Hyderabad: The rituals of the annual Hajj pilgrimage will kick off from today in Saudi Arabia with July 19 being the most important day as the pilgrims will make their way to a nearby hillside and plain known as Mount Arafah and the plain of Arafah.
Going into the details, preparations for Hajj have been completed and pilgrims have reached Mecca. Special arrangements have been made for the sanitisation of Mecca and Medina and the Hajj sermon will be delivered at Namrah Mosque. The prayer permit in Masjid-al-Haram (the Great Mosque of Mecca) has been closed and only those with Hajj permits will be allowed to enter the Masjid and will have to travel by special buses. This year, Sheikh Abdullah Al-Mani will deliver the Hajj sermon in ten languages, including Urdu, from Arafat Square.
Earlier, Saudi Arabia announced that this year's Hajj pilgrimage will be limited to no more than 60,000 people, all from within the kingdom due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic following which the Hajj Committee of India also cancelled applications for Hajj 2021. The Kingdom in a statement said that people between the ages of 18 to 65, who wish to perform the Hajj this year must be free of chronic diseases and be vaccinated. "The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which is honoured to host pilgrims every year, confirms that this arrangement comes out if its constant concern for the health, safety and security of pilgrims as well as the safety of their countries," the statement added. As many as two lakh pilgrims used to visit Saudi Arabi for Hajj every year from India. This is the second year in a row that Saudi Arabia has limited the Hajj pilgrimage to Muslims inside the country.
READ: Hajj Committee cancels applications after Saudi Arabia bars foreign pilgrims
In 2020 also, Saudi Arabia had scaled down Hajj to 1,000 pilgrims of various nationalities already residing in the Kingdom. The decision had sparked disappointment among Muslims world-wide even as many accepted it was necessary due to the health risks involved.
The Hajj pilgrimage is an annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the holiest city for Muslims. Hajj is a mandatory religious duty for Muslims that must be carried out at least once in their lifetime by all adult Muslims who are physically and financially capable of undertaking the journey, and of supporting their family during their absence from home. The pilgrimage draws two million Muslims from around the world for five days of intense worship and rituals in Mecca have never been cancelled in the nearly 90 years since the nation's establishment.
