should note that someone who had performed Hajj is more likely to give Zakat and Sadaqa. If they perform it on a regular basis then they are more likely to be devoted Muslims and will probably be donating more to the needy as is their duty.

Hajj is not meant to be a holiday for the rich.
It is a serious issue. When you return from Hajj you return as a completely different and devout person. It is a truly life-changing experience and I think you should understand this.

I do not deny that there may be some Muslims who may perform Hajj for selfish motives or that those responsible for facilitating the Hajj are the best Muslims on Earth, but Hajj is a great (and obligatory) experience for all pious Muslims.




I would advise you to put down the books concerning the works of Mr Rajneesh and perhaps try to understand the reasons why someone would perform Hajj and why Allah has decreed it for us Muslims.

I am sure there are many resources out there to help facilitate this. Good luck.





Edit: This posting was under the impression that you are a Muslim. Apologies if that is not the case.

[Badlun]

Thanx for such a detailed reply. I have no doubts that Hajj is an obligation for Muslims and an injunction of the Holy Quran. Quran says do it and Muslims do it. My concern is performing it many times in life when you have many other more optimum opportunities to spend or invest your income.

Quran has not mentioned names of all the mosques where Muslims perform prayers. Similarly for the obligatory Hajj Muslims should go to Mecca but for spiritual gratification they should also visit other spiritual centres in the non Arab world. Quran has not prohibited doing so.

On the pattern of Shia Muslims who visit many holy places in Iraq and Iran Sunni Muslims should also visit these places where Shia Muslims go as the people buried there are equally respectable for all Muslims and beside that both Sunni and Shia Muslims should visit places like Mazar Sharif, Lahore, Cairo, Multan etc where one can find spiritual satisfaction as well as there are opportunities of tourism , recreation and economic benefits.