My understanding of going for Haji before this was;

• You need a minimum of RM1300 in your Tabung Haji (TH) account before you are eligible to apply and register for your Haji turn
• The Haji trip will be subsidized and are handled by TH accordingly
• Everyone has a chance to go to Haji because of TH and keeping your money with TH allows you to grow your wealth through the various Syariah-compliant investments available.

Recently, this announcement came up. The Jemaah are categorized based on their income and must make the necessary payments to do Haji as per which group they belong to. I wasn’t really taking heed of the issue until a few of my friends began to raise some ‘puzzling’ points about it.

HAJI is WAJIB only if you can afford to do it. The key word here is berkemampuan. This means that you are in a position where you can do so. This comes in the best form of health and wealth. Therefore what happened before this is that the Malaysian Jemaah will undergo a health check-up before their departure to make sure that they are in the pink of health. Furthermore, during that time – the trip was heavily subsidized thus it is important that the member who benefits from this – can perform the Haji after all. In other words, even though you are unable to pay the full package of Haji on your own, as long as you are healthy and can fork out the minimum amount per pax, you can still go and perform Haji.

Of course, there will be issues of Haji group members who are adamant about still going for the pilgrimage even though medically they are not fit. That is a different story and it gives healthcare practitioners a lot of headaches. It’s because these Haji clients, mostly elderly, will start making remarks like doctors are evil, doctors are sabotaging Allah’s invite to Mekah etc. You get the picture.

This year something new happened. The Jemaah are paying for their pilgrimage trip based on their income categories. The financially adept one, the T20, is to pay the full package price as compared to those who are earning less. The M40s are also required to pay a certain amount which is double what the B40s are paying. It is unclear how much the quota is for the number of T20 and M40 people who are going to Haji but here is what’s bothering my friends. The M40 and T20.

The T20s are still waiting for their call to Haji. However, as I said, it is unclear the quota distribution for Malaysians based on income. So although they are physically healthy and have enough money to go, they can’t go. The M40s are stuck cause while they may appear ‘financially adept’ – it is still a lot to pay as compared to the B40s due to other life commitments. An M40 in a city may live a life just like a B40 in a rural area. Then there is a health issue where guidelines are issued by TH of what level of health status is allowed to join the Jemaah. Morbid obesity and uncontrolled NCDs are all a big NO to performing the pilgrimage.

Then there is an issue of ‘unfairness’ for these payment tiers to existing as it is largely known that those who invest highly in TH, those who made it possible for subsidized Haji to happen are the T20s. Thus, rising the question – shouldn’t everyone get to benefit from the subsidized Haji trip? Why the double standard?

But of course, it is not my place to question these decisions. Perhaps there are other things unbeknown to the rakyat regarding this announcement. It is still my right to write about this here in my personal blog so that I could look back on it in the future and still ponder, WHY.