Jakarta – Every year more than 100 Indonesians die while performing the annual haj pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. Most of the dead are elderly or ill.

They often go on the pilgrimage without taking into account their old age or poor health. And despite the risks, they are likely to keep going.

For many Indonesian Muslims, to die in Mecca while on a pilgrimage is to become a syahid – the Arabic word for "martyr". "It would be much better if I was destined by God to die there (Mecca)," Kustomo, a 70-year-old food vendor at a traditional market in Central Jakarta, said.

However, for Kustomo, this possibility will likely remain a dream; his family cannot afford the money it would take to send him there. But if they could, and he died: "My family would understand and accept my passing," he said.

A former religious affairs minister and a respected Muslim scholar, Quraish Shihab, said he believed many Indonesian Muslims went specifically to Mecca to die, in the same place where the Prophet Muhammad spent his last days.

Quraish said that many people believed that dying in Mecca was better than passing on in their homeland, although "Islam forbids people from having any sort of wish to die".

The latest data from the Religious Affairs Ministry showed at least 168 pilgrims died during this year's pilgrimage – mostly due to old age, chronic heart conditions or asthma. One-hundred-and-seven of the dead were older than 60. This year's toll rose from the 135 deaths from natural causes the previous year.

However, Quraish said there was no guarantee that dying in Mecca made a pilgrim into a martyr. Martyrdom in Islam was recognized when someone died when performing a noble or difficult act in the name of God, he said. A woman who died in the process of giving birth to her baby was an excellent candidate for martyrdom, Quraish said.

"People need to be guided – they need to have this explained to them." Well-off pilgrims should not seek martyrdom through pilgrimages, he said. It would be better if they set noble examples for people after they returned home.

Achmad Fuad Fanani, a young intellectual from Muhammadiyah, the country's second-largest Muslim organization, agreed. "A pilgrim should share his or her experiences of their pilgrimages and become a role model for others," Fuad said.

Quraish and Fuad called on the government to increase its efforts to reduce the deaths of Indonesian pilgrims in Mecca by tightening regulations for those wanting to go on the pilgrimage. Old and ailing people should be tested and prevented from going to Mecca if they were judged unfit, they said.

The Religious Affairs Ministry's director-general of pilgrimage guidance, Mochtar Ilyas, said the ministry usually stopped pilgrims with contagious diseases from leaving for Mecca, while those with serious conditions were carefully monitored.

However, there were no legal age limits for Muslims to perform the haj, Mochtar said. Tradition meant that only pilgrims under 17 years and unmarried couple were denied the privilege.

About 205,000 Indonesian pilgrims went this year to Mecca, joining about two million others from around the globe. Most pilgrims began returning home on Monday, with the last batches expected on Feb. 12.