A record number of Muslims officially began the annual Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia on Monday and those are the must-haves needed for the trek.
Straw hats, shoulder bags and folding chairs are just some of the essentials that other people bring to the Hajj pilgrimage, which will be successful this year for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic 3 years ago.
About two million more people will take part in the five-day holiday that brings Muslims closer to God and the Muslim world as a whole.
Pilgrims will walk outdoors for hours around the holy sites of Mecca and the surrounding desert. People will leave Mecca after surrounding Islam’s holiest site, the Kaaba, and then gather in a sprawling tent camp in the nearby desert for a day and night. of prayer
Egypt’s Umaima Hafez has performed the pilgrimage five times and tells The Associated Press how to pack like a pro. Sitting on her portable plastic stool, she reaches into her giant bag and pulls out a blanket, granola and homemade cookies, a towel that she dips and puts on her head in hot weather, an extra-thick prayer mat — for her knees — and some medicine.
“Everything is nice and simple with God. – And other people give a lot of water and food here,” he said, everything is less difficult with God the way.
Hassan Hussain, a 24-year-old British pilgrim for the first time, has also packed many essentials and his bag is filled with his phone, charging cable, power bank, sunglasses, water bottle, British and Saudi currency, bank cards, shoes bag, prayer mat and a moisturizing facial spray. He said his sister, who had done Hajj last year, told him what to bring. His recommendation to other pilgrims is to overpack. said. ” The user next to you may want things. Take everything and set it up on the fly. “
Ali Ibn Mousa, a 30-year-old Russian father of seven, opts for the lighter packaging method, with only a small drawstring bag carrying his phone and pilgrim ID card.
He said: “If I had a heavy bag, I wouldn’t be able to do some of the things I want. That’s why I carry a small bag that’s easy to carry so I can run inside. “
Pilgrims begin by entering a state of non-secular purity called “ihram. “
Men wear plush white garments and women remove their makeup and cover their hair with canopy. Pilgrims make seven laps of the cube-shaped black Kaaba and walk between two hills, all surrounded by the Grand Mosque of Mecca, the largest in the world.
Hajj rituals largely commemorate the Quran accounts of Ibrahim, his son Ismail, and Ismail Hajar’s mother. The trek among the hills, for example, recreates Hajar’s search for water in the desert for Ismail.
In Islamic tradition, God commanded Ibrahim to sacrifice his son, Ismail, only to have his hand stopped at the last moment. the world.
In Christian and Jewish traditions, which refer to him as Abraham, the biblical patriarch is commanded to sacrifice his son, Isaac.
Gigantic streams of pilgrims come and pass between the holy sites along more than 10 miles long from the Grand Mosque to Mount Arafat, in the middle of the desert.
Even within the same ritual site, it can take much of the day to walk from one end to the other, such as Mina, where pilgrims will stay in one of the world’s largest tent camps and stone pillars representing the devil.
Pilgrims have been making the ritual excursion around the Kaaba since they arrived in Mecca in days.
Like the latter executed on Monday, the pilgrims traveled on foot or by bus to Mina, where they will camp out in one of the world’s tented cities.
They will pray all day and before heading to Mount Arafat on Tuesday, where the Prophet Muhammad is said to have delivered his last sermon.
Pilgrims will then collect pebbles at a place known as Muzdalifa to use in the symbolic stoning of the pillars representing Satan in Mina. The last 3 days of the Hajj coincide with the holiday of Eid al-Adha, when Muslims around the world slaughter farm animals and distribute meat to the poor.
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