Durban mom and son die on Hajj

A DURBAN widow and her son were both buried in Saudi Arabia after they died just days apart during the annual Hajj pilgrimage.

Ebrahim Khan, 27, died last week and his mother, Shereen Khan, 59, this week of natural causes.

Mufti Zubair Bayat, a spiritual guide on the Hajj pilgrimage, said the Khans, from Overport, were part of his group of about 800 pilgrims.

“Ebrahim brought his mom for pilgrimage. She was widowed at a young age and single-handedly raised her four children. Ebrahim felt an obligation to fulfil his mother’s wish of taking her on pilgrimage.

“Last week he had a sudden pain in his chest and was taken to hospital. He suffered a heart attack and passed away. He had no previous record of ill health. It was very sudden. We attribute it as the will of God Almighty. He died in the holy land, was buried there,” said Bayat.

He said Ebrahim’s mother was at his bedside when he died.

“Six days later, as the pilgrimage was over, she took ill. She was taken to the South African Hajj and Umrah Council (SAHUC) clinic, and while they were treating her she passed on. She was very heartbroken and found it difficult that her son passed away so young. She kept saying to people, ‘I don't know how I’m going to leave my child here and go back home’,” said Bayat.

According to SAHUC, five South Africans died while on the pilgrimage.

Millions of pilgrims, including 2 500 South Africans, performed Hajj, which took place over the past week.

More than 1000 people have died during the pilgrimage due to heat-related medical issues and scorching temperatures exceeding 50°C. The hottest recorded temperature reported in the Grand Mosque of Mecca was 51.8°C.

SAHUC’S head of mission Ismail Kholvadia, who has spearheaded missions for the past 16 years, said it was the first time in his tenure that five people from South Africa died in one Hajj year.

“A 59-year-old woman passed away on Wednesday, and her son, aged 27, passed away last week. All were natural deaths and not related to the hot weather. Two of them died in Madinah and three passed on in Mecca.

“The pilgrimage has ended and the pilgrims are preparing to return home. All the pilgrims should be back by June 28,” said Kholvadia.

He said weather conditions had peaked on the day of Arafat (the second day of both the Hajj pilgrimage and the Islamic holiday of Eid al-adha) when they experienced temperatures of between 45 and 50°C.

Kholvadia added that in his personal opinion last year was hotter.

The Travel and Tour World team, with whom the Khan’s had booked, wrote in a message on social media: “We at Travel and Tour World are profoundly saddened by the passing of a noble Hajji in the holy city of Mecca, especially so soon after the loss of her beloved son. This double tragedy touches us deeply.”

EGYPTIAN Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly yesterday ordered 16 tourism companies stripped of their licences and referred their managers to the public prosecutor’s office for illegally facilitating pilgrims’ travel to Mecca, the cabinet said.

The order came after various countries reported more than 1 100 deaths, many attributed to heat, during this year’s hajj in scorching temperatures exceeding 50°C. The hottest recorded temperature reported in the Grand Mosque of Mecca was 51.8°C on Monday, according to the national meteorological centre.

Arab diplomats said earlier this week that Egyptians accounted for 658 deaths, 630 of them unregistered pilgrims.

According to the Indo-asian News Service, Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said 28 deaths were confirmed among the 50 752 officially registered Egyptian pilgrims.

“The prime minister has ordered the licences of these companies to be revoked, their managers to be referred to the public prosecutor and the imposition of a fine to benefit the families of the pilgrims who died because of them,” the Egyptian cabinet said in a statement.

It said the rise in the deaths of unregistered Egyptian pilgrims stemmed from some companies which “organised the hajj programmes using a personal visit visa, which prevents its holders from entering Mecca” through official channels.

Hajj permits are allocated to countries on a quota system and distributed to individuals through a lottery. Even for those who can obtain them, the steep costs spur many pilgrims to attempt the hajj without a permit, although they risk arrest and deportation if caught by Saudi security forces.

The irregular route, which can save pilgrims thousands of dollars, has become popular since 2019 when Saudi Arabia introduced a general tourism visa which has made it easier to enter the Gulf kingdom.

Saudi officials had earlier said that 1.8 million pilgrims took part this year, and that 1.6 million came from abroad.

A senior Saudi official on Friday defended the Gulf kingdom’s management of the pilgrimage.

“The state did not fail, but there was a misjudgement on the part of people who did not appreciate the risks,” the official said in the government’s first comments on the deaths.

The official said the Saudi government had confirmed 577 deaths for the two busiest days of hajj: Saturday, when pilgrims gathered for hours of prayers on Mount Arafat, and Sunday, when they participated in the “stoning of the devil” ritual in Mina, while acknowledging that the 577 figure was partial and did not cover all of hajj, which formally ended on Wednesday.

Unregistered Egyptian pilgrims told AFP this week that in some cases they struggled to access hospitals or hail ambulances for loved ones, some of whom ended up dying.

They did not have access to amenities meant to make the pilgrimage more bearable or air-conditioned tents.

The pilgrims also said they could not access official hajj buses – the only transportation around the holy sites – without paying exorbitant, off-thebooks fees. Forced to walk for many kilometres under the blazing sun, some reported seeing motionless bodies on the roadside and pilgrims collapsing because of apparent exhaustion.

The senior Saudi official told AFP on Friday that there was no blanket ban on unregistered pilgrims using the buses.

“There is no ban on them using the buses but these buses are prepared for the registered pilgrims that we know are coming,” the official said.

The hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam, and all Muslims with the means must complete it at least once in their lives.

The timing of the hajj is determined by the Islamic lunar calendar.

For the past several years the mainly outdoor rituals have fallen during the sweltering Saudi summer. |