Your guide to performing Hajj in a sustainable manner

Your guide to performing Hajj in a sustainable manner

Earth Guardswas once nothing but an institution that looked at all aspects of life with a comprehensive and caring outlook, a view built on the foundations of greening, sustainable development plans, and “Egypt Vision 2030”; Raising - for the sake of that national vision - the slogan of sustainable awareness, and focusing all its attention on sustainable development issues in all its activities and effective partnerships.

Based on this comprehensiveness - and also based on its deep outlook on efforts to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) -The Earth Guardsdoes not exclude from all of this the pillars of the true Islamic religion; That religion is based on the necessity of achieving the highest standards of sustainability of the Earth's resources. Thus, its efforts in this field were the best evidence. Last Ramadan, it launched a video series under the title “Sustain”, in which it highlighted the concepts of sustainable development - socially, economically and environmentally - extracted from verses of the Holy Qur’an and texts of the purified Sunnah of the Prophet.

One of the pillars of Islam that achieves these sustainable standards is the Hajj - the fifth pillar of Islam - which brings together people from all walks of life. Hajj is the act of worship whose rituals include many steps that require the true Muslim to take into account in its performance the necessity of preserving the environment, while making the most of the Earth’s resources without consuming them in a manner harmful to the fact that he is left behind in them.

For all of this, it was necessary to explore the greater purpose of performing the Hajj, and the extent of the green transformation that pilgrims can achieve, and also how to achieve the concept of green Hajj, and that is whatEarth Guards highlights in the following lines; So keep reading.

Why do we need green Hajj?

In recent years, we have been witnessing global warming increasing at alarming rates! This cast a shadow over all human practices, especially those related to industry, and all sectors that emit harmful gases that add to the planet Earth a cloud of diseases and epidemics. Therefore, the concept of green Hajj emerges here, in the hope of achieving sustainable practices in a wide range of human activities.

This concept - the concept of green Hajj - comes in the form of an awareness initiative, aiming to enhance environmental awareness among pilgrims to the Holy House of God, and to help them perform Hajj rituals in an environmentally responsible manner, and in a sustainable way that serves nature and man at the same time. This is based on the fact that approximately 3 million Muslims go to Hajj every year.

Therefore, these groups of people that come from everywhere in the world may have a clear impact on the environment. Countless waste can accumulate, and carbon footprint levels rise dangerously. For all this reason, we see here inDefenders of the Earth that the pilgrims of the Sacred House of God have a promising opportunity to play a role of great importance in alleviating the environmental impact of all the practices that accompany the rituals and rituals of the Hajj. Hence, we are facing a devotional journey with harmony between the responsibilities of the Caliphate on earth and the requirements of achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Desiring a present and future that helps people do their part in preserving the blessing of the Earth and its resources.

Green Hajj Guide

Hajj - as we mentioned before - is not a ritual that is performed; It is a journey of faith in which a Muslim purifies himself, refines his behavior, and educates his conscience, all in accordance with the values ​​of solidarity and interdependence that God wants to see in the behavior of His servants. Environmental behavior is not far from such behaviours; That is, the conscious pilgrim reflects, through his environmental behavior, his firm belief in preserving the blessing of water and air.

Therefore comes the idea of presenting what we might call the Green Hajj Guide, with which we can point to responsible practices that help pilgrims to the Holy House of God perform their rituals during the Hajj season in a way that is a spiritual extension of their journey to the Holy Kaaba and all the places of the Sanctuary.

Hence, in the following lines, we will present to you some advice and a number of steps that can help the pilgrims to the Holy House of God achieve the goals of the green Hajj, in order to achieve the greatest goal of performing the Hajj; That is, commitment to what God has commanded of reforming the earth and not causing corruption in it. As for the steps of the green Hajj, they are:

Reducing plastic

Pilgrims must use a reusable water bottle, without using plastic bags or anything made of this dangerous material. So they can reduce the waste that spreads in the holy sites.

Dumping waste in designated bins

Throwing waste in inappropriate places is not only a violation of public morals and the morals of Islam, but this is behavior that is harmful to the environment and exposes others to danger.

Consumption rationalization

Water and energy resources are one of the blessings of God - Glory be to Him - and if the pilgrims to the Sacred House of God are so numerous and so large, then it is necessary for the one who performs Hajj to use these resources with absolute responsibility; So that the matter does not turn into a disaster that harms current and future generations.

You must use sustainable means of transportation

The matter here may require detail, because sustainable transportation has multiple forms. It may be achieved by reducing the number of vehicles and relying on mass transportation. The greater the number of vehicles, the greater the rates of harmful emissions. We can also use buses that run on renewable energy, which is a broad field in which science has provided innovative methods in recent years.

Green projects in the Holy House of God

Efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are accelerating day after day, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia did not stand still in the face of these global and regional efforts, as it contributed green environmental projects to achieving green Hajj. Among its green projects to serve and assist pilgrims in a sustainable manner are:Green Camp Project, which was launched in 2010 under the supervision of the “Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Institute for Hajj and Umrah Research” affiliated with Umm Al-Qura University; To reduce the environmental impacts of the camps in Mina, through developing solid waste management and raising the level of environmental sanitation.

The experiment began by sorting waste into two types, plastic and non-plastic. Achieving remarkable positive results, including:

• Reducing the amount of waste generated in the camps.
• Waste recycling.
• Implementing environmental awareness campaigns for pilgrims.
• Combat transmission of infection through awareness initiatives, such as washing hands and using environmentally friendly detergents.
• Rationalizing water consumption and providing healthy meals.

The Green Hajj Guide is an important opportunity to promote sustainability in an important human activity, as through performing the Hajj we can extract the principles of sustainable development from the essence of the Islamic religion, and strengthen efforts to achieve them in reality. Thus, there will be complete harmony between a person’s worship of his Lord and the responsibilities of his succession on earth.

Therefore, in conclusion, we can only say thatThe Earth Guards looks comprehensively at all dimensions of sustainable development, and works to spread awareness of all its issues among the various groups of society; In the hope of enhancing aspects of sustainability, and out of a desire for a just transition to a green life in various fields and sectors, in accordance with “Egypt Vision 2030”.