References
Søren Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling, trans. Alastair Hannay (Penguin Classics, 1985), 58.
James Tapper and Sammy Gecsoyler, “Oasis Fans Frustrated by Technical Issues in Battle to Nab Reunion Show Tickets,” The Guardian, August 31, 2024, theguardian.com.
“Saudi Arabia Launches Nusuk Platform to Streamline Hajj Registration for International Pilgrims,” Saudi Gazette, June 27, 2023, saudigazette.com.sa.
Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, no. 2699, sunnah.com.
Ross E. Dunn, The Adventures of Ibn Battuta: A Muslim Traveler of the Fourteenth Century (University of California Press, 2005), 67.
Reports as early as 1050 speak of the dangers faced by pilgrims: “A group of Arabs, thinking they had found ‘prey’ (as they call all strangers), came headed towards us; but since their leader was with us, they passed without saying anything. Had he not been with us, they most certainly would have destroyed us. . . . Thus I was taken and handed over from tribe to tribe, the entire time in constant mortal danger. God, however, willed that we come out of there alive.” Naser-e Khosraw, One Thousand Roads to Mecca, ed. Michael Wolfe (Grove Press, 1997), 25.
Muḥammad ibn Ṣāliḥ al-ʿUthaymīn, al-Sharḥ al-mumtiʿ ʿala zād al-mustaqniʿ, vol. 7 (Dār Ibn al-Jawzī, 1436 AH).
Ibn Daqīq al-ʿĪd, Iḥkām al-aḥkām fī sharḥ aḥādīth sayyid al-anām (Dār al-Āfāq al-ʿArabiyya, n.d.), 3:179. The term makhīṭ is often translated as “stitched garments,” though the prohibition more precisely refers to clothing tailored to fit the body (e.g., shirts, trousers), rather than the presence of stitching per se.
Jamiʿ al-Tirmidhī, no. 827, sunnah.com.
Qur’an 2:197.
“Just as the ruling authority requires a test after every period of time by which to distinguish the sincere advisor from the deluder and the obedient from the disobedient, and to raise its repute, promote its words, and to let its people know about each other, likewise the religion needs a pilgrimage to distinguish the sincere one from the hypocrite, to show how people have entered the religion of God in throngs, and so that they can see one another and each can benefit in what he didn’t have before, since objectives are obtained by mingling and seeing one another.” Shah Waliullah, Ḥujjatullāh al-bāligha, trans. Marcia K. Hermansen (Islamic Book Trust, 1996), 228.
Lady Evelyn Cobbold, Pilgrimage to Mecca (John Murray, 1934).
“Some pilgrims invariably perished along the way every year from exposure, thirst, flash flood, epidemic, or even attack by local nomads. . . . In 1361, 100 Syrian pilgrims died of extreme winter cold; in 1430, 3,000 Egyptians perished of heat and thirst.” Dunn, Adventures of Ibn Battuta, 67.
Anthony Bourdain, A Cook’s Tour: Global Adventures in Extreme Cuisines (Bloomsbury, 2001).
Admittedly, physical hardship persists as well. In 2024, many pilgrims died amid extreme heat, with temperatures reaching 51°C (124°F) and fatalities largely among financially disadvantaged travelers without official permits who ended up in unregulated, unair-conditioned spaces. In response, the Ministry of Hajj heavily enforced checkpoint protocols in 2025 to ensure that all pilgrims passed through official government channels such as Nusuk. These measures are meant to protect pilgrims, but they also underscore the additional digital and procedural hurdles that now mark the beginning of the sacred journey. See Nimo Omer, “At Least 1,300 Pilgrims Have Died During Hajj as Temperatures Soared to 51°C,” The Guardian, June 23, 2024, theguardian.com.
Christine Jeavans, “Hajj: Jamarat Bridge, a Deadly Pinch Point,” BBC News, September 25, 2015, bbc.com.
“The first major accident at the Jamarat occurred in 1994, when 270 pilgrims were trampled to death.” Venetia Porter, ed., Hajj: Journey to the Heart of Islam (Harvard University Press, 2012), 238. “Hajj Deaths Spark Safety Fears,” BBC News, February 1, 2004, news.bbc.co.uk.
It is reported, for example, that ʿUmar relocated Maqām Ibrāhīm in order to prevent congestion and hardship for those performing ṭawāf and prayer. As Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī explains: “It is as though ʿUmar (raḍiya Allāhu ʿanhu) saw that leaving it in place would result in constriction for those performing ṭawāf or for those praying, so he placed it in a location by which hardship would be alleviated.” Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, Fatḥ al-Bārī (Al-maktabah al-salafiyyah, 1969), 8:169
ʿAbdullāh b. ʿAbd al-Wāḥid al-Khamīs, “Tawsiʿat aḥwāḍ al-jamarāt,” Khutabaa, khutabaa.com.
Badr al-Dīn al-Zarkashī, al-Manthūr fī al-qawāʿid (Wizārat al-Awqāf wa-l-Shuʾūn al-Islāmiyya, n.d.), 3:144.
“The author of al-ʿUdda mentioned that it would not be permissible to perform ṭawāf on the roof of the mosque. Al-Rāfiʿī rejected this and said: If his statement were correct, it would necessitate that if the Kaaba were to collapse—God forbid—then ṭawāf around its site would not be valid, which is far-fetched. Al-Qāḍī Ḥusayn stated decisively in his Taʿlīq that if one were to perform ṭawāf on the roof of the mosque, it would be valid even if one were elevated above the level of the Kaaba. He said: Just as it is permissible for one to pray on Abū Qubays (the tallest mountain near Mecca) despite its elevation above the Kaaba. And Allah knows best.” Al-Nawawi, al-Majmūʿ sharḥ al-muhadhdhab (Dār al-Fikr, n.d.), 8:39.
“Even on its roof, even if elevated above the House.” Ibn ʿĀbidīn, Radd al-muḥtār ʿalā al-durr al-mukhtār (Dār al-Fikr, n.d.), 2:497.
Safran Safar Almakaty, “Transformations of Hajj Throughout History: An Analytical Reading of Its Civilizational, Humanitarian, and Administrative Dimensions; A Comprehensive Qualitative Historical Analysis,” Preprints, 2025, doi.org.