{"id":237,"date":"2009-02-13T07:59:50","date_gmt":"2009-02-13T07:59:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/cityofbrass\/2009\/02\/reflections-on-technology-and-1.html"},"modified":"2009-02-13T07:59:50","modified_gmt":"2009-02-13T07:59:50","slug":"reflections-on-technology-and-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2009\/02\/reflections-on-technology-and-1.html","title":{"rendered":"reflections on technology and the hajj II"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is a guest post by my friend Aamer Jamali.<\/b> This is the second post in a series.
<\/i> 
Having
\njust returned from Hajj, a number of anecdotes stick out in my mind
\nwhich best serve to illustrate the role that modern technology has to
\nplay.  Perhaps relating these will serve to outline my thoughts.
 
I
\nremember clearly the crush of the people around the Holy Kaaba.  The
\nunified voices calling out in prayer during Tawaaf.  The unity in
\npurpose, in belief, in humanity where differences were forgotten, and
\nthen… “Tell him I will not sell the generator for less than
\n140,000!”… Huh?  Tawaaf in my mind is similar to salaat, an act of
\nworship which deserves to be treated as such, and yet, the ubiquitous
\ncell phone had invaded even this holy place, this holy act.  To my
\nright, a man in a traditional thawb and topi was giving tawaaf.  In his
\nleft hand, an open prayer book, held down at waist level at his side,
\nignored.  His right hand to his ear, conducting his business during
\nthis most sacred of all Hajj rituals.  I felt like shouting, “come on,
\nis nothing sacred?” but the thought was a little too literal, and hurt
\na little too much.  What is the etiquette of cell phone usage in the
\nHaram?  On the one hand are the guards, fruitlessly and totally
\nineffectually checking every entering person for cell phones.  On the
\nother is this gentleman, bargaining on a generator while performing
\ntawaaf.  In between are countless others, calling beloved family from
\nthe fringes of haram, relating their thoughts for them from this
\nholiest of holies, texting friends and loved ones around the globe. 
\nShooting countless low resolution pictures in bad lighting as if 1.3
\nmegapixels could somehow capture this fleeting existential moment (I
\nwas guilty of this myself).  At first these latter behaviors struck me
\nas rude, but when I stopped to think about it, if the motive underlying
\nthese phone calls to beloveds or pointless pictures was one of intense
\nrespect and veneration for your situation, then what is wrong with that
\nemotion manifesting itself through a more modern medium?  Would anyone
\nobject to someone quietly writing a letter to their parents “Dear dad,
\nI sat in front of Kaaba and prayed for you today” or sketching the
\nincredible scene in charcoal?
 
Cellular phones on Hajj were
\neverywhere, much as they have become in every aspect of life on every
\ncorner of the globe.  But their uses are not limited to the evil and
\nthe crass.  Without them, my wife my sister and I would have been
\nseparated on the very first day, and Allah knows if we would have ever
\nfound each other.  2.4 million people, all dressed the same.  Without
\nour trusty mobiles on each of us every second, communication would have
\nbeen impossible.  It was to the point where if you lost physical
\ncontact with one another, the waves of masses could separate you by an
\nimpassable breach in seconds.  In that scenario, the quick text
\n“waiting under green sign” or “doing one more tawaaf, go home without
\nme” was essential.  I truly cannot fathom (nor do I frankly wish to) my
\nHajj experience without a mobile phone.  This method of communication
\nwas nothing less than indispensable.  This simple act was directly
\nresponsible for so much less headache, worry, and so much more safety
\nand ability to concentrate more on the task at hand (rather than “where
\ndid my wife go?”), and any technology that can help that should be
\nencouraged.
 
One piece of modern technology which I frankly
\nstruggled with was photography.  Cameras, cell phone cameras, and video
\ncameras are officially forbidden, and yet almost everyone has them. 
\nWhat is the etiquette for photography inside the Haram?  You have traveled your whole life to get to this point, and you are there but
\nfor a short time.  Why not take pictures to remember your momentous
\njourney?  To show your kids?  To teach others preparing for Hajj?  And
\nyet, it seemed at times, garishly tacky and ‘touristy”.
 
The
\ncorner before Hajre Aswad is called Rukn-e-Yamani.  The crowd around
\nthis corner is second only to hajr-e-aswad itself as people throw
\nthemselves against the walls, kiss them, and beg, pray and cry for
\nforgiveness of their sins.  On the seventh time around during one particularly long, crowded, and hot tawaaf, my wife and I approached
\nthis point, humble and ready to prostrate ourselves before Allah, only
\nto find the man in front of us posing unabashedly with his hand on
\nRukn-e-Yamani, smiling widely while his friend tried in vain to get far
\nenough away to take a reasonable picture (this turned out to be a
\nfutile exercise).  This bothered me a little.  But photography was
\neverywhere, including in my own hands (for better or worse).  But in
\nthe end, I returned to my sentiment, that if the photographer is moved
\nby respect and love, what really is the harm in expressing this with
\n21st century tools?
 
Finally, a couple of quick lighter anecdotes:<\/p>\n

Outside
\nof Haram in mecca there is no shortage of places to eat, including many
\nwestern fast food places such as starbucks (really, did you doubt this
\nfor a second?), burger king, KFC, and Carl’s Jr. (surprisingly no
\nMcDonalds!).  At the Burger king in Mecca, the cash registers scrolled
\na three line message, two lines at a time:\"Mecca<\/a><\/p>\n

“Welcome to Burger King\/At the Holy Mosque”<\/p>\n

Followed by:<\/p>\n

“At the Holy Mosque\/Have it your way!”
 
Secondly,
\nI really, honestly think that as electronics become cheaper, 4
\nminiature GPS transponders and one mapping device could be sold for
\naround $50 and you couldn’t keep them on the shelf.  Two would go to
\ntwo family members to wear on their person, and two would go (more
\nimportantly?) in your check in bags, so you could at all times see
\nwhere they were.  If you get rich off this idea, please give me 10%,
\nthat’s all I ask.<\/p>\n

Aamer H. Jamali, MD, FACC is a cardiologist in Los Angeles. <\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a guest post by my friend Aamer Jamali. This is the second post in a series. Having just returned from Hajj, a number of anecdotes stick out in my mind which best serve to illustrate the role that modern technology has to play.  Perhaps relating these will serve to outline my thoughts. I remember clearly…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":165,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[217,40,24,222,199],"class_list":["post-237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-pillars-of-faith","tag-food","tag-hajj","tag-islam","tag-modernity","tag-technology"],"yoast_head":"\nreflections on technology and the hajj II - City of Brass<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"reflections on technology and the hajj II - City of Brass\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This is a guest post by my friend Aamer Jamali. 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The name City of Brass refers to the Story of the City of Brass in the Thousand and One Nights, and the poem by Rudyard Kipling of the same name: Here was a people whom, after their works, thou shalt see wept over for their lost dominion; And in this palace is the last information respecting lords collected in the dust. -- Thousand and One Nights, Story of the City of Brass IN A land that the sand overlays, the ways to her gates are untrod, A multitude ended their days whose fates were made splendid by God, Till they grew drunk and were smitten with madness and went to their fall, And of these is a story written: but Allah Alone knoweth all! -- Rudyard Kipling, The City of Brass (1909)"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/165"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}