MAKKAH: Hajj will be conducted soon, and the faithful are already seen flocking to the holy city of Makkah, KSA. Regarding the upcoming event, Saudi officials are optimistic that it will reach its optimum level regarding the number of people participating.
This wave of five million overseas pilgrims has been observed mainly through air transport from all parts of the world into Saudi Arabia. This year, even more pilgrims are expected, and hundreds of thousands of Saudis and residents will arrive for the Hajj, which officially starts on Friday.
This year, Saudi authorities expect the number of Muslims to exceed 1 million, according to the Pew poll spokeswoman. There were 8 million pilgrims in 2023 to become as close as possible to the pre-pandemic indicators. It is known that 4 million Muslims are conducting the pilgrimage.
The Palestinian Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs said it includes 4,200 pilgrims from the occupied Palestinian territories of the West Bank who arrived in Makkah early in the current month. Nonetheless, no Palestinian from the Gaza Strip was able to make the journey to Saudi Arabia to perform the Hajj this year because of the eight-month-long Israel-Hamas conflict.
On Tuesday, many faithful were seen circumventing the Kaabah seven times, known as Tawaf in Makkah’s Grand Mosque, considered holy in the Islamic world. Male pilgrims wore ihrams, two identical seamless whites, implying that they were to be used by all the pilgrims.
Some of the pilgrims wore hats, while others had umbrellas to protect them from the scorching sun; the day was very hot, with temperatures reaching 42 degrees Celsius (107 degrees Fahrenheit).
‘‘I heaved a sigh of relief when I arrived at Al-Masjid Al-Haram and saw the Kaaba,’’ said Rabeia Al-Raghi, a Moroccan woman who performed Hajj with her husband and daughter.
Late at night, the marble base around the Kaaba witnessed large congregational density, with people almost rubbing shoulders with fellow worshipers and often having to weave through barriers erected by security forces for crowd control.
Following the noon prayer on the first day of the Hajj period, the rest of the population will perform the ritual circumambulation. On Friday, pilgrims will go to the Mountain of Arafat to stay until sunset, after which they will proceed to Muzdalifah, a flat stony ground six miles away from Arafat. Both of them will gather pebbles to throw at the pillars depicting Satan in Mina there.
This is one of the five successful fundamentals of Islam and is among the largest annual gatherings globally. Based on Shariah law and Islamic teachings, every adult, male or female, capable of undertaking this noble worship, both physically and financially, should at least perform the hajj in his or her lifetime.
To Muslims, the Hajj means reaffirming one’s faith, asking God for forgiveness, and starting a new phase in one’s life.
