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Originally Posted by Pizzuti
Okay, it's when I see that flier advertising "24-hour butler service" and "1 suite being 36,000 sq meters" that I really think that the decadence here really contrasts with the image and message of the Masjid-al-Haram.
Isn't one of the major aspects of the Hajj supposed to be that everyone is equal? You could be a multi-billionaire or a poor farmer from Bangladesh, but when you're circumambulating the Kabba, all of that is gone. Everyone looks and is totally equal during the hajj.
Not so in this building. There's automatically a differentiation between the janitors and cooks and the rich people who they cater to, and there are expensive suites and cheap suites. That is the way most of the world works, but it certainly changes what the hajj is about. I wonder if most pilgrims will even be able to afford to come in to this thing.
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I'm glad someone else noticed this. The Holy Qu'ran is replete with admonitions to the rich to not forgo their charitable duties to the less fortunate, so that those who are wealthy can live in emulation of the Prophet's charitable efforts on behalf of humanity to be the Messenger. But this concept seems to fly in the face of that strong invocation.
I love the idea of a epic structure that can inflame the breast with pride...this is worth ten Burj Dubai's in terms of monument. As such, it can either be interpreted by the faithful as a modern-day Islamic "Vatican" in terms of messaging the power of 'faith' as wrought into an edifice of cathedralic grandeur...(after all, how many supertalls have "GOD" written on their pinnacle?)...or it can be seen as the "Las Vegasization" of the hajj experience and Mecca. Much depends on how the Saud culture/government 'markets' this: will it be mosque, or will it be 'Caesar's Palace'?
It's definitely going to impact the Hajj experience for 'First World' Muslims and the elitists of the many Islamic nations. Unfortunately, few will forgo the opulence offered and choose to mingle with the 'sand'...to those who do, may the Prophet (pbuh) be their inspiration and may Allah bestow gracious blessings...