HAJJ 2022 UPDATE

اَلسَّلامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُالله وَبَرَكاَتُهُ

As we still have not had any official direct communication from the relevant Saudi authorities regarding their plans for Hajj 2022, we have no choice but to address the rumours that are circulating in the UK Hajj market.

There must be a reason why the Saudi authorities are not providing us with the very important information we need to be able finalise our Hajj Packages.

The reason seems to be that the Saudi authorities have used the last few weeks to decide they want to sell Hajj 2022 Package direct to the Pilgrims.

For the moment, licenses issued to travel agents overseas to prepare hajj packages and organise group hajj tour has been rescinded.

This mean Hajj will be organised directly online where aspiring pilgrims will be able to go online and select packages on offer according to their budget and desire.

Our understanding is that the Saudi authorities have created a portal that they intend to make available within the next few days - NO ONE actually knows exactly when this portal will go live.

At present we don’t have any information about this portal, however we have many concerns regarding the following:

*The dates of travel

*The airlines to be used

*The length of stay in Saudi

*The hotels to be used

*The transport to be used

*The food supplies

*The religious guidance

*The people responsible for the well-being of the Pilgrims and who will assist with medical help if required.

As well as all of the above issues and many many more, we also do not know -

*The Costs of the Hajj Package 2022 on this new portal. Rumours are it will be around £12,000. Now those of you who were ecstatic for Hajj to be taken over by Saudi only and complained that agents were thieves, sorry to say, some of us agents have worked considerably hard over the years to ensure you get the best prices possible, even at times by paying out of our own pockets. You think Saudi Ministry will do this for you? Think again.

*Ibadah Tours we’re the first agency in the world to offer a flexible payment plan towards any of our clients. We did this for you! Knowing that it can be hard as we were also pilgrims one stage in our lives, we put ourselves in your shoes and no matter how much we had to pay up front, we never ever burdened our clients. We know and ALLAH ﷻ knows we did this for the sake of reward. Reward before business, our philosophy.

Do any of you humble and loved clients of ours feel Saudi Ministry will cater for this type of service towards you all? We hope and pray they can copy at least this part of our service to you all ‎إِنْ شَاءَ ٱللَّٰهُ in order to make things easier.

*How the Pilgrim will pay for the Hajj Package through this portal.

*What financial protection will be provided for the Pilgrim.

*Sincere agents would usually run up and down to the Saudi Embassy if any of their clients visa was rejected, and would try their best to ensure that all clients received their Visa’s. In fact in 2019 one of our team members who was due for Hajj, sacrificed his journey in order to be on the grounds in the UK to chase up for any late/rejected Visas of not only our customers, but for customers of other agents as well. Can you imagine how it must feel to sacrifice your Hajj for the sake of others? Ibadah Tours did just that. We don’t seek praise because ALLAH ﷻ is with us always.

But we want to know if the Hajj and Umrah ministry would do the same for the guests of ALLAH ﷻ. We urge them to deliver a service to look after all you Pilgrims as best as possible. You can help too by sharing this article to as many as possible until it reaches the ministry and they know our concerns towards you all. So that they may wake up and ensure they do not fall short of their duties towards you.

Tawafa Establishment have selected number of existing mutawwifs to offer this service online.

As packages are not expected to be below £12,000 minimum in a double sharing room only, it is not clear whether the UK banks will allow a one off payment using credit card as the payment is very high. Applicant may well have to negotiate with their bank on this issue. Additional problem will be if there is more then one person travelling such as husband and wife or children etc.

There is no clarification on foreigners legally domiciled in the european/american countries and what happens to their passport and visa.

They say religious guidance will be available but nothing specified how and where and in which language. There is no clarification on missed flights, loss of possessions, rooms in hotel not fit for purpose, qurbani, which tents they will be sent to and how they will be transported or assisted in completing the process of Hajj such as going to jamaraat and stoning, going to Makkah for tawaf and sai of ziarat.

We have tried our best to stick to the facts rather than guess or deliberately mislead.

We know a number of ‘agents’ have announced and quoted prices of Hajj Packages 2022 that they clearly had no information about, and had no right selling. We informed you all when you contacted us to be careful. Why? Because we care, not because we want to bad mouth anyone.

We know these Agents have taken payments for these misleading Hajj Packages that obviously cannot be provided under current circumstance as we have explained above. And now sincerely hope that they pay you all back each and every penny, should this online portal go ahead.

We on the other hand, will continue to provide reliable information to all our customers and followers.

For those of you who have been painting every Agency with the same brush, remember even this update was provided to you by an agent.

Not the Saudi Ministry.

Even though we feel sorrow knowing that these new implementations by Saudi Arabia will mean Pilgrims fall short of the full service sincere agents were offering them throughout the years, We make Dua’ that ALLAH ﷻ blesses you all with ease and acceptance on your Pilgrimage wether we are side by side with you or not.

We will continue to strive in helping you all whenever we can.

ALLAH ﷻ is the best of all planners and the best of all protectors.

Your Team,

Ibadah Tours.