Subscribe to our newsletter to hear about our work, how you are helping and ways you can support us in the future. Hajj is the annual pilgrimage to Mecca that all able Muslims are expected to complete at least once in their lives.
Around two million Muslims every year complete the pilgrimage, which is a five-day event taking place in the last month of the Islamic lunar calendar. Hajj is one of the Five Pillars of Islam and is a sacred event in Islam. Whilst in the state of Ihram, a sacred state that Muslims must enter to perform the pilgrimage, it is forbidden to engage in sexual activity, argue, engage in violence and cut hair and nails. The Hajj pilgrimage is an obligation that should be completed at least once in all able Muslims lives.
It is also believed that the journey allows Muslims to wipe away any sins and wipe the slate clean in front of Allah SWT. As per the significance of Hajj, it is also common for Muslims to seek ways to deepen their devotion to Allah SWT and one such way is through women wearing a hijab head covering.
Hajj takes place during Dhul Hijjah, the 12th and final month, and begins two days before Eid ul-Adha and through the three-day festival of the sacrifice. That means that Hajj lasts for five days in total. On the first day of Hajj, a smaller pilgrimage umrah takes place in Mecca.
This is when Muslims retrace the steps of Hagar between two hills — this is after circling the Kaaba, the building housed in the centre of the Masjid al-Haram which is the most important mosque in Islam.
The day is ended by spending the night in the valley of Mina. The second day of Hajj sees pilgrims head towards Mount Arafat where they will spend the afternoon. Later in the day, as the sun sets, Muslims will head 5.
Over the course of the final three days of Hajj, coinciding with Eid ul-Adha, Muslims circle the Kaaba one final time, cast stones picked up along the walk to Muzdalifa in Mina, and remove the Ihram a sacred state Muslims enter to perform the pilgrimage.
The committee seeks to coordinate the activities of various government ministries and agencies and prevent redundancy. Each of these organizations assumes responsibility for projects in its sphere of expertise. For example, the Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Endowments, Call and Guidance issues special booklets on the rites of the Hajj in many languages for distribution among the pilgrims.
The Ministry of Health oversees medical services while the Ministry of Information hosts journalists and members of the media from other countries to cover the pilgrimage, while at the same time arranging for live transmissions of the rituals by satellite throughout the world. Planning for each year's pilgrimage generally starts at the conclusion of the previous one and involves evaluating various programs and, if necessary, introducing steps to improve any service that is deemed below par.
Once plans for the next Hajj are approved, they are sent to the appropriate government agency, which immediately sets out to implement them. The progress of these plans is reviewed by the committee throughout the year and, once in place, the project is inspected several weeks before the pilgrimage starts.
Performing the Hajj is the spiritual apex of a Muslim's life, one that provides a clear understanding of his relationship with God and his place on Earth. It imparts in a Muslim not only the assurance that he has performed the fifth pillar of Islam by following in the footsteps of the Prophet, but also the realization that he is part of an ummah nation that is more than one billion strong and spreads across the globe.
This feeling is brought home upon the pilgrim's arrival in the Kingdom. Most pilgrims arrive by air, and as their planes taxi toward the impressive Hajj Terminal in Jeddah, they pass jetliners with familiar names, but also ones that bear exotic markings such as "Southern China Airlines" and "Daghestan Airlines" and others from every part of the world.
While waiting to be processed through the arrival hall, the pilgrim begins to shed his identity as he stands amidst a sea of people in Ihram, the two seamless pieces of white cotton that men wear and the simple, generally white, attire that women wear.
Here no one can tell a person's social or economic status, or his national origin based on the clothes he wears. Suddenly the pilgrim is simply, and above all else, a Muslim, and the realization slowly sets in that he is now focusing more than ever on other people's faces rather than their clothes.
These faces represent almost every race or nationality on Earth. Contact with people from such diverse races and nationalities over the days and weeks spent in the Kingdom engenders in the pilgrims a sense of understanding of and trust in total strangers simply because they are performing the Hajj together. Before heading toward Makkah, the pilgrims are already dressed in Ihram or may change at Miqat, where special facilities are set up for this purpose. By donning the Ihram, the pilgrim enters a state of spirituality and purity.
On the way from Jeddah to Makkah along the modern superhighway, pilgrims board one of the fleet of 15, buses assigned to the Hajj. This vast concourse of vehicles approaches Mina, some four miles to the northwest of Makkah, where most of the pilgrims are housed in the thousands of air-conditioned tents that stretch to the limits of Mina Valley. Walking through this vast city that has been established for use for only a few days a year, the pilgrim is struck by the orderliness of the place.
Food is prepared in hundreds of kitchens spread throughout Mina and distributed among the tents. Thousands of drinking fountains and wash areas are located throughout the tent city. There are hundreds of medical clinics that supplement the hospitals in Makkah and Arafat.
Security personnel and traffic police guide and help pilgrims. Despite the clear signs and numbered rows, some pilgrims, particularly the elderly, tend to get lost and need assistance finding their tents or groups. Banks of telephones are located in all the pilgrimage sites, allowing pilgrims to make direct international calls. After sunrise on the ninth of the Islamic month of Dhu Al-Hajjah, this vast crowd of nearly two million begins to walk some eight miles to the Plain of Arafat, passing Muzdalifah on the way.
Many perform the noon and afternoon prayers at the Nimerah Mosque, a tradition set by the Prophet. Approaching Arafat by midmorning, the pilgrim is amazed to find the vast plain covered by what appears to be a thick fog, even though the temperature hovers around 90 degrees Fahrenheit.
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