Solusi Sengkarut Ibadah Haji Regular Dan Furoda

Photo by Luthfiah VOI

JAKARTA The chaos of organizing the pilgrimage is still happening. In fact, the times are not only for regular Hajj, but also for furoda Hajj which has recently been considered an instant solution to avoid various regular hajj problems, including the length of the queue to carry out the pilgrimage.

The 2025 Hajj season is indeed colored by disappointment, not only those who go through regular channels, but also for thousands of Indonesian pilgrims who choose the furoda Hajj route. They certainly failed to go to the Holy Land after the Saudi Arabian Government did not issue a furode visa to the deadline for service, without giving an official statement.

The failure of thousands of prospective pilgrims in obtaining furoda Hajj visas this year is a hard slap for the implementation of non-coota Hajj. Many have paid hundreds of millions of rupiah to travel agents, followed rituals, and even prepared to go to the Holy Land, but in the end, they can only surrender because visas have not been issued.

Minister of Religion Nasaruddin Umar explained that the Government of Saudi Arabia is conducting a massive arrangement in organizing the pilgrimage, including in terms of visa arrangements. This tightening has a direct impact on the furode visa route, namely the visa of non-coota invitations from Saudi authorities which are usually provided through private channels such as community or royal figures.

According to him, the furoda visa issuance system is carried out directly by agents in collaboration with authorities in Saudi Arabia. When the registration process is carried out, it is tight or close to departure time, the electronic system managed by the Saudi authorities has closed access.

Muslims are at the Grand Mosque after the Rashdul Qibrah incident or the sun time is right above the Kaaba in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, Monday (27/5/2024). (ANTARA/SIGID KURNIAWAN)

"It's okay"

"It's okay"

"It's okay"

"It's okay"

Therefore, to avoid the recurrence of the furoda hajj case in 2025, Minister of Religion Nasaruddin Umar suggested that the application for a furoda visa should be rushed. If indeed someone will do a furode hajj as soon as possible join a special hajj pilgrim, from there they can exchange rules. But if it's late, let alone a new last minute proposes, it's closed on his computer. If the computer closes it can no longer be accessed," he added.

Most of these failure cases occur due to late agents or organizers entering the data of prospective pilgrims into the Saudi system. Because, when access to the system has been closed, no one can open it again except for high authorities in Saudi," continued Minister of Religion Nasaruddin Umar.

The former Minister of Religion, Lukman Hakim Saifuddin (LHS) assessed that the issue of furoda Hajj visas was due to the practice of misuse of mujamalah visas or non-coota visas issued by the Government of Saudi Arabia on the basis of official invitations from local officials to certain Indonesian citizens. Initially, the mujamalah visa was given to Indonesian citizens at official invitations and accompanied by complete facilities such as flights, accommodation, consumption, and local transportation," he told VOI some time ago.

But recently, mujamalah visa abuse practices emerged. Some of them were issued without the support of the facility. In fact, the mujamalah visa was then sold freely and named a furode visa. This term, according to the LHS, is actually not officially known by the Government of Saudi Arabia.

The management of furoda visas is handled by a third party, namely the organizers of special Hajj (PIHK) in Indonesia. This is where the trading of furoda visas with varying rates emerged, from hundreds of millions to close to billions of rupiah. This is with the initial lure of being able to perform Hajj without having to wait for years of queues," explained the LHS.

He emphasized that unlike the mujamalah visa issued by Saudi Arabian Royal officials as an official invitation to Indonesian citizens, the source of the furoda visa tends to be 'disbursed', aka unclear. In fact, the Indonesian government does not know who the invitees and who the Indonesian citizens are, and how many visas are.

The LHS said that the practice of buying and selling hajj packages with a furoda visa could not confirm the departure of prospective pilgrims to the Holy Land. In fact, such transactions contain garur (gharar) in Islamic law. Because, there is an element of speculation and risk of harming one of the parties who transacts.

"The issuance of a furode visa is full of uncertainty. The transaction of buying and selling Hajj packages with these visas, in the eyes of Islamic law, can be categorized as 'gharar', a transaction containing elements of speculation due to uncertainty, which is at risk of causing aggrieved parties," he added.

Complete Improvement Of Hajj Governance

Problems are also still surrounding regular Hajj pilgrims. Secretary of IPHI Region DI Yogyakarta, Aguk Irawan revealed, various classic problems still hit regular pilgrims from Indonesia, such as the late bus carrying pilgrims from hotels to Arafah with unreasonable duration, the disappearance of Islamic buses in Muzdalifah, the separation of worshipers and inns from families and entourage, to cases of deportation of regular pilgrims at Jeddah Airport.

In line with Minister of Religion Nasaruddin Umar, he emphasized the importance of solving the Hajj visa problem which is an absolute requirement for pilgrims to enter Saudi Arabia in the hajj season. Although it seems simple in managing, it has a significant impact on the congregation. He gave an example, the incident that befell prospective pilgrims from Bandung, West Java, Heri Risdiyanto, who failed to perform the pilgrimage after at the Jeddah Airport, Saudi Arabia, was due to the problem of a regular Hajj visa that was declared inactive.

Heri and his wife and parents have arrived in Saudi Arabia, however, they are not allowed to continue the Hajj procession. Heri was actually sent home because he did not pass the immigration examination, the root of the problem is that the Ministry of Religion's SISCOHAT system has not been connected to the E-hajj Service of the Ministry of Hajj, Saudi Arabia," he said.

As a result, Heri, who is a member of the 27th Anniversary of Kertajati, was forcibly repatriated to Indonesia while still wearing ihram clothes and without being allowed to carry his suitcase. We can imagine how difficult this condition is? Moreover, he must be separated from his elderly parents," added Aguk.

He emphasized that this visa issue must be a common concern, especially comprehensive digitization and connected to the Saudi E-hajj system, through the Nusuk platform that is implemented. This must be done, because the kingdom of Saudi Arabia is carrying out the process of digitizing Hajj and Umrah for all citizens of the world through Nusuk as a single system.

"There needs to be a reform or reformulation of policies for the implementation of Hajj and Umrah as a whole, including involving the Directorate General of Immigration at the Ministry of Law and Human Rights and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to participate in managing this issue in the coming year," he said.

According to Agukik, the main problem with organizing the pilgrimage in Indonesia is that there is no comprehensive management or management of Hajj services by the government so far. This makes the chaos of organizing the pilgrimage still occur every year.

It always appears in this hole in holes, the holes there are closed, the holes are closed here, another hole appears. From the management side, it means that there is no comprehensive completion. Not yet well-systemed," he said.