Hajj 2024 begins and hundreds and thousands of Muslims around the world have started performing the rituals in holy city of Mecca.
A large number of Muslim pilgrims started arriving at the city of Mecca -Saudi Arabia – this month to perform the pious Islamic pilgrimage. Muslim pilgrims visit the city during the Hajj each year along a route taken by the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). This year nearly, 1.5 million pilgrims came to the city to perform this Islamic duty.
Hajj is an annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, the holiest city for Muslims while Kaaba is the House of Allah (God). It is a mandatory religious duty for Muslims that must be carried out at least once in their lifetime. It is mandatory for adult Muslims who are physically and financially capable of undertaking the journey and supporting their family during their absence from home. Hajj is performed at Kaaba It is one of the Five Pillars of Islam namely Shahadah (an acceptance that there is no god but Allah, Salat (prayer), Zakat (almsgiving), and Sawm (fasting during the month of Ramadan). This is also an event when Muslim brotherhood is displayed.
The rites of pilgrimage are performed over five to six days, extending from the 8th to the 12th or 13th of Dhual-Hijjah – the last month of the Islamic calendar. The Islamic calendar is lunar and the Islamic year is about eleven days shorter than the Gregorian year. It is associated with the life of the prophet Muhammad (PBUH) from the 7th century AD but was stated to date back to the time of Prophet Ibrahim (AS).
During Hajj, pilgrims join processions of millions of Muslims gathered from around the world who simultaneously travel to Mecca during the time that starts for this grand worship. On this occasion, each person wears a single piece of unstitched white clothing (Ihram), walks counter-clockwise seven times around the Kaaba, kisses the black stone mounted on the corner wall of the Kaaba called “Hajre Aswad” and walks briskly back and forth between the hills of Safa and Marwah seven times, then 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.
After the sacrifice of cattle, the pilgrims are required to either shave or trim their heads in case of males and trim the ends of hair in case of female pilgrims. It is the largest religious congregation and ends after sacrificing animals on the three Muslim festivals called Eid al-Adha. Muslims may also undertake an Umrah (a lesser pilgrimage that can be performed at any time) but it is not a substitute for the Hajj. According to the official statistics of 2000 and 2019, the average number of attendees was 2,269,145 per year, of which 1,564,710 come from outside Saudi Arabia and 671,983 from within this country. The year 2012 marks the highest number of participants with 3,161,573. In June 2020, not canceling the Hajj outright, the Saudi Government announced that they would only welcome very limited numbers of pilgrims. These pilgrims are from within Saudi Arabia and it happened due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.
The date of Hajj is determined by the Islamic calendar (known as the Hijri calendar or AH), which is based on the lunar year. The Islamic calendar is lunar and is about eleven days shorter than the Gregorian year. This year, Hajj started today (Friday) 14th of June, and will end on the 19th of this month.
The pilgrims from around the world including Pakistan will get back home after this worship ends. This year, around 179,210 Pakistanis are performing Hajj under both the government and private schemes, for which a month-long flight operation was scheduled that was on May 9. Nearly 11 flights transported pilgrims from five major cities of Pakistan to Saudi Arabia.
(By Rana Kashif)