On Sunday, Muslim pilgrims surrounded the holiest of Islam along paths socially away from the last ritual of hajj, the smallest in fashion history, as the Saudi government sought to save it from a coronavirus outbreak.
Only up to 10,000 Muslims participated in hajj, of the 2.5 million who participated in the annual five-day pilgrimage last year.
Masked pilgrims threw stones at a wall symbolizing Satan in Mina, near the holy city of Mecca, the last day of the hajj, state media reported.
Instead of picking up the pebbles themselves as in past years, they put them back in bags and sterilized them through the hajj authorities, who opposed the new coronavirus.
Pilgrims returned to the Grand Mosque in Mecca later on Sunday to perform a definitive “tawaaf” or to surround the Kaaba, a cubic design to which Muslims around the world pray.
Celebrating the ritual in the shadow of the pandemic required “a double effort” by the Saudi authorities, King Salman said Friday after being discharged from the hospital after surgery on his gallbladder.
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“This year’s hajj was limited to a very limited number of people of various nationalities, making sure the ritual is over despite the difficult circumstances,” said the 84-year-old kingdom leader.
The health government said no cases of coronavirus were reported at hajj holy sites.
Pilgrims, who were to practice social estrangement and subject to normal temperature controls, will enter mandatory quarantine after hajj, the government said.
The ritual, one of the five pillars of Islam and a must for healthy Muslims at least once in their lives, is one of the world’s largest devoted gatherings.
But local media reported that up to another 10,000 people already living in the kingdom took part this year.
The ministry of the hajj had said in the first place that some 1,000 pilgrims would be allowed.
The Hajj usually gives pilgrims a price of thousands of dollars, which they save for years and go through long waiting lists to attend.
But this year, Saudi Arabia is taking care of the expenses of all pilgrims, offering them meals, hotel accommodation and physical care, the faithful said.
(AFP)
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