Expdonaloaded News; 20 Nigerian pilgrims die in Makkah

Twenty Nigerian pilgrims have been confirmed dead out of the over 70,000 of them participating in this year’s hajj exercise.The figure, according to the chairman of the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON), Abdullahi Mukhtar, was inclusive of the six that died in the September 11 crane crash in Makkah.He made the disclosure Sunday night at a stakeholders’ meeting of the Nigeria Consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, ahead of the pilgrims’ movement to Muna, yesterday, and ahead of the Arafat day.


The other 14 pilgrims, he noted, died due to natural causes and other ailments. This is as he advised the pilgrims to stay indoors especially in the early afternoons so as not to expose themselves to the sun in view of the hot weather in the Holy City.
Meanwhile, it took the intervention of the Emir of Kano and leader of the 2015 Hajj Central Coordinating Team, Alhaji Muhammad Sanusi II, to resolve three contentious issues that have often generated divergent opinions among Nigerian Ulamas concerning hajj rites.
The first is the timing of movement to Jamarat, where the symbolic stoning of the devil takes place. The second has to do with the number of days pilgrims are required to spend in Muna after Arafat. And third being the movement to Muna, two days before Arafat.
After about two hours meeting with the Ulamas, with verifiable facts from Islamic jurisprudence to support his position, Sanusi urged Nigerian pilgrims and the Ulamas to accept the timing schedule of the Saudi Arabian authority for the Jamarat ritual, including the movement to Muna from Monday.
He said officials and pilgrims should follow whatever arrangement the Saudi authority would make in the interest of saving the lives and welfare of pilgrims and to perform the rites in accordance with the schedule by the Saudi authority, a position many Nigerian Ulamas have kicked against.

“Grouping pilgrims to do the throwing and spreading the time to include the period of Zawal (sunrise) is necessary to protect lives of pilgrims. On many occasion, pilgrims have been killed at the stoning site from stampedes arising out of thousands of pilgrims converging to do the throwing at the same time, among a number of causes.
“All previous deaths due to stampedes at Jamarat happened due to overcrowding. The frequency and enormity necessitated the adoption of special arrangements which are still within the acceptable hajj regulations according to Prophet Muhammad’s companions and which was done to protect human life. 
“And since as Muslims we are duty-bound to obey constituted authorities, and the Saudi authority in this case is in charge of hajj, we must obey the timing, especially that it doesn’t in any way vitiate our hajj.
“If performing the rite before sunrise would lead to the protection of life and properties, the fundamental objective of Sharia would be fulfilled due to absolute necessity, and this will not in any way contradict the provisions of the Qur’an.
“There was no explicit statement from the deeds of the Prophet Muhammad that invalidated throwing at the Jamarat before sunrise, and which was one of the reasons for the differences of opinion of the jurists on the matter.
“The loss of lives due to stampede and overcrowding is harmful and its elimination by grouping the pilgrims to do the stoning at different times of the day, including before Zawal, would eliminate the harm, a thing Islam too encourages,” Sanusi, added.

While insisting that there was no point for the Ulamas to be announcing their differences publicly and that the world was fast moving beyond that, the emir also urged all religious leaders from state pilgrims boards and leaders of delegations to lead by example by abiding by all the resolutions reached at the stakeholders’ meeting.
Earlier, NAHCON Chairman, Abdullahi Mukhtar Muhammed, warned against the likelihood of some Ulamas going against the timing, saying the Saudi authority had warned Nigeria on that and may sanction the country if it fails to abide by it.