Hajj summary

Each year about 2 million Muslims from all over the world go to Mecca in Saudi Arabia to make the pilgrimage Known as the Hajj. This is one of the 5 pillars of Islam. The mosque in Mecca is uniquely special to Muslims. At the center is the Ka’aba. All Muslims face in the direction of the Ka’aba when they pray. They believe that the Ka’aba constructed of stone blocks, was originally built by Abraham and his son Ishmail. The pilgrims retrace the footsteps of Muhammad, Islam’s 7^th century prophet, in the biggest annual mass movement of people on the planet. Pilgrims stay in hotels or vast tent cities. Crowd control has been a problem (in 1990 more than 1,400 pilgrims were killed). Before entering Mecca, pilgrims stop to perform cleansing rituals: men shave their heads, trim their beards, cut their nails and put on a two-piece, seamless white robe. Women also wear white long robes but uncover their faces. This simple dress is designed to strip away the differences of class and culture and stress the equality of all people before God. Pilgrims perform their first Tawaf: an anticlockwise procession, seven times around the Ka’aba. They also perform sa’i; the ritual of going seven times between the hills of Safa and Marwah. On the first official day of the hajj, pilgrims travel some three miles to Mina, where they stay the night. The next morning they travel to the plain of Arafat. That evening they travel to Muzdalifah. Then back at Mina, Pilgrims throw seven pebbles at each of the three statues of the Jamraat. These stone pillars mark places where Muslims believe Satan tempted Abraham. After returning to Mecca, the pilgrims perform Tawaf around the Ka’aba and journey again between the hills of Safa and Marwah. Then they return to Mina for three days of prayers. The final ritual of the hajj is a farewell Tawaf around the Ka’aba.