Haj pilgrims stream out of Makkah and into Mina valley
Haj pilgrims streamed out of the holy city of Makkah and into the Mina valley yesterday, launching the rituals of the great pilgrimage, which Saudi Arabia is holding in a scaleddown form for a second year.
Only 60,000 fully vaccinated citizens and residents of the kingdom are allowed to take part, far from the vast crowds that descend on Makkah in normal times when the ritual draws some 2.5 million pilgrims.
Since Saturday, groups of pilgrims have been performing the t awa f at Makkah’s Grand Mosque, circling the Kaaba, a large cubic structure draped in golden-embroidered black cloth towards which Muslims around the world pray.
After that, they have been making their way to Mina, where they will spend the night. Mina sits in a narrow valley surrounded by rocky mountains, some 5km from the Grand Mosque, and is transformed each year into a vast encampment for pilgrims.
Pilgrims were brought there yesterday on buses which were only half-filled to respect social distancing rules, and authorities provided 3,000 electric cars to transport the elderly and those with limited mobility.
“We have applied social distancing inside the camps where there are four pilgrims in each room. We have put barriers between each bed to apply social distancing,” tour operator Hadi Fouad said.
“For the common areas at the camp, like the prayer area and the cafeteria, we have assigned a security company whose guards are spread throughout the camp to make sure there is no crowding.”
In the high point of the hajj, worshippers will on Monday climb Mount Arafat.
Also known as the Mount of Mercy, it is the site where it is believed that the Prophet Mohammed delivered his final sermon. Worshippers will undertake hours of prayers and Quranic recitals there.
After descending the following day, they will gather pebbles and perform the symbolic stoning of the devil.
This year’s pilgrimage is larger than the pared-down version staged last year but is drastically smaller than in normal times, creating resentment among Muslims abroad who are barred once again.
Participants were chosen from more than 558,000 applicants through an online vetting system, with the event confined to fully vaccinated adults aged 18 to 65 with no chronic illnesses.
“I thank God that we received approval to come, even though we did not expect it because of the small number of pilgrims,” said Abdulaziz bin Mahmoud, an 18-year-old Saudi.
Saddaf Ghafour, a 40-year-old Pakistani woman travelling with her friend, was among the women making the pilgrimage without a male “guardian”, which was a requirement until recently.
“It is a privilege to perform haj among a very limited number of pilgrims,” she said.
Saudi Arabia has recorded more than 507,000 coronavirus infections, including over 8,000 deaths. Some 20 million vaccine doses have been administered in the country of over 34 million people.