At 4 p.m. on the 5th day of Haj the skies opened and the rain flooded down. It was as if a monsoon had hit Mina. The pilgrims who were still in town ran for cover. Lights came on all over the area. The aggressive drumming of the rain and the howling of the wind drowned out all other sounds. We’d been waiting for such a downpour since morning. At 6 a.m. we awoke to the pitter-patter of rain on our tent. Looking outside, we found that pilgrims were scurrying everywhere trying to find cover. Those who had neglected to buy an umbrella earlier in the week were truly sorry. And umbrella vendors were nowhere in sight. In fact all the small vendors had disappeared. As the day progressed the weather grew worse. The wind blew with ferocious intensity and a dark haze enveloped the entire town, with black clouds hanging low all the way to the mountains. Visibility was poor and indoor surfaces were covered with grit. Coffee and tea were the only defenses against the cold and damp.

As Mina was facing the storm, Jeddah was also being flooded. Calls began coming in, asking about our situation but we couldn’t offer much reassurance. Quite honestly, people were afraid. The air was filled with blowing debris. Soda cans, water bottles and plastic bags became airborne and banged into poles, posts and metal fixtures, making a terrible racket. Sign boards and tent poles bent in the storm and eventually many were torn off, creating missiles.

One Qatari woman was hurt when she was hit by a flying flagpole. A bizarre injury occurred elsewhere in Mina, when a dog ran into a camp and bit a woman on the hand. Naseema Bagum from Mangalore, India, was seriously injured and taken to hospital. The dog escaped in the resulting commotion. In general, the pilgrims’ health has been good. Mohammed Al-Malki, in-charge of Clinic No. 17 attached to Mina General Hospital, stated that in eight hours on Friday the clinic had treated 4,000 patients. None were suffering from serious illnesses. Most were treated for coughs, chest congestion and sore throats — all ailments related to respiratory tract infections.

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A number of pilgrims initially thought the rain was a blessing from God; the wet conditions, however, weren’t easy to deal with. Though the pilgrims’ tents were on platforms and mostly waterproof, the wind was so strong that it blew rainwater through every tiny opening. By the afternoon, our computer was soaked and most of our belongings were more than damp. Despite the provision of drainage in the area, eventually the water was just too pervasive and flooding began. By 4:30 the roads leading out of Mina were flooded and many stalled vehicles were blocking the streets. Many pilgrims were unable to depart before sunset and had to stay another day.

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As one can imagine, the stoning ritual did not proceed smoothly yesterday. The majority of pilgrims left Mina on Friday to perform the Tawaf Al-Ifadah. Those in camps far from the Jamrat area took their baggage. Returning from Makkah took five hours and so most pilgrims with baggage simply went and camped on the outskirts of the Jamrat area for the remainder of the night. The number of squatters made movement in the area extremely difficult and traffic was nearly at a halt by midnight. Many pilgrims hoped to stone the Jamrat after midday and leave Mina immediately. To do this they would have to carry their baggage with them on the Jamrat Bridge — in contravention of all instructions.

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Only effective measures taken by the security forces stopped a disaster at midday. Fast-moving crowds loaded with baggage raced toward the bridge. Crowd controllers in helicopters circling overhead radioed exactly what they were seeing to their superiors who immediately began to follow plans tailor-made to meet such a situation. At 1:30 orders were issued to bar more pilgrims from approaching the Jamrat area. According to a top security source, immediate steps were taken to control the chaos, with all available security personnel converging on the area and lending aid until calm and discipline were restored to the pilgrims’ movements.

Sirens alerted everyone to a possible crisis in progress. A huge electronic sign board before the Jamrat area flashed in several different languages “Calm down, Calm down. Don’t move forward. Danger ahead.” Volunteers with megaphones came into the streets urging pilgrims to stop. At 2:00 the stoning ritual was restarted and proceeded without further incident except for the pilgrims having to cope with inclement weather.

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While many wonderful improvements have been made this year to the Haj infrastructure, the problems that remain show that still more needs to be done. A major improvement would be a monorail system between Makkah and Mina. One of our brother nations, Malaysia, has companies that design and build excellent monorails for cities all over the world. A Mina-Makkah route could be constructed in under a year and would cause little disruption on Makkah’s roads. A monorail would enable pilgrims to move above the streets and reduce traffic congestion.

Another area in need of improvement is the system of guiding pilgrims in Mina. Security officers coming to Mina to help with Haj should be issued a small guidebook of maps and other information. The information should be in several languages in the book so that these officers would be effective in providing the pilgrims with adequate directions to essential resources.

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There is also a need for Tawafa organizations to provide better service. We found that some pilgrims did not have food delivered to their camps for two days. The money they paid for food services was returned to them and they were instructed to buy food from other sources. This is unacceptable. Most pilgrims do not speak Arabic and have no idea where to go to find hot food. Many cannot afford the high prices charged by the street vendors in the area. Some pilgrims had no choice but to subsist on emergency rations of biscuits and dried fruit in Mina. Tawafa groups which did not fulfill their promised services should be fined and their companies closed down for a year.

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One organization that should be praised is Dallah. They have the contract for cleaning in Mina and hundreds of Bangladeshi janitors are in the streets and camps sweeping and picking up trash continuously. Many pilgrims have commented on the good services provided by these cleaners and we must offer them our gratitude for helping to maintain sanitation and so preventing the possible spread of disease.

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In one last note, it is essential to comment on the strong presence of pilgrims from Kerala, India, at this year’s Haj. There are 1.5 million Indians working in Saudi Arabia and 60 percent of that number are from Kerala. This year 127,000 pilgrims have come from India; 40,000 of those are from Kerala. It is thought that this group has been joined by 60,000 Keralite pilgrims living in the Kingdom. Keralites have done extremely well in the Kingdom.

At least five television channels from Kerala — Asianet, India Vision, Surya TV, Kairali and Jeevan — are running live updates from the Haj. Each one of these channels has a special correspondent here: Musafir (Asianet), Muhammad Sadique (India Vision), P.A.M. Haris (Jeevan) and V.V. Bashir (Kairali). Kerala being a very secular state, all these TV stations have made extensive arrangements to cover this religious event and most of the stations are not even owned by Muslims. But at the end of the day what counts is market share and this week covering Haj is the way to pump up the ratings and attract advertisers. That should be a lesson to all Muslims on the importance of unity in establishing an effective global voice on a multitude of issues.