Cultural and Heritage (CI3130) Lecturer: Chris Huchinson

May 14

2013
Haroon Latif (K1039567)

Umrah Pilgrimage in Islam

Contents Page Executive Summary Chosen Platform

Analysis

Difficulties and Opportunity of an Online Management System

Theoretical and Intellectual Issues

Legal and Ethical Issues

Technical Walkthrough

Conclusion Future Development

References

Executive Summary
Description of the client organisation and its activity:

In this project it will be discussed how umrah pilgrimage is performed by Muslims around the world and how it can be performed any time of the year. I will discuss how the word Umrah originated and the reasons why Muslims undertake this holy ritual. The umrah rituals that I will discuss are, tawaf, Sai and taqsir these are the important areas that have to be covered to complete an umrah pilgrimage. Tawaf which consists of circling the kaaba in mecca Saudi Arabia 7 times in an anticlockwise direction and this is done 3 times at an hurried pace and then on the 4th occasion at a slower pace. Sai is when an individual rapidly walks seven times back and forth between the hills of Safa Marwah this is based on re-enactment of the frantic search for water by Hajar and how baby Ishmael cried for water and how an angel came and scraped his foot along the ground and the water miraculously sprang forth and this place of origin for this water is now called the the well of Zam Zam. Taqsir or Halq will also be discussed in further detail which is when the men fully shave their head this Halq and when they shave not fully this is called Taqsir. Performing all these rituals completes an Umrah pilgrimage. Umrah can be performed any time in the year, Abu hurairah narrates the prophet Muhammed said quote the prophet Muhammed An Umrah to another Umrah will be redemption of sins for whatever (minor) occurs between them. (Bukhari, Muslim). It is also mentioned quote The people who come to perform Umrah are the guests of Allah because they visit His House on His Call; therefore, Allah grants them what they ask for Ibn Majah. http://www.dometours.com/umrah/what-is-umrah/

Brief Synopsis The project will describe how Umrah Pilgimirage relates to Islamic traditions and how people prepare for this holy voyage to mecca and medina the purpose of this project is to create online management system using Omeka so that people who are interested to perform Umrah will get a real feel of how it is. I am going to use Omeka to contain picture gallery of images from people who have performed Umrah and images of whilst they performed the pilgrimage to give people a feel of how it is performed. Also videos of the pilgimirage are going to be conducted and interviews conducted with people who have experiences of Umrah of different age groups to get different perspectives. This will also allow non-Muslims who may have interest in learning about different beliefs and are not allowed to attend this pilgimerage to find out more and allow an insight with the use of the online management system. The online management system will provide history and information about the pilgimerage to allow people help and what to expect to when they make the journey to the Umrah pilgimerage.

Theoretical/Intellectual Issues

The theoretical and intellectual issues are to avoid any copyright and to avoid this problem I will be conducting my own video interviews with people and have permission from the individuals before conducting such as interviews with them also pictures which are going to be obtained are going to be from people who have made a portfolio of images whilst attending the pilgrimage of Umrah these images are going to be obtained from individuals with their consent and same with video recordings they have obtained. Also to avoid any problems in uploading interviews, pictures and videos release forms are going to be used so that the material can be used on the online management system with the consent of all participants. Any further information obtained in the project will be referenced correctly so that no plagiarism procedures are broken.

Chosen Platform
I chose the Omeka online collection management system for my project about Umrah in Islam pilgimerage this would help me build collections and deliver to the web. The program also allows the user to make future changes using the same program if something needs to be changed on the management system in the future. Omeka makes top self-design easy and simple as in previous years Cultural and Heritage professionals either needed a high technical skills or a high amount of funding to publish exhibits. But beacause of Omeka euthuautist, librarians and lectures and students are allowed to demonstrate their exhibits with more ease by making more attractive and making them appeal to the users. Omeka allows creators to have produce following systems involving content management, collection management and archive management systems Omeka can handle huge archives which include metadata and files and can store all types of files including images, videos, audio and PDFs. The platform an attractive layout and a easy customizable visual design, the program is easy to install, allows a very flexible approach to metadata, supports other web standards such as CSS,XHTML and RSS.

Analysis
In this project I developed a online management system using Omeka Online management to allow me to post Videos, audio interviews, and general information related to Umrah pilgrimage in Islam and the experience that people have undertaken in real life, I used the digital online library to create a picture and video collection and used audio interviews techniques to interview of real time experience of individuals who have been to the pilgrimage. The Online management system will allow users of all ages to view picture galleries and interviews and details of the Umrah in Islam by providing clear and concise information on the online management system.

The main purpose of the project is for people who want to go to the Umrah Pilgrimage in Mecca and Madinah in Saudi Arabia to get an insight into what they can expect before they embark on this holy journey. The Online Management system will consist of a picture Gallery of the key places that individuals attend whilst performing the pilgrimage with pictures and a brief description describing each image and what it represents. A audio interview was conducted of a friend who had attended the pilgrimage recently and in the interview he explained how the experience had widened his knowledge on Islam and learnt new aspects of the religion, he explained how different rituals have to performed in the Umrah pilgrimage to complete the pilgrimage which starts in Mecca and concludes in Madinah in the footsteps of the Prophet Muhammed (PBUH) and the journey the prophet undertook known as Hijrah this was in 6th century this migration of the prophet (PBUH) and his followers to Madinah. I will also provide general information of Umrah and the importance of it and the history that represents this information.

Main Aims and Objectives

Make people aware of umrah pilgrimage and what it represents Different rituals that are performed to complete Umrah Carrying out interviews with people who have real life experience of the pilgrimage Encourage people to attend this sacred event Help the Muslim community with th Online Management system and giving a clear overview and representation that they may have not been aware of

Difficulties and Opportunity of an Online Management System

The general challenge of the project is to highlight all issues regarding Umrah in a positive way so that no misleading information is presented within the management system and all the information is correct and the content within the system is supplied by reliable sources as misguidance of information could be offensive to people.

The information will be concise and to the point by talking people who have experienced Umrah and have good knowledge on the subject and reliable internet resources will also be used so information does not lead to any mishaps.

The opportunity of this project and the amount of interest Islam has produced over the years is huge because this will give a insight into one aspect of Islam no matter what religion or beliefs they may have, they will be able to view the beautiful and sacred sites of Mecca and Madinah in Saudi Arabia and the pious nature that Muslims go and perform the Umrah Pilgrimage weather they are young or old as each person wears one colour of a dress called the Haram and represents one entity of people representing islam whilst performing Umrah and this will also educate people about Islam and its traditions. Although I created Audio recording of an individual who had attended the Umrah Pilgrimage, I wanted to have a Video interview with this individual and show him wearing the tradionnal white dress that people have to wear whilst going on Umrah but this person did not want to be Video recorded which I had previously proposed to do and this was on of the setbacks for my project as it would have gave a more better representation of my project.

Theoretical and Intellectual Issues

The internet has become a big beneficiary in advertisement and other forms of communication and has become a big tool for projects such as mine.

The early days of computers this amount of resources were not available and these sorts of projects could not have been undertaken due to the lack of softwares available to the creators of such projects and the messaged could not be conveyed to the general online community leading to people making their own assumption on certain subjects. The Online management system does not breach any Theoretical or Intellectual issues and I have gained the data and material myself from individuals who have experiences of the project I am undertaking and all the text that has been put on the online management system will be correctly referenced.

In this era where the internet has evolved so fast and in futuristic manner there is now greater emphasis being portrayed into Culture and Heritage informatics and digital libraries cause you are able to present a online gallery of artefacts of historic value from around the world.

Umrah in Islam Online Management System for collections, audio interviews and videos is now able to function due to the internet evolution that has come about, and people as before could generalise an issue and come up with their own assumptions about issues around the world are able to research broadly a subject such as Umrah in Islam and come up with a more better outcome than they would have in the early days of the internet.

Recently in the media Islam has been quite widely been portrayed and its gave a bad representation of Islam and the real values about the faith and the backgrounds this project intends to look at the positives in Islam such as the Umrah Pilgrimage in Islam.

Legal and Ethical Issues

These two areas have to be considered to a great extent when you are publishing material online in regards and the images or videos that are presented within the online management system are not stolen from other websites if you want to publish someone elses image or video you have to go through company right clearance before have access to the material by contacting the publisher of that image and video or any other form of content.

My Online Management System on Omeka represents videos of experience of Umrah, pictures, and audio recordings these where all created by a friend who went on Umrah Pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia and created videos and videos for my project which I made aware to him that they will be presented on a Online Management system which he agreed upon and granted me permission to use the resources supplied to me for my project.

All other general information published on the Online Management system was either from forms of books, talking to individuals who have experienced the pilgrimage and some online resources and a lot of the content was obtained by myself by individuals and put together within the management system to avoid any copyright infringements.

Technical Walkthrough
The online Management system I used was Omeka it allowed and this platform was easy to use and templates and themes where simple and it met with what I was trying to achieve from the project cause it allowed me to create picture gallery, videos and audio interview and other general information about Umrah in Islam and it was easy to create pages for the management system using Omeka.

Items Page
The Home page represents images of sacred sites of Mecca and Madinah in Saudi Arabia with a detailed description of what each site represents each image has had metadata put in it so people can view a more in=depth analysis of the images once they click on them.

About Umrah Page

This page shows the important factors that help in the completion of Umrah and this is a brief description representing all the relevant information in regards to it.

Peoples Experience Page

The page represents comments made by various family members and friends who have attended the Umrah pilgrimage and what they thought of the experience these people are of different genders and age groups.

Video Collection Page

This represents images taken of the Umrah experience in real life by a friend and represent key parts of the pilgrimage.

Audio Recordings Page

This page has a voice recording of my friend Amir Sattar who experienced the pilgrimage recently and he speaks about the importance of Umrah , why it is performed, and what experience he gained from the pilgrimage.

All the images, audio recording where obtained from a friend and I had obtained copyright clearance from him and explained to him what the material was going to be used for. I explained in each of the images Metadata of the details of each image and where it had originated from.

Conclusion
The project met my needs and I was generally pleased with the outcome of this project I met my aims and objectives of this project where met and the project also represented the main aim of meeting the Cultural and Heritage aspect of Umrah in Islam by using Omeka as an Online Management system to store all my data and customise the layout I wanted and give a good interpretation of Umrah in Islam.

Omeka Online Management system allowed me to upload videos, represent audio recordings and create audio interviews and create a online picture gallery of the experience and also present text and this will help users understand the importance of Umrah and the factors that represent the importance of it. The online management system is fully functional and available for the public to view for people who may have interest in Umrah in Islam this is attended to make people understand the concept of this project. I will keep all information up to date and will present new images and videos as more friends may attend the pilgrimage and I will also comply this information with theoretical and intellectual issues. The website will also not post any misinformation and any offensive items so it does not offend individuals and will comply with all copyright issues before obtaining any material.

Future Development
I will look to develop a forum where information can be conveyed between a online community of users and them being able to share their experiences and gaining knowledge from one another rather than me updating the information people can have their own views.

I would also like to include more videos and pictures within the Online Management System, also would like to provide links to other key online management systems or websites which represent other aspects of Islam such as Hajj, Ramadan and the Holy Quran so people can look at the wider scope of Islam not just the Umrah Pilgrimage.

References
Dome tours online (2010). What is Umrah? : read more: http://www.dometours.com/umrah/whatis-umrah/

Umrah experience: Online management system http://umrahinislam.omeka.net/items (2013) What is umrah?how to perform umrah? http://www.islamweb.net/emainpage/index.php?page=articles&id=136133 (2013) Accessed 20 April 2013