By Dr. Aliyu U. Tilde
Yesterday, as I was looking into how a repeat incident of deaths at the stoning of the devil can be prevented in future, I received a distressing sms from the former Ladies Captain of our golf club in Bauchi, Martina Jummai Saleh, saying:
“We are also going through the agonizing suspense of not knowing the fate of our loved ones in Hajj stampede. My children’s father, Abdullahi Saleh Yakmut from Plateau State who travelled by international route, cannot be reached since the stampede. All efforts to trace him whether alive, injured or dead have not yielded any result. It is better imagined than go through what the family is going through now.”
Martina’s short message has captured the feeling in all families affected by the last Hajj stampede disaster: An incident at a ritual has cost the lives of over a thousand worshippers, brought so much agony and distress to their families and attracted sympathy of anyone that has the slightest bit of compassion in his heart.
Suggestions
The number of pilgrims is in millions, mashaallah. It is a size that financially and intellectually tasks the Saudi authorities that organize the annual event over the years. It is not an easy task as we can all see because despite applying so much effort, gaps still exist and much more is still needed to ensure that the pilgrimage is hitch-free.
Different suggestions have been given on how the organization of the event can be improved, including improved means of communication and cutting the number of pilgrims to a manageable figure. The Saudis also have reinvigorated their search for lasting solutions. The king of the Kingdom has called for a thorough review of the entire process. Others have suggested a partnership among nations in managing the event through the Organisation of Islamic Countries, OIC, for example. These suggestions if taken are likely to yield some relief but they may not be sufficient.
While we contemplate the mechanics of Hajj, this year’s Amirul Hajj, the Emir of Kano, His Royal Highness, Muhammadu Sanusi II has in addition tasked Muslim scholars to do their own part by looking into the province of Islamic jurisprudence with a view of finding relief for individual pilgrims. Unfortunately, the relevance of his statement was blurred by the sensational headline that said, “Nigerians Will Not Stone the Devil Again.” His opponents, immediately stood up and said, “Shut up. You are not a scholar.”
However, I still find it pertinent not to ignore the Emir’s advice. Muslims, not only scholars, must look into areas of relief wherever it exists and apply it. Religion is not here to kill people or deprive them of their loved ones. It is not here to bring distress and suffering. Nothing is more sacrosanct than life in Islam, though, I understand, it is a doctrine which due to our low level of civilization, few people can discern. As we jump to kill at the slightest difference of opinion, many of us display the least concern over the death of people at a ritual. However, many times we are suddenly angered when a foreign authority that patronises our sect is criticized. This is wrong and unfortunate, to say the least.
Islam is Ease
Let each of us sit back and contemplate what the Prophet of Mercy would have done if he would see these hundreds of Muslims die at as a result of a stampede because they wanted to stone the devil on the preferred time of the Day of Sacrifice. He would not have kept quiet, by God, as some of us are doing, insisting that his sunnah must be respected even in the face of untold hardship and death. He would have told pilgrims that the devil can also be stoned earlier or later than the late morning hours.
The Prophet (PBUH) would have cried out to his followers, reminding them of the verses of mercy in the general principle regarding religion in the Qur’an:
“God has not placed any distress on you in religion.”
He would have reminded them how God granted relief in fasting for the sick and the traveller such that the essence of religion itself can be achieved:
“Allah desires for you ease; He desires not hardship for you. He desires that you complete the period and that you should magnify Allah for having guided you, and that peradventure you may be thankful.”
With a hardship that even results in death, little of the goals of completing the act of worship, magnifying Allah and expressing gratitude to him can be achieved.
However, though the Prophet is not here, sufficient quantum of his traditions are with us regarding the matter in question. Happily, there has been relief even 1400 years ago on various aspects of Hajj, stoning the devil inclusive. Scholars in other climes did not hesitant to declare these reliefs even in the absence of a tragedy like the last stampede.
The spirit of ease is what will guide the following paragraphs while the judgements of previous scholars guide its conclusions. If their judgements are followed, another stampede will be prevented. If they are disregarded, the possibility of recurrence will be there, as it has always been.
Congestion
The convergence of millions of pilgrims to perform the stoning at a particular site on a particular day within the breadth of few hours is the fundamental cause of the last stampede. It foments a congestion that makes slight mistakes in the mechanics of Hajj capable of causing so much havoc. If there is no congestion, a road can be blocked – for whatever reason – and pilgrims will easily divert to another route without resulting in any casualty.
So the issue of congestion, defined by the quantum of people in a particular place sufficient enough to impede movement with ease, must be addressed. To do so, the issue of space, time and pilgrim number must be considered so that at any given time, free movement is ensured. This was not a big issue during the Prophet (PBUH) when few thousands attend the pilgrimage. Today, millions do and the size has become not only breath-taking but life threatening.
Space
Very little can be done about space because scholars are unanimous that in order to perform the ritual of stoning the devil correctly, the pebbles must hit the target pillar or at least drop in its basin (haud, in Arabic). That means a horizontal expansion of the space is hardly feasible. So, the clever Saudis expanded it vertically by adding floors and increasing the number of routes in the entire area. Ingenious as the relief is, it has proved to be insufficient during crisis like the last stampede.
More floors and routes will be built in future but humanity and the number of pilgrims are increasing too. Moreover, nobody can predict what the crisis germ could be next time. It was a blockade two weeks ago; tomorrow it could be a panic caused by terrorism, fire outbreak or even rumour of a bomb. This makes addressing issues relating to time and pilgrim number very imperative.
Number of Pilgrims
On pilgrim population, their size can be cut directly either by reducing the number of pilgrims performing the Hajj each year to a manageable size or by reducing the number of pilgrims that will physically participate in stoning the devil, or both. Reducing overall population of pilgrims is feasible. From the discussions of the matter on social media, many people have suggested that restrictions be placed on returning pilgrims, like preventing anyone to return for pilgrimage for say five years.
I concur with this idea because quite a number of pilgrims from Nigeria, for example, have, unnecessarily, made the pilgrimage an annual ritual, thereby exacerbating the situation. That is not to mention politicians that make it an annual jamboree for themselves and their supporters.
Saudi authorities can consult other countries on this and see how acceptable quotas can be achieved. With increase in world population of Muslims and demand for Hajj by fresh pilgrims, the prohibition period – or moratorium if you like – can be increased to ten or twenty years. Nothing prevents this in the shariah.
Delegation
Another way of doing it is reducing the number of pilgrims that physically perform the stoning by encouraging delegation among groups when necessary. Delegation is permitted and it is a whole section in Fatawa Al-Lajnah collection – a compendium of fatwas issued by reputable scholars of the Saudi Kingdom. In the edition before me, which has thirty volumes, six fatwas were sought, all related to congestions in which pilgrims – especially women - could not perform the stoning or are “afraid of falling on the ground and dying”. The scholars in the panels that answered these questions were Abdullah bin Muni’, Abdullah bin Gadyan, Abdulrazzaq ‘Afify and Abdulaziz bin Baz.
Unanimously, they issued fatwas that delegation is permitted in any form of Hajj even for reasons smaller than fear of death, like “her sickness or weakness, or protecting her pregnancy if she is pregnant, or protecting her honour and dignity such that they are not violated due to congestion.” They only laid the condition that “Whoever will stone on her behalf cannot do so without her permission prior to the stoning. He stones for himself first, then for her. A strong woman can also delegate if she envisages an unusual difficulty, in accordance with the aforementioned modality.”
Someone may insist that this relief is for women alone. Not quite. In the third question, they discussed the case of a group which delegated someone who swindled them: “He accepted to be a delegate of a group of pilgrims in stoning. He collected pebbles from them then threw them away in the street without stoning the Jamrat. He did not tell them and they are incapable of doing the stoning.” The fatwa issued is that they should slaughter an animal and demand a refund from him commensurate with the cost of the animal.” It seems 419 is not Nigerian. It is universal.
In short the panel said,
"If you are not able to do the stoning yourself and you delegate who is more able than you among pilgrims, it is okay. His stoning on your behalf is authentic."
The fatwas are in Vol. 11: 283-288.
I brought the above question to prove that not only women or individuals can delegate. Others, including groups can also do so. In the four-volume collection called Mudawwanatul Fiqhil Maliki, it is summarily mentioned that
“Who is incapable to stone for reasons of illness, tender age, or weakness is allowed to delegate someone to stone for him…” (Pg. 160)
However, in his Commentary on Muwatta of Imam Malik, Muhammad bin Saleh Al-Uthaymin took a stricter stand on delegation, suggesting that
“The Prophet (PBUH) did not relieve the weak from his family, like Sauda bint Zam’ah and her likes. He did not relieve them from undertaking the stoning and delegating others to do it on their behalf in spite of an existing reason to do that, if it were permissible. But he allowed them to dash from Muzdalifa at the end of the night so that they can stone before people gather. This is the greatest evidence that a woman pilgrim cannot delegate simply because she is a woman.”
My understanding here is that the scholar is not refuting delegation per se. Rather, he is warning against its abuse on flimsy excuses like saying a woman is a weak sex so she can delegate. I have not seen in the commentary where he refuted delegation or said it cannot be done where the need arises.
So if the Saudis and the Maliki scholars, strict as some would consider them to be, can permit delegation for fear of suffering, sickness, or even violation of honour, what do we say about delegation in the face of possible death?
I sincerely believe that delegation especially on the first and third days of stoning will avert deaths of both the weak and the strong which emanates from congestion. Interestingly, the only texts which Saudi scholars cited to permit delegation are the two verses that emphasize ease in religion, which we quoted above.
Time
Can the time of stoning be extended beyond the 6-7 hours or so that is responsible for so much hardship today? The answer from the scholars is, again, a unanimous yes.
First, let me emphasize that stoning the devil between sunrise and the meridian is the practice that the Prophet (PBUH). So it is a strong sunnah and more rewarding but not a compulsory one. Every pilgrim, in the absence of incapacitating reasons, should endeavour to stone the devil at this time, in deference to the sunnah of our Holy Prophet (PBUH).
Broadly speaking, the stoning period can be extended both backwards and forward once done within the day beginning after the midnight preceding that morning (daren sallah in Hausa) up to sunset and beyond into the following night before the next dawn, and stoning is valid according to majority of scholars. Among early scholars, Ibnul Mundhir was the only one that took a strong stand on this. His position is quoted in a number of popular volumes like the Nailul Awtar of Imam al-Shaukani, the Fiqhus Sunnah of Sayyid Sabiq, the Mudawwanatul Fiqhil Maliki which we quoted earlier, etc. He resents delaying stoning up to sunset. In documenting that resentment, he said:
“The sunnah is that a pilgrim should not stone before sunrise, as the Prophet (PBUH) has done. And stoning is not permitted before dawn (fajr) because it violates the sunnah.”
Yet, Ibnul Mundhir fell short of prohibiting stoning in those times and thus concluded his resentment by saying,
“Who stones it during that time does not carry the obligation of repeating it, since I am not aware of any (scholar) that said, “It is does not suffice him.”
Ibn Hazm has restricted the permit of stoning can be done before dawn to only women, “excluding men, whether strong or weak.”
However, “What the Hadith points to”, concluded Sayid Sabiq in a section he called Relief For The Weak And Those With Excuses On Stoning After Midnight Of The Day Of Sacrifice, “is that who has an excuse dash at night and stone at night.” (Fighus Sunnah. Darul Fikr. 1992. Vol. 1: 619)
The Hadith that the scholar was referring to were the two hadiths of Ummu Salma and Asma (May God be pleased with them). The one reported by Aisha on Umm Salma was narrated by Abu Dawud and authenticated by Al-Bayhaqi, saying, “Its chain of transmission is good and without blemish.” In it, Aisha reported that “the Prophet (PBUH) sent Ummu Salma the night of Nahr (sacrifice). So she stoned before dawn and did Tawaf.” In a footnote of the Mudawwanah (pg. 148) though, the author reported that Al-Tahawi has “defected” this hadith in his book “Ma’ani Al-Athar (Vol. 2, pg 219 and 159).
The one reported by ‘Urwa was narrated by Shafi’i and Al-Bayhaqi. Imam Tabari said it was on the basis of this hadith and that of Asma that Shafi’i opined the permission of (Tawaf) Ifadah after midnight. (Tawaf al-Ifadah is done after the first stoning)
The hadith of Asma’ as reported by Abu Dawud says: “Ata said, “Someone told me that Asma has stoned the Jamra. I said, ‘We have stoned the Jamra during the night.’ She said, ‘We used to do so during the time of the Prophet (PBUH).”
In a nutshell, from the above, where there is a reason, stoning can be adjusted backward but not before the midnight preceding the day of sacrifice. If they were doing it during the time of the Prophet as Asma’ (RA) said, I see no reason why it cannot be practiced today if necessary.
Now, what of extending it forward, say to sunset or even beyond?
In his treatise, the author of Mudawwanatul Fiqhil Maliki said that the period for stoning the Jamratul ‘Aqabah is after sunrise and it extends until sunset. Based on the Hadith reported by Ibn Abbas in which the Prophet instructed him not to stone until morning, the author indicated that it is permissible to stone between dawn and sunrise. The best time, he said, is after sunrise based on another hadith in which the Prophet (PBUH) said, “Do not stone until sunrise.” Then the author added:
“The time of stoning extends until sunset based on what came in a hadith that a man asked the Prophet (PBUH) saying, ‘I stoned in the late afternoon.’ He (the Prophet) said, “No problem.” This hadith was reported by Bukhari.
So one could clearly see that if the Prophet were alive today, he would have approved the delay of the extension of stoning until sunset or simply said that there is no problem in doing so.
The import of all these is simple. If pilgrims perceive a daunting congestion, they can delay stoning until when they think it is safe to do it. An additional six hours are there during the day from meridian until sunset and into the following night until daen as we shall see from the suggestion of Sheikh Uthaymin below.
So, taking the totality of these reliefs will, in my understanding, go a long way in averting disasters that result from congestions at the Jamrah. With a flexible time, it is left to the organizers and individual pilgrims to use their best judgements to remain safe.
To conclude this section, I will reproduce here what Muhammad Bin Saleh Al-Uthaimin said about the issue of difficulties in stoning due to congestion in his Commentary of Muwatta of Imam Malik:
“If congestion is intense when people throng (in the morning) to Mina from Mustadalifa, it will not be so at the end of the day; neither will it be at night. So if you miss stoning during the day, do it at night because night too is a time for stoning even though the day is better. For a person to perform the stoning at night in calm, quiet and humility is better than doing it during the day when he will be wrestling with death as a result of intense congestion, anguish and severity. It is possible that (under such conditions) he throws and the pebbles will not fall in the target area. The crux is whoever complains about congestion just tell him: God has spaced out the time; so stone at night.” (Page 509)
Our scholars in Nigeria, therefore, have their job already cut for them when they sit down to consider the suggestion by the Amirul Hajj that pilgrims can be advised to stone the devil at night for purposes of safety.
Accommodation
The Amirul Hajj has touched on the problem of distant accommodation from the Jamrat and suggested that pilgrims can stay in Mecca instead of Muna in order to avoid exhaustion, a key factor that facilitated their collapse when the congestion became unbearable. He averred that the Prophet (PBUH) has granted relief to some shepherds because of their camels. Someone refuted that Hadith on my Facebook wall, saying that it does not exist anywhere! Well, the hadith is there in the Muwatta of Imam Malik. Issues related to stoning did not feature for elaboration in the Al-Mudawwanatul Kubra of the Imam. How I wished they did.
If other suggestions are considered, especially when the option of stoning in the afternoon and at night are utilized, the need for staying in Mecca and forfeiting the stay at Muna and sacrificing a ram instead will be needless or, at best, left for the extreme of situations.
God knows best.
Conclusion
The answer to the problem of disasters resulting from congestion during stoning lies not only on increased infrastructure but also on utilizing reliefs that Islamic jurisprudence provides. As we have seen above, the reliefs are of various kinds, ranging from timing to delegation. The deliberate refusal to stone and opt for sacrificing a ram seems extreme, though not damaging to hajj.
I do not see any need for formal fatwas at the national level on this issue because the evidence is overwhelming. What we need is for our preachers to educate pilgrims on the existence of these reliefs such that they can decide on their own when to perform the stoning ritual. There is no need, in my view, to do it in an organised way, unless officials for some reasons perceive the performance of the ritual in group as essential.
May God guide the Ummah to the ease that will please Him. May He forgive those who died in the course of the last stampede and accord them an eternal rest in his Garden. May he bring quick relief to the injured. May the missing, like our Alhaji Abdullahi Saleh Yakmut, be seen. And may He make this Ummah always a nation of knowledge, intellect, wisdom and moderation.
If I go to Hajj next year, God willing – I have not been there for twenty-one years – I will stone the devil, definitely. But I will do so in the less congested hours of the afternoon or in the calm and quiet atmosphere of the night – and pray that the devil does not hit back when I return home.
And our last prayer is all praise be to God, Lord of the Worlds.
6 September, 2015
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