Performing Hajj and Umrah has been one of the instrumental duties of a Muslim and is also known as the fifth pillar of Islam religion. The importance of this journey cannot be compared to any other journey in the world. Any Mustati (a Muslim who fulfils the condition of being financially and physically capable to perform the journey) may adopt the journey of Hajj during the holy time period of Ramadan. Umrah may be performed at any time of the year and for any number of times while Hajj may be performed at least once in a lifetime of a person faithful to Islam.

Every year hundreds of thousands of people undertake their journey of going to Mecca to fulfill their religious obligation. Many of the pilgrims complain about the lack of arrangements made in the city of Mecca to control the millions of Muslims arriving at the point for the journey. But is this really justified? Let us have a look at how our forefathers performed these journeys.

Problems faced in early voyages

Hajj has been performed since ancient times, a time that cannot be revisited or counted. In those times, there were no airplanes and no hotels to stay. Therefore, people used to perform their journey on foot and used to walk till they reached their destination. Essential items such as food and water had to be carried along from home as there was hardly any chance of finding potable water. This means that everything had to be carried right from the start of journey.

As there was no transportation, people who took up the journey had to start around 2-3 months back so that they reach Mecca on time. Skeletal evidence has showed that a lot of lives of the faithful have been lost to the journey in early times. A noted historian has cited that on one such journey in the 17thcentury, Egypt lost around 1,500 pilgrims and up to 900 camels. If that was too early, in the year 1926, around 12,000 pilgrims from different regions have lost their lives to the journey.

Today’s scenario

A lot has changed since those times and we are now able to perform Hajj in a lesser time duration and with more comfort. Unlike those times, we have airplanes to reach Saudi. There are a lot of options available for organizing a Hajj or Umrah trip. Hajj and Umrah packages have made these journeys even more lucid. These packages entail every cost related to the journey; transport, accommodation and food costs are all included in it.

The Hajj groups that gathers now has also been effectively controlled by various mechanisms so that no untoward incident takes place. In a nutshell, all these comforts that are given to us by Him far outweigh the problems we face in today’s world. Thus, the journey of Hajj to Mecca has thus become simpler, comfortable and safer. We should be thankful to Allah Almighty for giving us these comforts; after all, He is generous and He is supreme.