More than two million Muslims began the annual pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia on Sunday in scorching heat, the first with so many faithful in the kingdom since the Covid-19 pandemic.
At the heart of Mecca’s Grand Mosque, worshipers from 160 countries began early the ritual of “tawaf”, or convolutions around the Kaaba, a large cubic structure draped in black cloth embroidered with gold , to which Muslims around the world turn for prayer.
“This year we will witness the largest pilgrimage in history,” a Saudi official said on Sunday, saying he expected a record crowd of more “2.5 million” pilgrims.
“These are the happiest days of my life,” said Said Abdel Azim, a 65-year-old Egyptian pensioner who, like most men, wears the ihram, two layers of white cloth wrapping the body. This trip, for which he says he saved for 20 years, is “a dream come true”, he says.
The hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam, must be performed at least once in the life of a practicing Muslim if he can afford it.
This pilgrimage consists of a series of religious rites performed over several days in Mecca and its surroundings.
In the afternoon, the pilgrims began to converge on the town of Mina, about five kilometers from the Grand Mosque, where they will spend the night, before the main rite at Mount Arafat, where the Prophet Muhammad is said to have delivered his last sermon.
With its huge camp of white tents, Mina prepares to welcome pilgrims. Security forces were deployed around.
In the Muslim world, the reception of the two main Muslim pilgrimages, the hajj and the Umrah (small pilgrimage) in Saudi Arabia confers prestige and influence on the authorities of this ultraconservative kingdom.
“I can’t describe my feelings,” said Yusuf Burhan, a 25-year-old student from Indonesia. “It’s a great blessing. I never imagined doing the hajj this year.”
High temperatures — approaching 45 degrees Celsius — in one of the hottest regions in the world pose a growing challenge. To deal with it, the authorities have set up numerous health centers and deployed 32,000 paramedics.
Patrolling on foot, under white umbrellas to protect themselves from the sun, police doused the pilgrims with water.
Inside the Grand Mosque, thousands of rescuers are ready to intervene.
Many tragedies, including deadly stampedes, have marked the history of the hajj, but no major accident has been recorded since 2015.
The hajj, which costs at least $5,000 per person, is an important source of income for Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, which is trying to diversify its economy.
Before the Covid pandemic, the hajj brought in several billion dollars a year.
But in 2020 and 2021, at the height of the health crisis, only a few thousand people were allowed to make this pilgrimage.
This year, after welcoming 926,000 visitors in 2022, the authorities hope to approach the threshold reached before the pandemic, i.e. 2.5 million pilgrims in 2019.
All hotels in Makkah and surrounding areas are sold out until the first week of July, says Saudi businessman Samir Al-Zafni, owner of many hotels in Makkah and second-holiest city Medina of Islam.
“There is no longer a single empty bed in our chain of 67 hotels,” he told AFP.
The hajj is also an opportunity for the authorities to show social developments in the kingdom in the face of accusations of human rights violations.
Since 2021, women have been allowed to make the pilgrimage without a male guardian.
Originally from Niger, Ramot Ali performs the hajj for the first time.
“I am very happy,” she said Friday as she left the Grand Mosque after evening prayers.
25/06/2023 16:03:01 – Mecca (Saudi Arabia) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
