Development of Mobile Applications for Monitoring and Managing Hajj and Umrah Pilgrimage

Abstract

Performing Hajj or Umrah is an Islamic pilgrimage ritual and the fifth essential pillar of Islam. Preparation to perform Hajj or Umrah is very vital before and in the middle of traveling to Mecca including learning all the rituals, obligatory, and rules [1]. The existing mobile applications in the market that are related to Hajj or Umrah are less interactive, too simple, have limitations and do not offer smart features to assist the user, and do not meet the target users’ demand. Hence, the proposed project, Umrah and Hajj application are used to provide pilgrims and “mutawwif” with guidance and information about the Hajj or Umrah pilgrimage. The “mutawwif” can utilize the features to manage his group while pilgrims can learn and see all the mandatory and obligatory rituals to be performed at various locations. The other features are the global positioning system (GPS) tracking system and the Lilypad Tawaf counter that can help the pilgrims to track the number of completed rounds when the Tawaf is complete. The development of this mobile application used the Android Studio software and JAVA programming language and is exclusively for the Android platform only. Moreover, the Android platform for the mobile application is cost-effective and the open-source idea is very popular nowadays for all generations [2]. This application also can help the pilgrims of Android device users to learn, understand, and perform the Hajj and Umrah ritual perfectly. The methodology used in this application is the ADDIE method that contains 5 phases, namely analysis, design, development, implementation, and testing.