Whenever we visit the Haram either in Makkah or Madinah, we cannot but appreciate the level of cleanliness kept there in spite of the hordes of devotees coming there around the clock and with no visible restriction on littering the place which some devotees do either due to ignorance or due to carelessness.
There are cleaners everywhere working either individually or in groups to keep the place very clean. Indeed, we cannot help but feel that cleanliness is next to Godliness inside both the Harams. There is something which people do as an act of charity which Islam has prescribed for its followers to do and which most of the faithful do to those who are poor, downtrodden, wayfarers, widows, etc. as prescribed in the Holy Qur’an, each according to his capacity and understanding.
We see, for example, people donating money to cleaners who are in the Haram and no doubt they are poor (this is the reason they have accepted this job and deserve to be helped). However, many of them seem to have taken for granted this donation or charity as their rightful privilege which they almost demand by their stance in the Haram.
I am sure that many readers must have seen cleaners standing at various places inside the Haram posing before pilgrims so that they surely see them, pity them and donate or give charity to them. They stand equidistant from one another so as not to clash with one another and not to eat into each other’s income. What is objectionable is that they see this charity not as a help to overcome some emergency situation, but as a source of their income in these holy places.
I am sure that the companies which employ them must have taken for granted this income of theirs and they must be paying the cleaners accordingly by which I mean a very meager amount of money as salary. These cleaners must also know the places where they are most likely to receive charity and must arrange their posting in such places by paying money to their supervisors.
We see these cleaners cleaning the place very diligently and maintaining the Harams in the cleanest possible manner, but if the cleaning industry has turned into a begging industry, then it is objectionable in two ways.
The interest of the cleaners as well as their supervisors will be less in cleaning and more in the income which they earn by way of charity, and secondly, they will become slothful by posing before devotees in order to evoke mercy and induce people to donate to them.
This must stop because we are encouraging begging as a profession which is a shame for any country or place especially for the two Holy Mosques. Cleaners must be paid more and they should only concentrate on cleaning and should be forbidden from taking any alms because they already have a job, and secondly, if people want to donate, then charity offices should be kept at various places so that the donated money goes to the rightful people, i.e. orphans, widows, crippled, sick, etc.
Shabbir Thingna,
Madinah
