ISLAMABAD: The first group of Pakistani Hajj pilgrims departed on Monday for Makkah from Madinah to perform rituals of the annual pilgrimage, the Pakistani religious affairs ministry said, adding the pilgrims arrived in Saudi Arabia via the first Hajj flights on May 21.
The Hajj is an annual spiritual pilgrimage that each Muslim adult, male or female, is required to undertake at least once in their lifetime if they are financially capable and physically able to do so. The pilgrimage is undertaken during the month of Dhu Al-Hijjah.
This year, Saudi Arabia has restored Pakistan’s pre-pandemic Hajj quota of 179,210 pilgrims and waved off the upper age limit of 65. Around 80,000 Pakistani pilgrims are expected to perform the pilgrimage this year under the government scheme, while the rest will be facilitated by private tour operators, according to authorities.
“A caravan of 773 pilgrims left for Makkah after eight-day stay in Madinah,” a spokesperson for the Pakistani religious affairs ministry said. “The pilgrims offered 40 prayers at the Prophet’s Mosque.”
The pilgrims left for Makkah via 18 buses, according to the spokesperson. Emotional scenes were witnessed on the occasion.
After entering Makkah, pilgrims perform the welcome tawaf, circling the Kaaba seven times in a counterclockwise direction, starting at the Black Stone. They then head to the hills of Safa and Marwa, where they perform saee, which is the act of going back and forth between the two hills seven times.
Pilgrims then travel to Mina, an area of 20 square kilometers nearly five kilometers away from the Grand Mosque in Makkah, on the eighth day of Dhul Hijjah, also known as Yom Al-Tarwiyah, where they will stay and fill their day and evening with prayers and supplications, resting and consuming water ahead of their long, perilous journey.
On the second day of Hajj, pilgrims travel to Mt. Arafat, 20 kilometers away. The day is devoted to prayer and supplications as they observe duhr (noon) combined with asr (afternoon) prayers until sunset.
Day of Arafat is considered the most critical day for pilgrims and the millions not performing. It is the day that, “atones for the sins of the preceding and coming (Muslim) year” and is the best day for worship and supplication in the entire year.
After sunset, pilgrims descend from Mount Arafat and make their way to Muzdalifah for isha (night) prayers, collect pebbles no larger than the size of a fingertip ahead of the stoning ritual on the next day, and rest until midnight or dawn, when they will make the long journey back to Mina for the final steps of Hajj, the stoning ritual at Jamarat Al-Aqabah.
On the third day of Hajj, Eid Al-Adha, pilgrims stone the Jamarat Al-Aqabah, or the big pillar, a place where the Prophet Ibrahim threw seven pebbles at the devil. After doing so, pilgrims change from their Ihram; sacrificial animals are slaughtered, and men cut or shave their heads while women cut a fingertip’s length of hair to commemorate the end of the Hajj pilgrimage.
For three days, known as Ayyam Al-Tashreeq, pilgrims stay in Mina and perform the stoning of the other two pillars, Al-Jamarah Al-Wusta and Al-Jamarah Al-Sughra.
More than 19,000 Pakistani pilgrims have arrived in the holy city of Madinah for the annual Hajj pilgrimage, Pakistan’s religion ministry said on Sunday, as the South Asian country continues its Hajj flight operation to the Kingdom. Pakistan began its Hajj flights on May 21.
