Hajj begins at Mecca
TNN Bureau. Updated: 8/20/2018 10:24:25 AM
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MECCA: More than 2 million Muslims from around the world, including India, today began the annual hajj pilgrimage at first light in Saudi Arabia, circling the cube-shaped Kaaba in Mecca that Islam’s faithful face five times each day during their prayers.
The five-day hajj pilgrimage represents one of the world’s biggest gatherings every year, and is required of all able-bodied Muslims once in their life.
The hajj offers pilgrims an opportunity to feel closer to God amid the Muslim world’s many challenges, including the threat of violence and extremists in the Mideast and the plight of Myanmar’s Muslim Rohingya minority.
“We are very blessed by Allah to be in this place, and we pray to Allah to make the Islamic nations from the West to the East in a better situation,” said Essam-Eddin Afifi, a pilgrim from Egypt.
“We pray for the Islamic nations to overcome their enemies.”
Muslims believe the hajj retraces the footsteps of the Prophet Muhammad, as well as those of the prophets Ibrahim and Ismail — Abraham and Ishmael in the Bible.
Muslims believe God stayed the hand of Ibrahim after commanding him to sacrifice his son, Ismail. In the Christian and Jewish version of the story, Abraham is ordered to kill his other son, Isaac.
The Kaaba represents the metaphorical house of God and the oneness of God.
Muslims circle the Kaaba counter-clockwise seven times while reciting supplications to God, then walk between the two hills traveled by Hagar, Ibrahim’s wife. Mecca’s Grand Mosque, the world’s largest, encompasses the Kaaba and the two hills.
Before heading to Mecca, many pilgrims visit the city of Medina, where the Prophet Muhammad is buried and where he built his first mosque.
After prayers in Mecca, pilgrims will head to an area called Mount Arafat tomorrow, where the Prophet Muhammad delivered his final sermon. From there, pilgrims will head to an area called Muzdalifa, picking up pebbles along the way for a symbolic stoning of the devil and a casting away of sins that takes place in the Mina valley for three days.