Former actor Sana Khan, who stepped away from the entertainment industry in 2020 and married cleric-businessman Mufti Anas the same year, is preparing for Haj later this year. It will be her fourth pilgrimage, but this one comes with a different experience.For the first time, Khan will not be staying in Mina’s famed tent city. Instead, she and her husband will spend five days in a multi-storey tower in the Mina valley, close to Mecca. The shift that reflects a transformation in how some pilgrims now experience Haj.Sana is among the first wave of Indians opting to stay at a tower in Mina during the Haj. Staying for five days at Mina, traditionally known as the ‘tent city’, is a mandatory ritual of Haj. For centuries, pilgrims from across the world who visited Mecca for the annual pilgrimage stayed in these temporary ‘khemas’ or tents.However, in the last couple of years, Saudi authorities built several towers in the Mina valley and offered pilgrims accommodation in these multi-storey towers with enhanced amenities like air-conditioned, spacious rooms, clean toilets, bigger kitchens and wider prayer areas. The Haj division of the ministry of minority affairs in India asked private Haj pilgrims to book their seats by January 15.“Timely booking will help avoid lastminute difficulties and ensure smooth, well-organised arrangements for this sacred journey,” said minority affairs minister Kiran Rijiju in an X post. Out of 1,75,000 Indian Haj quota, 52,000 will travel through Haj group organisations and private tour operators, while the rest will use services of the Haj Committee of India.Several organisers and tour operators are reaching out to affluent pilgrims with packages for an ‘upgraded Haj experience’ and the lure of ‘classic and premium packages that now include a shift from tents to Mina Towers’, reads an online ad of Al Khalid Tours and Travels. “Shift from tents to towers is being done in phases. Stay at the towers is hassle-free and suited to change in weather,” says Khalid Kherada of Al Khalid Tours and Travels.The orthodox do not approve of the transition from tents to towers at Mina.“Tents have a primitive feel, even though they’re also air-conditioned. However, Shariat, or Islamic laws, do not prescribe that the stay at Mina mandatorily be in tents,” says a senior cleric requesting anonymity.
