[Quranic Reflection]: the Hajj.

[WinterHold]

As a non-Muslim you don't have to do it; I thought that was obvious !

The phrasing, with the "you," just seemed a little strange.

I can appreciate that the Hajj is a major event for Muslims.  I do question the wisdom of holding it during summer months, even if it's traditionally held on certain dates on the Islamic calendar.  The sheer numbers of people converging on one place all at once is worrisome, too.  For the safety of the pilgrims, holding it several times a year for smaller groups would be a good idea, even if it went against tradition.

In the past diseases did spread between the pilgrims, take the famous Cholera outbreak of 1821:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incidents_during_the_Hajj

During the 1821 Hajj, about 20,000 Meccan pilgrims died due to a cholera epidemic. The disease had started in India in 1817.[31]
Another cholera epidemic began in 1863. It started in the Ganges Delta of the Bengal region and traveled with Muslim pilgrims to Mecca during the 1865 hajj. In its first year, the epidemic claimed the life of 15,000 to 90,000 pilgrims. Cholera spread throughout the Middle East and was carried to Russia, Europe, Africa and North America. It resulted in the death of almost 600,000 people.[32][31]
In 1905 the El Tor strain of cholera was discovered in six pilgrims returning from Hajj at the El-Tor quarantine camp in Egypt.

Notice that diseases as bad as Cholera didn't stop the pilgrimage; so why would the heat do so ?