What is Hajj Builder?

Every year millions of people around the world go on Hajj and millions of us stay at home asking the question, when will I ever be able to afford to go on Hajj? Hajj Builder is a new online platform built to break down the many barriers to Hajj & Umrah that are in place today. 

These are some of the questions people ask themselves about Hajj: 

• How do I prepare my heart for this journey of a lifetime? 
• How do I deal with debt and make sure that my Hajj is valid?
  
• How do I start saving and investing today to make this journey possible? 
• Who should I go with on Hajj, what groups are recommended? 
• How do I get a visa and figure out all my travel arrangements? 

A set of best practices answering many of these questions have been developed in isolation by various Hajj agencies around the world: how to mobilize savings, negotiate bulk discounts, and prepare pilgrims for the journey ahead.

We want to apply these solutions to a first-of-its-kind digital platform in order to empower individual pilgrims and Hajj groups around the world to build their own Hajj.

Hajj is one of the foundational pillars of Islam, but the journey seems today exclusive and unobtainable to the average person. We want to make the Hajj simpler, more transparent and more affordable.

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Help us build Hajj Builder

We are raising a modest amount of money for the next stages of our research and product development, but the real reason we want you to know about Hajj Builder now is so that you can build it with us.

Make a contribution

Your contribution will go towards validating our initial hypotheses, engaging pilgrims, and donors, and prototyping the Hajj Builder web site.

Take our survey

Help us learn more about the difficulties people face every year when trying to
make Hajj. Have you been on Hajj? Do you want to go on Hajj? Take our short survey to help us shape Hajj Builder.

Join us

If you have a relevant background or shared interest in Hajj building, let's chat.

Our Team

Dustin Craun and Abdur Rahman Syed are the cofounders of Hajj Builder.  We bring our expertise in the Hajj industry, Islamic investment and digital media production to this project as well as our connections to Muslim communities and companies around the world.

Dustin Craun

Dustin is a digital strategist, social innovator, and community organizer. He is the founder of Beyond Borders Studios, a digital media production house specializing in global youth cultures. He has worked with clients around the world while also working to help build Ummah Wide, MPower Change and now Hajj Builder.

As he writes in his first blog post for Hajj Builder ("The Story of Hajj Builder"), the roots of this company come from a very personal place:

"When I look at the Hajj prices, $10,000 dollars minimum prices for Americans, add to that my student loan debt, and financial difficulties that we all face... I ask myself how am I going to go on Hajj? There are so many barriers in place today that make Hajj difficult for many of us, especially those of us from lower income families (meaning the majority of Muslims in the world). 

"And yet as a convert to Islam, I know the transformational power of the sacred precincts, as I have been blessed to go on Umrah (the lesser pilgrimage) and visit Medina twice in my life. The blessings of these places are immeasurable, the realities of the healing power and what All Mighty God opens to you in those moments there is mostly indescribable...." Read more on Hajj Builder.

Abdur-Rahman Syed

Abdur-Rahman is a business advisor and brand strategist for Islamic institutions. His advisory firm Algebra works with senior decision makers in Islamic finance and investment, Hajj and umrah, and other sectors of the Islamic economy in order to engage Shari'a-sensitive stakeholders effectively.

In his first blog post for Hajj Builder ("The Hajj Industry is Ripe for Disruption"), he writes about his experience working in Makkah:

"I have seen this not only as a pilgrim myself, but also from direct experience in Hajj and Umrah services. I spent a year on the ground in Jeddah and Makkah with Jabal Omar, one of the largest real estate developments to host Hajj and Umrah pilgrims from around the world....

"I’ve seen from up close how organized and how chaotic the Hajj can be. The logistics, maintenance and security are managed like a machine. But it's also an overwhelming personal experience—spiritually, physically and financially—in which pilgrims get whirled around, drained and wrung dry.

"But it doesn't have to be." Read more on Hajj Builder. 

Do you think you have what it takes to help us launch this company? Reach out to us today! 

For more information on Hajj Builder please visit our site at HajjBuilder.com