On 11 September 2015, a crawler crane toppled over onto the Masjid al-Haram, the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. 118 people were killed and 394 injured. The accident has been cited as the deadliest crane collapse in modern history.
It is with sadness that we witness yet another tragedy upon the pilgrims visiting the Holy Kaaba. I pray that Allah swt accepts it from the pilgrims and that they died at His House with the Talbiyah on their lips, forgives them and admits them as the Shuhada ameen. And to grant increased iman, patience and taqwa to those families and friends that they have left behind.
We owe it to those who passed away/injured and to their families to seek answers to this tragedy. As we all know there has been accident after accident engulfing the pilgrims and it shows a disturbing regular pattern. We have an understanding and that which we all accept is that Allah swt will choose whom He wills to die in His swt's path and raise them to the status of the Shuhada and this is a great blessing indeed, not just to those who died but to their families as well providing they stay patient.
However I have been observing with some concern that many Muslims are giving them the Martyr’s death and then just stop there, forget about what happened and just carry on with their lives with no more thoughts on this whatsoever. As Muslims we should NOT be of the mentality that we say just that they are shaheed its a martyr's death so good for them! Isn't this fatalism? Where is the concern that more of these accidents will happen again, the impact upon their families, and those who are traumatized, injured or maimed or disfigured or disabled for the rest of their lives and perhaps living with pain and suffering? You may 'celebrate' the martyrdom of others but what about the injured? Are you celebrating their predicament? Will you, or your spouse or children, want to be the ones who survived, but are horrendously injured perhaps for the rest of your lives? Will you want to be asked about this on the Day of Judgement for being involved in works that resulted in killing of your fellow brothers and sisters especially the pilgrims in the Haram?
What about the image of Islam and Muslims to the rest of the world? The media and people are quick to grasp on this fact that we do not care for the health, safety and well-being of our fellow Muslims. Doesn't Islam say when there's an obstacle on the road we remove it? We must do what we can to be safe and protect ourselves and others and to ensure we strive for zero tolerance for casualties, and the result is from Allah swt. The best death in Islam is certainly the Shaheed and we should pray for this but we do not 'seek' death in such a manner as to take risks with our lives or other people's lives otherwise this is considered suicide, manslaughter or murder! Even in the battlefield you take all the necessary precautions to safeguard yourselves and your fellow soldiers and not go blindly forth unprotected or without any strategy on the front line in front of the enemy. It is Allah swt who decides who lives and who dies not us.
This paints an anti-Islam picture in their minds in that we celebrate ‘death’ just like the way other extreme groups do and that we have no concern for careful planning, preparation and administration of large-scale events like the Hajj. ‘It is an act of God’ we say…’A martyr’s death!’ we exclaim. Just imagine what sort of picture we are painting to the non-Muslims with these slogans? It certainly does not in any figment of my imagination speak of inviting others to our noble and beautiful deen:
And who is better in speech than one who invites to Allah and does good righteous deeds and says, "Indeed, I am of the Muslims."
[Surah Fussilat 41:33]
Accountability
It is not just the Saudi authorities who are responsible for this tragedy, it is us too. Just look at our mentality and how we’re behaving collectively. Will we not be accountable too? If the Muslim Ummah is a deep and thinking Ummah, a just, careful and balanced Ummah, an accountable Ummah with fear in our hearts for Allah swt, concern for our fellow brothers and sisters around the world wherever they may be and whatever they are doing and in whatever condition they are in, we will not be in our current situation that we are in today.
Furthermore isn't this a misunderstanding of al-Qadaar wa al-Qadr (fate and destiny)? We have total freedom and choice to do want we want in this life but we also recognize that we live in this world where we have no choice but to follow the natural laws of the universe. We will be accountable for things we can control and not for things we can't control like the weather, gravity and other such phenomena. Therefore we need to be aware of this world we live in with its inherent dangers and risks and prepare, plan and act accordingly to reduce harm. So in other words to anticipate the dangers and work to try and completely eliminate the risks, work safely or better yet - do we really need to do this?
The public opinion of the Ummah is a very important one which must never be overlooked and disregarded for it has in the past powered us to become a world-leading nation coming from the deserts of Arabia. If the public opinion of this Ummah was more 'revived' than we currently are today, then this accident would not have happened if Allah swt wills it. This is because the authorities would have been under much pressure under our watchful eyes to carry out their duties carefully and diligently including the contractors working on the site, inspectors and government to name a few. And our judicial and punishment systems would account and prosecute those responsible. And we would never ever accept the authorities blaming the accident on the weather! (In fact it might not even be the strong winds that caused the collapse as they claim.)
Alhumdulillah there are already deep and thinking Muslims in this Ummah who deserve the pleasure of Allah swt:
The Western companies and authorities have very robust health and safety systems and culture in place. They record 'everything' even near-miss incidents which did not happen but potentially could have happened and so lessons can be learnt and acted upon to prevent any actual incidents occurring in the future.
What happened that night
The incident reportedly occurred shortly before 5:20 pm on Friday, one of the busiest times of the week. The crane fell into the east side of the mosque, with its boom crashing through the roof. One witness reported that the crane fell on the third floor above Al-Safa and Al-Marwah at 5:45 pm.
There were strong sand storms in the region over the preceding week. The authority said an hour before the disaster that Mecca was experiencing medium to heavy rains. There were also reports of winds of more than 40 kilometres per hour (25 mph). However, the exact cause of the crane collapse was not confirmed.
As I type this, the death toll has gone up to 118 now. Watched the video on the news showing the crane falling and it was terrifying. The crane(s) used in question are the German-made Liebherr crawler crane LR 11350:
The biggest of those cranes can lift up to 1350 tonnes at a 12 m radius from the centre of the mobile vehicular track base unit; and since the longest length of the boom is 150 m (which is a little less in height due to a lateral angle of the boom extending upwards) the most that these cranes can reach horizontally is 150 m. So the circumference of the exclusion zone from the crane should be at least 150 m even when the crane is not being used and is staying stationary.
These crawler cranes are the biggest of its kind and it is these that came crashing down on the Muhrims. There were high winds and rain up to 83km/h and there were several cranes there! The Haram represents a giant construction site and thus it should be treated as one accordingly. Wisdom dictates that no one should be there until the project is finished. The Autumn period is when half of Mecca's thunderstorms occur so there's no great surprise there. The Saudi authorities and companies know about this and they have experience of it. At least during the Hajj season all construction activities and equipment should stop and be removed away from the site, and the site under construction should be secured.
Did the contractor do a risk assessment? What about the government inspectors who supervise the expansion? Don't they have much explaining to do? The tragedy could have been avoided if they follow strict health and safety rules and operate best practices and standard operating procedures for crawler cranes. As someone commented online - a tower crane has a solid balanced and compensated static base as well as lateral holding out riggers; but a crawler crane has only a mobile vehicular track base unit, and with a crane of this size over 250 MTon with extended boom, once the wind goes over 70 miles per hour, the operation of the crane shall stop and the boom lowered down to the ground so that it will not overbalance.
The Fitna in the Haram
Irfan al-Alawi, co-founder of the Islamic Heritage Research Foundation, criticised the Saudi authorities, believing that their redevelopment of holy sites was not only damaging history, but putting pilgrims' lives at risk.
Reports of incidents of worker deaths and dangerous lack of safety precautions on building work in the city
by Hugh Miles in Cairo and agencies in Mecca
“There have been quite a few minor incidents, workers getting killed, but it never reaches the press,”
...There have been many accidents. Last year, the last few floors of a building being constructed right next to the clock tower caught fire and they had to call the fire engine from Taif, which is about 45 mins away, to help extinguish it.
“There is no health and safety system in place...
...“These cranes have been standing there for the last three years....
(See the video of demolition work taking place there without any controls)
“The development project is primarily a means for the regime to distribute oil wealth and patronage among a limited circle of princes and their entourage....
Property around the Grand Mosque is among the most expensive in the world, but there are squalid districts not far from the centre.
Conclusion (or rather the lack of it)
Isn't there a suspicion of possible negligence? If true then this would constitute murder or manslaughter but we may not know this. The Saudi government is laying the blame on the Saudi bin Laden company and has sanctioned some of the top executives. But what about the government -sanctioned (crazy) development taking place in the Haram? Their argument is to accommodate the ever increasing number of pilgrims every year. (Not to mention their other arguments like people starting to worship historical sites a la shirk but this is dubious at best) There is a sensible way to go about doing this:
- Keep a quota on the numbers and limit the people to the maximum-allowed capacity
- Do not destroy the historical sites and keep existing infrastructure but allow modifications, extensions within the existing limits of the city
- Organise the Hajj in a better way, surely they have experience of doing this
- Update and redevelop the city so that all benefit from it from the poor to the rich. This means sensible infrastructure development to to provide modern facilities, housing, roads, transports, education etc for all people and not just develop the city to benefit just the rich. We don't need the tower clock, plush 5-star hotels and shopping malls in the Haram. It is a place of pilgrimage and prayer, not luxury living and shopping for the rich
Only Allah swt knows best and what really happened. Looking back at this article it seems to me that this was waiting to happen and I don't think it was really an 'accident' or an 'act of God' so-to-speak. This is an insult to Allah swt, His Messenger (saw) and to all of us believers and I pray that we are safeguarded from His swt's displeasure ameen.
One thing is for sure: Going for Hajj is pretty dangerous at the moment...
Final word
"Nothing we do is so important that we cannot take time to do it safely."
OD
