Jamaraat – symbolic sense of relief
Fakir Hassen, who was in Mecca in Saudi Arabia as part of a media contingent invited by the country’s Ministry of Media, this week looks behind the scenes, reflecting on one of the biggest rituals of the Hajj, the symbolic pelting of the devil
OFFICIAL statistics from the Saudi Arabian authorities say there were more than 2.4 million pilgrims for this year’s Hajj, which ended on Thursday.
One of the most important rituals of the five-day Hajj process is the symbolic pelting, with pebbles, of pillars representing Shaitaan (the devil in Arabic), to represent the spiritual rebirth of the Haji as a re-commitment to his faith in Allah; as well as a distinct disassociation with the evil deeds that the devil might plant in their minds.
There are three pillars, called the Jamaraat – small, medium and large – and over three days, every pilgrim has to throw seven pebbles at them.
The act itself seems simple, but imagine the 2.4 million pilgrims all trying to do so on the first day, with the objective of hitting the single pillar representing the biggest incarnation of Satan.
The result is tens of thousands of pilgrims arriving at the Jamaraat site in continuous streams – many having walked a few kilometres from their camps, others in buses which drop them a distance from the site, and yet other groups on special train coaches, which started operating a few years ago.
In the past, this was considered the most dangerous part of the Hajj rituals, including stampedes by enthusiastic pilgrims that even left people dead.
This prompted the authorities to rethink the Jamaraat process, resulting in a massive reconstruction of the site. Instead of a single narrow pillar, each of them is now a long wall extending four floors above the ground, with long one-direction only walkways that allow easy access and exit for each floor at different levels.
The waves of pilgrims though still fill each floor from morning through to the night, even in the midday temperature of about 45ºC in the heart of the Saudi Arabian summer.
The sea of humanity shows patches of red, green, blue and other colours as the groups from some countries organise themselves in that way by wearing a specific colour of clothes.
Even the men by this stage have gone back to normal clothes after having discarded the two pieces of white cloth only that was mandatory until that stage.
Along the way, policemen, soldiers, volunteers and even some younger pilgrims spray others with water to cool their heads and faces. Some of them find it great fun to even chase down a few pilgrims who try to avoid them. Programmes to educate the pilgrims have also had some results, as there are hardly any serious injuries reported, as in the past, when pilgrims from the back could easily hit and injure those in front. Also, largely gone are the days when pilgrims threw sandals, sticks and other objects at the pillars in their passionate attempts to reject Satan.
Watching the faces of the pilgrims as I myself went through the process last week, you could see a complete change in them from start to finish.
As they trudged towards the pillars, there was constant chanting of prayers and seriousness, even consternation, on most of them. But there was almost a sense of relief and release after the last pebble had been thrown, like a burden removed from one’s shoulders.
The symbolic process of the Jamaraat, as prescribed as the penultimate ritual of the Hajj, was clearly intended by Allah to achieve exactly that.