MAKKAH: More than two million Muslims from around the world on Sunday started performing Hajj at Makkah in Saudi Arabia on Sunday.
The five-day Hajj pilgrimage is an annual Islamic pilgrimage to Makkah, the holiest city for Muslims, and a mandatory religious duty for Muslims that must be carried out at least once in their lifetime by all adult Muslims who are physically and financially capable of undertaking the journey, and can support their family during their absence.
Today, pilgrims gathered in Mina valley outside Makkah as part of Hajj to perform Hajj rites in the valley, mount Arafat and in Makkah. Most of the pilgrims began moving from Makkah to Mina valley where they will spend the night in fire-resistant tents. Many pilgrims made the journey walking. On Monday, pilgrims will climb nearby Mount Arafat. After sunset, pilgrims will head to Muzdalifah, half-way between Arafat and Mina, where they will stay at least until midnight. They will then gather pebbles to perform the symbolic stoning of the devil on the eve of the Eidul Azha, which marks the end of Hajj.
The Hajj pilgrimage occurs from the 8th to 12th of Zul Hajj, the last month of the Islamic calendar. Because the Islamic calendar is lunar and the Islamic year is about eleven days shorter than the Gregorian year, the Gregorian date of Hajj changes from year to year. Ihram is the name given to the special spiritual state in which pilgrims wear two white sheets of seamless cloth and abstain from certain actions.
The Hajj is associated with the life of Islamic prophet Mohammad from the 7th century, but the ritual of pilgrimage to Makkah is considered by Muslims to stretch back thousands of years to the time of Abraham. During Hajj, pilgrims join processions of hundreds of thousands of people, who simultaneously converge on Makkah for the week of the Hajj, and perform a series of rituals: each person walks counter-clockwise seven times around the Kaaba, runs back and forth between the hills of Safa and Marwah, drinks from the Zamzam Well, goes to the plains of Mount Arafat to stand in vigil, spends a night in the plain of Muzdalifa, and performs symbolic stoning of the devil by throwing stones at three pillars. The pilgrims then shave their heads, perform a ritual of animal sacrifice, and celebrate the three-day global festival of Eid al-Adha. Pilgrims can also go to Makkah to perform the rituals at other times of the year.