From Tents to Towers

Also published in Daily Trust

 

“And that you will behold the barefooted, barely-clothed and poverty-stricken shepherds rivaling one another in constructing high-rise buildings.” I am sure many readers would remember this excerpt from a very commonly known Prophetic Hadith narrated by Imam Muslim on the authority of Umar Ibn Khattab. I am also sure many readers would nostalgically remember those largely informal evening Islamiyya classes, where they were tutored by whip-wielding Yasayyadis i.e. tutors. Incidentally, the excerpt addresses some of the minor signs of the approach of the Last Day as given by the apostle of Allah, peace and blessing of Allah be upon him.

Anyway, one may wonder how people wallowing under such endemic and acute poverty as described in the Hadith yet rival one another in constructing high-rise buildings, which obviously not only the rich but very rich for that matter can afford.  Interestingly enough, in general neither the Yasayyadis let alone the pupils bothered to wonder about this apparent yet mysterious irony or how the prophesy would come to pass.

To put it in context, it is noteworthy that though the apostle of Allah did not expressly mention which nation he was exactly referring to, contextual circumstances suggested that he was actually referring to his own nation i.e. the Arabs of the Arabian Peninsula in which the oil-rich Arabian Gulf countries i.e. Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman fall today.

  

For many ages that preceded the advent of Islamic religion, the people of the heart of the Arabian Peninsula in general had languished in an extremely severe and endemic poverty. They relied heavily on sheep herding and other subsistence means for their livelihood, notwithstanding the seasonal commercial journeys embarked upon by the people of Mecca once every summer and winter seasons to the region of Sham, which is today shared among Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine.

Various social, geographical and climatic factors among other things were largely responsible for creating and exacerbating the severity of poverty in the region, among which was the absence of a civilized socio-political structure, with the exception of Oman and Bahrain, which were after all relatively far from the heart of the region . Likewise, the largely inhospitable terrain of the region had contributed to the virtual marginalization of its people from the global affairs. Perhaps those were some of the reasons why neither of the two reigning world superpowers then i.e. Persian and Byzantine empires bothered to conquer the region in their struggle against each other to annex as much territories as possible.

Besides, though the situation had oscillated over the ages from an unbearable severity to a relatively bearable condition, it was obvious that until some decades ago, there was never a point in time when the inhabitants of the heart of the Arabian Peninsula enjoyed any considerable level of economic prosperity.

Therefore the dramatic turnaround in their fortunes over the decades, which has resulted into their total transformation from tent dwellers into towers and mansions’ occupiers, and from wandering camel riders to plushy car drivers, could represent yet more quite reasonable reasons to conclude that they are actually the people referred to in the excerpt of that Prophetic Hadith. This is especially considering how they are actually rivaling one another in constructing skyscrapers and other gigantic structures amid extremely lavish and extravagant lifestyles. 

    

Consequently, the skylines of many cities in the region are increasingly being dominated by extremely tall towers and other massive buildings. For instance, the ever-rising skylines of cities like Doha, Mecca, Sharjah, Riyadh and Abu Dhabi among many other cities in the region provide tangible proofs of the growing rivalry and obsession with the construction of high-rise buildings among the people of the region.

Yet, the pattern and trend of this rivalry in Dubai city in particular is exceptionally phenomenal, after all, at least for now and probably for a considerable time to come, Dubai’s skyline would maintain its unrivalled position in terms of housing the highest number of super towers and other huge buildings in the region. 

As a matter of fact, it rivals cities with the highest number of skyscrapers around the world e. g. Hong Kong, Singapore and New York, and it has indeed overtaken them in many aspects, having built the tallest man-made building in the world, tallest hotel in the world and tallest residential tower in the world among many others, which collectively constitute a jungle of gleaming skyscrapers adorning the city’s skyline. These in addition to other gigantic buildings e.g. Dubai Mall, which is currently the biggest shopping mall in the world among many other exceptionally huge and luxury landmarks all over the city.

 Dubai city

 

Interestingly enough also, less than two years after commissioning a tower of more than 160 storey building in Dubai i.e. Burj Khalifa, which is currently the tallest building in the world, Kingdom Holding Company, a company owned by Al-Walid Bin Talal, a Saudi billionaire prince announced that it had awarded a contract to Saudi Bin Laden Group to construct a building in Jeddah, which, when completed, would overtake Dubai’s Bur Khalifa as the tallest building in the whole world.

In any case, even though the Hadith under discussion does not necessarily disapprove of such trend provided there is no boastful show off or any other prohibited practices attached to it, and also even though some strategic development experts and other observers identify some instances of misplacement of priority in these countries’ strategic investment policies hence recommend appropriate investments in other equally worthwhile or some more important sectors of strategic socio-economic importance, I believe I am not in the position to downplay their achievements anyway, because after all my country, which is by the way ironically richer in human and natural resources has failed to achieve any appreciable measure of growth compared to its abundant human and natural resources. 

Besides, it is obvious that these countries have to a large extent successfully made good use of their oil resources, explored other economic potential and managed them properly until they secured a sustainable socio-economic stability and prosperity for their citizens in general.