Saudi royals, hajj, Eid
During the last Hajj and Eid-ul-Adha, the Saudi monarchs did something which is simply outrageous. They announced on the first day of Jil-Hajj the dates for Hajj (and hence Eid) based on the local moon-sighting like every year. Then three days later, they changed the dates arguing the moon was sighted actually one day earlier than announced! Based on that, the whole schedule of Hajj and Eid was changed abruptly without any regard for potential inconveniences for those who had planned according to the original schedule. It also caused a huge confusion in celebration of the Eid all around the world putting people in different places out of sync for the Eid. Incidentally, all over the world it was found by experts that the revised date was erroneous.
The Saudi royals often make the claim that they are the protectors of the holy places of Islam and are dedicated to serving Islam only. If that is the case, then how could they allow such a brazen callousness mar the holy occasion of Hajj? If serving Islam is their prime objective, how could they be so careless in deciding the Hajj dates? What was so important for them during this Hajj season that they could allow such a faux pas occur and then behave that it was quite fine? Is Islam really their first priority as often claimed?
Previously, we have seen on several occasions when the Saudi princes changed the Hajj dates at their sweet will to avoid a Hajj on a Friday. In total disregard of the teachings of the Qur’an and Sunnah, they decided the date for Hajj not based on a sighting of the moon, but by manipulation to fit their narrow agenda. In an ‘Akbari’ Hajj falling on a Friday, the Saudi king ostensibly boasts of giving a gift of clothing to each pilgrim.
This is not a part of Islam, but merely a way of the Saudi king to proclaim his ‘greatness’ to the Muslim world. If the Saudi king wanted to be a good host for all the pilgrims all the time, he could provide a token gift to every Haji every year as he can well afford it.
But rather than doing that, he makes a mockery of Hajj by promising a gift only on a Friday Hajj and then manipulating the date to avoid giving the gift. What crafty behavior from a presumably sacred servant of Allah! Why don’t they abolish this sorry gift giving, thus saving the money on Akbari Hajj, and be honest in setting the right date for the Hajj according to the Shariah?
The role of the Saudi royals has been under a lot of scrutiny recently due to their explicit behaviour on many fronts. They put on a face of following a puritan Islam outside and enforce many strict Islamic codes on the people in the country, but their own lifestyles behind the door and outside the country rival the most corrupt, extravagant and immoral behavior anywhere. They are now well known to squander their vast wealth in ways that are not in accordance with the prescription of Islam.
On the international front, they are supporting acts of genocide of Muslims by hosting the non-Muslim forces and allowing operations from their territory. They are suppressing their own people with brute force whenever they try to speak out for a fair role in running the country. They are most miserly with their help when Muslim populations faces a crisis or calamity, but are most generous in subsidising the war machine of the West that have been killing hundreds of thousands of people in the region over the years.
The question that is legitimately uppermost in everyone’s mind is: are the Saudi royals true friends of the Muslims, or are they just a group who are only after securing their own family future at any cost? Is their claim of service to Islam genuine or only rhetoric to befool the people and continue their family hegemony? We could care a lot less if it were just another country, but this being a place that houses the most important places of Islam, things that happen there profoundly affect the whole Muslim world.
Wahid Chowdhury
On e-mail
The country above all
The assassination of a leader with the stature of Shah A.M.S Kibria has shocked the whole nation in general. No civilised and cultured man can accept the unnatural death of any human being; but when it happens to a political personality like Kibria, it assumes a tragic dimension. People irrespective of caste and creed and political affiliation deplore the killing and demand from the core of their hearts that the assassins, whoever they are and however powerful they may be, be brought to book, if we are to uphold our dignity of humanity. No sensible person will contradict this sentiment. But the tendency to exploit a tragic assassination for political gains, I pray, there be no such malafide intention looming large in any political quarters of the country, is equally deplorable. The very reaction of Dr. Reza Kibria, the only son of the late leader, televised in different television channels was surely one of a severely aggrieved person and naturally charged with overpowering emotion. But the moment he said the failed government did not have the right to hold the SAARC summit , which has already been postponed, and that he would advocate for the postponement of the summit was something that a patriotic citizen of the country does not expect from an erudite person like Dr. Kibria.
Rafid Ahmed
Uttara, Dhaka
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