By Ibrahim Suleiman Ibrahim
It is a human trait, especially in this digital era, for people to take pictures in memorable places, should they have the privilege of travelling to those places. This is because we humans love to capture our favourite moments in memorable places or with memorable personalities so as to treasure the memories. It isn’t ‘always’ a show-off, as some people misinterpret it to be.
A good example of the manifestation of this trait is how almost, if not all, Nigerian graduates have a picture of them in NYSC Camp wearing their NYSC uniforms, how almost every married person treasures the picture of his/her own wedding ceremony, and of course, how almost all privileged pilgrims take pictures in front of the iconic Ka’abah in Makkah when they go for pilgrimage.
However, I still can’t understand why some holier-than-thou folks quickly conclude without any unambiguous Quranic and Hadith references that anybody who takes pictures in Makkah lacks ‘Ikhlās’, i.e sincerity to Allah, whereas the same people will snap pictures at their respective Juma’at Masaajid after every Friday Prayer, take pictures of themselves learning under Islamic scholars and the likes, without anybody questioning their Ikhlaas.
If there’s anything the pilgrims are showing-off when they travel for Hajj, then it will be the beautiful and memorable locations they were privileged to travel to and not their act of Ibādah that took them there.
I mean, Makkah, aside from being a very beautiful place, is a dreamland to all Muslims across the globe and a place they rarely have the privilege of going to. As such, you shouldn’t expect them not to want to treasure the memories of the once-in-a-lifetime experience they have there.
I understand that some pilgrims allow snapping of pictures to interfere with their acts of Ibādah during Hajj, and that is wrong, but even at that, we aren’t in the position to judge them, as the sincerity of intention is only known by Allah, the all-knowing.
Even where Allah talked about giving alms in the Qur’an, as sacred as it is, he mentioned in Qur’an 2:271 that revealing alms-giving to the public is okay, but concealing it is much better.
We can analogically deduce that it’s actually better if you decide not to take pictures for fear of ‘show-off’ when you travel for Hajj.
However, it is wrong to bully those who choose to take pictures, especially if their intention is to treasure their memories.
We take pictures at important places, in cars, in aeroplanes, and other places. I feel that’s human nature. Do Muslims have any better place than Makkah? Still, I reason that we should guard our Iman and take our pictures with Ikhlas.
Ibrahim Suleiman Ibrahim