Nazrul Islam, a Bangladeshi expatriate, is hard pressed to make ends meet and to do that he sells booklets to Umrah and Haj pilgrims of various nationalities at Sail Al-Kabir meeqat (boundary), about 40 kilometers from the holy city of Makkah. The booklets, which contain instructions in Arabic and a number of foreign languages, such as Urdu, Hindi, Tagalog, and Bengali among others, provide pilgrims with details about performing Umrah and Haj rituals. As soon as pilgrims alight from their vehicles at the Sail Al-Kabir meeqat, Islam approaches them with booklets priced from SR4 to SR15. According to Islam, booklets in English and in Indonesian languages are in great demand. “I make a good profit on books in English and Bahasa, the language Indonesians speak. These translations are sold for SR15 and sometimes more, particularly during the peak Umrah season and Haj,” he said. The pilgrims stop over at meeqat to don the Ihram (two white pieces of cloth) before entering the holy city of Makkah. Meeqat, the boundary around Makkah for pilgrims coming from different directions for Umrah and Haj, has different locations. Pilgrims stop at Zul-Hulaifa when coming from the north, Yalamlam in the southeast, Dhat Irq in the northeast, Juhfah in the northwest, and Qarn ul-Manazil (Sail Al-Kabir) in the east. Pilgrims change into Ihram at Meeqat and pronounce their intention to perform Umrah or Haj. Islam said selling booklets has been his full-time job for the past 10 years. He said that on average he earns SR1,500 a month. However, the income increases during the peak Umrah and Haj seasons, he said. He said he works for eight or 10 hours on a daily basis. The work hours usually start after Maghreb prayer when pilgrims from other cities such as Riyadh, Dammam and other areas in the Central and Eastern Province start to arrive, he said. Islam said there is cutthroat competition as he is not alone in the business. There are a number of other expatriates who do the same work and rush to sell the booklets at a very competitive price. Moreover, pilgrims are in the habit of negotiating and tend to look for a lower price, he said, adding that “there are, however, others who pay more than the asked price”. Islam said he has four children and has to send money for their daily expenses and for their educational needs in Bangladesh. He said during the off-peak season, he works as a waiter in a restaurant to earn money to make ends meet. He said his sponsor is a generous person and offers him support from renewal of Iqama (residence permit) to the processing of exit and re-entry visas whenever he is required to go on vacation to Bangladesh. “My sponsor never asks for more money and permits me to work on my own,” he said.
