Why don’t they kill insects in Masjid al-Haram?

Yesterday, I noticed something amazing while performing Umrah with my mother-in-law in Masjid al-Haram. During my first round of tawaf, I saw one of the cleaning staff in Mataf playing with his cleaning brush.

I noticed a Haram cleaner doing some abnormal acts

I noticed his abnormal acts from far behind, and when I reached near to him, I saw that he was playing with an insect. I cannot specify the species ideally, but it was some insect the size of a cockroach.

What was he doing?

I slowed down my mother-in-law’s wheelchair to observe what he was trying to do with the little insect. He was not touching it with his brush but only directing it by blocking its way to an isolated place within the Mataaf on the second floor.

It was quite amazing for me, as I could not understand the reason he was doing this. I mean, he could kill it very easily and drain its body into the gutters, but he didn’t. As he was still busy with the little creature, I decided not to disturb him and moved forward.

The second round of Tawaf

I was in a dilemma: Should I ask him the reason for doing it or just close the topic in my mind? While making the second round of Tawaf on the second floor, I found the same guy again on my way. This time, he was standing still, cleaning the floor just like any other cleaner in the Haram.

Out of curiosity to know the reason, I parked my mother-in-law’s wheelchair and approached him with the question. He looked at me suspiciously for a portion of a second, then smiled.

Why don’t you kill insects at Masjid al-Haram?

We usually see two kinds of insects at Masjid al-Haram. The insects that are harmful to human beings, like snakes, scorpions, and centipedes, don’t give them a moment to escape. We are instructed to kill them immediately, as they may harm the pilgrims in the Haram.

3 reasons we don’t kill insects

There is another category of insects that are not directly harmful to human beings. We don’t kill them due to the following reasons.

1. As we know, killing insects is a Haram for people wearing Ihram. Although we are not in the state of Ihram, we don’t kill them to respect the place we work in.
2. As we have stated earlier, there are some lesser-known facts about Jinns. It has been quoted from a Hadith of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ that some snakes are Jinns. If they can come into the shape of a Jinn, why not any other insect? We don’t want to kill an insect that is not an insect.
3. Masjid al-Haram, or the Holy Kaaba, is the House of Allah, but it is not designated for human beings only. You never know why this insect comes to the House of Allah. Allah has created them, and there is a risk that we might end up killing something that was a guest of Allah!

My reaction

I was really impressed by his answer and how sensitive he has been while performing his duties. He is just a cleaner in the Masjid al-Haram but has greater values than many so-called educated people in the outside world.