Commodification of Faith: A growing menace among the new generational pilgrimage

By: Tijani Salako.

Recently, I had an intellectual engagement with a friend on the basis of social media usage as platforms for communication, being a communicator who’s been in the field (of study) for a decade past, the engagement was sprouted by the seeming ruins that social media facilitate through addiction and wrong usage.

Upon personal reflections, he asked for my candid opinion and my sincere response was “We cannot not communicate, with the presence of these platforms, many ideologies and mode of interactions have changed lately.

“However, many individuals who are ignorant of the basic functions of these apps tend to use it otherwise which greatly contributes negatively to the lives of many. But, it’s good to avoid it if you don’t know the usage” this was my personal submission to the conversation that very day.

Then, I stumbled on some irritating videos of some pilgrimage probably a week beyond the conversation on another peer social media status condemning the commodification of faith by this pilgrimage which has now become a new trend and probably will turn to a doctrine among the pilgrims especially the young ones going to Mecca for Hajji and Umrah if caution is not laced on this.

Instead of taking heed to the spirituality that is attached to the holy journey which maybe fated for some to be once in their lifetime, they choose to be more interested in creating content for social media and making frivolous demands from Allah.

Saddening is it, how they have turned the Ka’abah, which is a symbol of Islamic faith and unity for Muslims all over the world to a mere center of attraction by undermining the sanctity of the sacred space.

It can be seen that its environment has been reduced to a backdrop of content creation and tourism center for social media updates where lack of decorum, indecency and disrespect have been displayed, what an insolent act to the greatest Divine (Allah) and its creatures.

Mostly, the reels I constantly come across are so disheartening which are seen to be rooted in myopic rationality of requesting Allah to grant them worldly possessions other than gaining spiritual growth and divine enlightenment, all these done with the sole aim of boosting social media followership. It is perplexing to observe majority traveling for Hajji and Umrah with superficial intentions.

However, the logical question I demanded from this conversation was, who gave these individuals a junket for such holy sacred pilgrimage and perhaps, some have the money but decided to go on tourism spree without knowing what the place is demanding and what is expected of them as a pilgrimage who might not have the offer of going again till the end of their lifetime.

The Prophet Muhammad (may the peace and blessings of Allah be with him and his household) said, “All deeds are judged by their intention… whosoever embark on a pilgrimage because of life materials, (s)he will see it (be rewarded), or because of an aesthetic and sophisticated woman that he wishes to marry, we (Allah) will reward everyone with the core intention of the hajji/pilgrimage embarked upon” but to a critically sane mind, how on earth will anyone travel from any country to Makkatal-Mukaram and be demanding Allah for Dangote’s sort of wealth? If Allah can bless Dangote like that he has more of abundance beyond your request.

Unarguably, it’s obvious that the new generation of self acclaimed worshippers have turned Allah to be a playmate, with most of unwarranted interactions with HIM boiled down to informal and casual approach employing colloquialism and slang to undermine Allah’s capacity and gravity, however, it is heartbreaking that this generation’s Islamic scholars are also contributing to this diminishing menace. An Islamic poet sometimes said “if we did not screen a sinful person (pious individuals) to explain the teachings of Allah, then who is more qualified to preach the Islamic righteousness after the prophet (SAW)?”

It’s on this note that a serious campaign should be lunched from all Islamic scholars to curb the ignorance of this generation and promote more nuanced understanding of faith and its practice by hammering on the importance of reverence, respect and good intention towards the faith.

Moreover, constant education must be done on the commodification of faith and reduction of sacred spaces to social media backdrop by promoting culture of respect and pure sincerity towards Allah.