In practice, however, it is only in recent times that making a pilgrimage to Mecca has come to play such an important role in Islam. The city has always had symbolic significance, but its importance to millions of Muslims worldwide is largely a modern phenomenon, one that has grown in recent decades as Saudi officials and fundamentalist Wahhabi clerics promoted religious tourism as a means of spreading their influence.
但实际上，只有到了近代麦加朝圣才在伊斯兰教中占据了如此重要的位置。这座城市向来不乏象征意义，但它在成百上千万穆斯林心目中的重要意义很大程度上是一种现代现象，这种现象近几十年才开始抬头，起因是沙特官员和原教旨主义瓦哈比教派的教士为扩大影响力推动宗教旅游。