Dubai: white-robed worshippers from worldwide have packed the streets of Islam’s holiest metropolis forward of the most important hajj pilgrimage because the coronavirus pandemic started.
Banners welcoming the devoted, together with the primary worldwide guests since 2019, adorned squares and alleys, whereas armed safety forces patrolled the traditional metropolis, birthplace of the Prophet Mohammed.
“This is pure pleasure,” Sudanese pilgrim Abdel Qader Kheder informed AFP in Mecca, earlier than the occasion which formally begins Wednesday. “I virtually can’t imagine I’m right here. I’m having fun with each second.”
One million folks, together with 850,000 from overseas, are allowed at this yr’s hajj after two years of drastically curtailed numbers because of the pandemic. The pilgrimage is certainly one of the 5 pillars of Islam, which all able-bodied Muslims with the means are required to carry out not less than as soon as.
At least 650,000 abroad pilgrims have arrived up to now in Saudi Arabia, the authorities stated on Sunday.
But authorities on Monday barred almost 100,000 folks from coming into Mecca, imposing a safety cordon across the holy metropolis. A safety official stated that 288 folks had been arrested and fined for trying to carry out the hajj without permits.
In 2019, about 2.5 million folks took half within the rituals, which additionally embody gathering at Mount Arafat and “stoning the satan” in Mina.
The following yr, when the pandemic took maintain, foreigners had been barred and worshippers had been restricted to only 10,000 to cease the hajj from turning into a world super-spreader.
Pilgrims this yr — solely these youthful than 65 are allowed — will take part below strict sanitary circumstances.
The hajj has seen quite a few disasters over time, together with a 2015 stampede that killed as many as 2,300 folks and a 1979 assault by a whole bunch of gunmen that, in accordance with the official toll, left 153 lifeless.
On Monday afternoon, pilgrims carrying umbrellas to defend themselves from the scorching solar flocked to memento and barber retailers in Mecca, whereas others shared meals below palm timber on streets near the Grand Mosque.
Many new arrivals had already begun performing the primary ritual, which requires strolling seven instances across the Kaaba, the big black cubic construction in the center of the Grand Mosque.
Made from granite and draped in a material that includes verses from the Koran, the Kaaba stands almost 15 meters (50 ft) tall. It is the construction all Muslims flip in direction of to wish, regardless of the place they’re on this planet.
“When I first noticed the Kaaba I felt one thing bizarre and began crying,” Egyptian pilgrim Mohammed Lotfi informed AFP.
The pilgrimage is a strong supply of status for the conservative desert kingdom and its de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who’s getting back from the diplomatic wilderness.
Days after the hajj, Prince Mohammed will welcome US President Joe Biden who, with oil costs hovering following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, has reneged on a vow to show Saudi Arabia right into a “pariah” over the 2018 homicide of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi brokers.
The hajj, which prices not less than $5,000 per particular person, is a money-spinner for the world’s greatest oil exporter attempting to diversify its financial system. In regular years the pilgrimage brings in billions of {dollars}.
It can be an opportunity to showcase the dominion’s fast social transformation, regardless of persistent complaints about human rights abuses and limits on private freedoms.
Saudi Arabia now permits ladies to attend the hajj unaccompanied by male families, a requirement that was dropped final yr.
Masks are not obligatory in most enclosed areas in Saudi Arabia however they are going to be obligatory in the Grand Mosque, the holiest website in Islam. Pilgrims from overseas must submit an unfavorable PCR check consequence.
The Grand Mosque shall be “washed 10 instances a day… by greater than 4,000 female and male employees”, with greater than 130,000 liters (34,000 gallons) of disinfectant used every time, authorities stated.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, Saudi Arabia has registered greater than 795,000 coronavirus circumstances, 9,000 of them deadly, in inhabitants of about 34 million.
Aside from Covid, one other problem is the scorching solar in one of many world’s hottest and driest areas, the place temperatures have already topped 50 levels Celsius (122 Fahrenheit) in elements of Saudi Arabia.
But Iraqi pilgrim Ahmed Abdul-Hassan al-Fatlawi stated the warmth is the very last thing he thinks of when in Mecca.
“I’m 60 years previous, so it’s regular if I get bodily drained due to the new climate, however, I’m in a state of serenity, and that’s all that issues to me,” he informed AFP.
