2023-06-27 08:33:32
For pilgrims, a day of prayer and meditation opens on Tuesday on Mount Arafat, near Mecca, the most important stage of the hajj, the great Muslim pilgrimage in western Saudi Arabia.
From dawn, many worshipers flocked to the religious site where the Prophet Muhammad is said to have delivered his last sermon, following spending the night in air-conditioned tents in Mina, a valley surrounded by rocky mountains located seven kilometers from the Grand Mosque. from Mecca.
They will spend the day praying and reciting the Koran, under a blazing sun, before sleeping outdoors in Mouzdalifa, halfway between Mina and Mount Arafat.
“I can’t describe my feelings to you,” said Tasnim Jamal, a 35-year-old Egyptian teacher who is making the annual pilgrimage for the first time following several failed attempts.
It is “a very great happiness”, adds this inhabitant of the kingdom, who benefited from the lifting in 2021 of the ban on women performing the pilgrimage without being accompanied by a male guardian.
The hajj, one of the largest religious gatherings in the world, is taking place this year without any restrictions on the age or number of participants, unlike the previous three years marked by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The authorities of the oil-rich monarchy hope to exceed the number of 2.5 million visitors reached in 2019, to make it the “largest pilgrimage in history”.
In 2020 and 2021, at the height of the pandemic, only a few thousand worshipers were welcomed to Mecca, Islam’s holiest city, before the quota was raised to 926,000 last year.
– Prayers under the sun –
With temperatures forecast between 43 and 45 degrees on Tuesday, the day is likely to be particularly trying for pilgrims.
The wearing of hats being forbidden during the hajj for men, many of them have provided themselves with umbrellas while women try to protect themselves from the sun with their veils.
The Saudi Ministry of Health has called on the elderly or sick to avoid exposure during the hottest hours of the day and has deployed numerous health structures. The hajj, which consists of a series of codified rites taking place over several days in Mecca and its surroundings, is one of the five pillars of Islam.
It must be undertaken by every Muslim at least once in his life if he can afford it.
Ahmad Ahmadein, a 37-year-old American engineer, said she was very happy to have “been chosen by God from millions” of Muslims to perform the hajj this year.
“I try to focus my prayers on my family and my friends, because this is an opportunity that will not come once more,” he said, before starting his ascent on Mount Arafat.
On Wednesday, the faithful will carry out the symbolic stoning of Satan, by throwing stones at a large stele symbolizing Satan in the Mina Valley, before returning to Mecca for a final circumambulation of the Kaaba, a practice which consists of circumambulating of this giant black cube to which Muslims around the world turn to pray.
Mina was the scene in 2015 of a gigantic stampede that killed some 2,300 people.
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