Hajj And The Liberation Of Palestine

Zafar Bangash

Dhu al-Hijjah 05, 1446 2025-06-01

Opinion

by Zafar Bangash (Opinion, Crescent International Vol. 55, No. 4, Dhu al-Hijjah, 1446)

Another Hajj is upon us. More than two million Muslims have arrived in Makkah to perform the annual pilgrimage ordained by Allah for those with the means to do so (Surat al-Hajj, ayat 27). Like the previous two years, this year’s Hajj also occurs in the summer month of June when temperatures soar to nearly 50 degrees celsius in Makkah.

Such high temperatures are extremely hazardous for people and there is a high probability that a significant number will succumb to heat stroke and die. Others will die due to Saudi incompetence and callousness.

While such physical risks are real for the hujjaj, the Palestinians in Gaza face a zionist-perpetrated genocide. More than 53,000 Palestinians, among them at least 17,000 children have been murdered. This figure is until the beginning of April. The real figure is much higher.

Even the BBC editor Raffi Berg, known for his staunchly pro-Israel bias, admitted that until June 30, 2024 (nine months since October 2023), 64,260 Palestinians had been killed due to traumatic injury. He was quoting the UK-led study that covered the first nine months of the war. In the one-year period since, Israel has intensified the killing of Palestinians.

The entire infrastructure of Gaza has been destroyed: homes, apartment buildings, hospitals, clinics, schools, universities, bakeries and water filtration plants. The zionists continue to bomb Gaza on a daily basis. They have also imposed a total blockade of food and medical deliveries.

According to United Nations estimates, at least 500,000 Gazans face starvation. Thousands of children have already died of starvation or diseases caused by hunger and lack of medicines. Indulging in such barbarism, the zionists continue to order people to move from the north to the south. Palestinians have had to move 15 to 20 times.

One can imagine their plight. They clutch their meagre belongings—blankets, pots and pans—and tredge in the direction ordered to do so by the zionist war criminals. Yet the destination or the path to the destination is no safer. They run the risk of being bombed there as well.

Why do the zionists indulge in such cruel parctices? Their aim is to ethnically cleanse Gaza of the Palestinians so that the zionists can re-occupy it. Remember, the vast majority of Palestinians living in Gaza were ethnically cleansed from their homes in what is today called “1948 Israel”.

They were subjected to genocide starting even before the implantation of the illegitimate zionist entity in the holy land on May 15, 1948. This date is commemorated as Nakba (Catastrophe) by the Palestinians and their friends. It has been ongoing for 77 years.

Keeping these horrible statistics in mind, as two million plus pilgrims gather for Hajj, it is natural to assume that the zionist genocide of Palestinians will be uppermost in their minds. They want a solution to the Palestinians’ plight and help them in whatever way possible. Hajj offers a unique opportunity.

This means not only understanding their plight but also identifying those responsible for inflicting such suffering upon them. If the past is any guide, the illegitimate occupiers of the Arabian Peninsula—the Banu Saud—will not allow any such discussion. They even arrest people wearing the kaffiyeh—the Palestinian headscarf—to identify with the Palestinian people. Muslims have been arrested in the Haram of Makkah.

British actor and presenter Islah Abdur-Rahman was one of them. His plight came to light when he put his story on Instagram. He had gone to perform Umrah (the lesser pilgrimage) in October 2023 soon after the Palestinians launched Operation Al-Aqsa Flood. He was arrested and interrogated for wearing the kaffiyeh. It was taken away from him.

In the noble Qur’an, Allah says: “And a proclamation from Allah and His Messenger [is herewith made] to all mankind on this day of the Greater Pilgrimage, ‘Allah disavows all who attribute divinity/authority to anyone/anything beside Him and [so does] His Messenger…’” (Surah at-Tawbah, ayah 3). This is a command to the committed Muslims as well.

Yet, the Banu Saud forbid pilgrims from fulfilling this Qur’anic obligation. The question that all Muslims must ask is: should we follow Allah’s commands or those of the Najdi Bedouins who have illegally occupied the Arabian Peninsula? The answer is clear.

If the Banu Saud prevent Muslims from fulfilling their Qur’anic obligation at the time of Hajj, then steps must be taken to divest them of the control of the Haramayn (the two holy cities of Makkah and al-Madinah).

The Banu Saud do not belong to the Hijaz. They were planted in power by the British colonialists to do their bidding (for details, see article in this issue about the second eruption of the Banu Saud). Today, they have become agents of imperialism and zionism.

Donald Trump’s visit (May 13-15) to the Arabian Peninsula and the manner in which three illegitimate rulers signed contracts worth $4 trillion in three days is reflective of their slave mentality. Who is unaware that Trump—and indeed all American regimes before his—have poured billions of dollars into the zionist entity and also provide the most lethal weapons to them? Should Muslims be supporting and financing the genociders of the hapless Palestinians?

Equally important: why are Muslims not allowed to pray for the Palestinians and to express solidarity with them at the time of Hajj? If Muslims are forbidden to seek Allah’s help when visiting His House, where else should they turn to?

Allah tells us in the noble Qur’an: “And your Sustainer says: ‘Call upon Me, and I shall respond to you…” (Surah Ghafir, verse 60). Turning to Allah in times of distress is the natural reaction of Muslims.

The Palestinians face a ruthless and barbaric enemy. It makes no distinction between combatants and civilians. For the genocidal zionists, every Palestinian is an enemy, even a new-born infant. Hence, their killing is justified, based on this demonic logic. Zionist rulers—civilian and military—have made no secret of their intent to murder all Palestinians.

We must, however, turn to the question of Hajj and what Allah commands us to do, as clearly stipulated in Surat al-Tawbah. We must not allow the Banu Saud and their hired preachers to tell us otherwise.

The Banu Saud have reduced Hajj to empty rituals where the pilgrims are forbidden to discuss any of the burning issues confronting the Ummah. Instead of Hajj being the annual assembly of the Ummah, where the challenges facing it should be discussed, it has become an enormously expensive undertaking without much purpose.

This is not what Allah and His Prophet (pbuh) had meant the Hajj to be. In order to return Hajj to its divinely prescribed path, the Banu Saud must be divested of its administration. The Haramayn are not their private property; they are the common heritage of the Ummah.

The nearly 2-billion strong Muslim Ummah represented by the global Islamic Movement must take urgent steps to liberate the Haramayn from the clutches of the Banu Saud clan. They must be banished to their desert dwellings in Dari‘yah and confined to tents to live with their camels.

The zionists’ genocidal onslaught on Gaza provides an opportunity to mobilize Muslim public opinion for this urgent task. If Muslims cannot raise their hands in prayer to seek Allah’s help in His House, who and where else can they turn to for help? The heart-breaking tragedy in Gaza can be turned into meaningful change by liberating both the Arabian Peninsula and the holy land of Palestine from alien occupiers.