With the start of the Hajj pilgrimage taking place in the oppressive summer heat and against the somber backdrop of the Gaza war, more than a million Muslims gathered in Makkah on Friday.
The Kaaba, the black cube-shaped building in Makkah’s Grand Mosque, will be surrounded by robed worshippers. 75-year-old Moroccan Zahra Benizahra sobbed as she told AFP, “We can see it with our own eyes—our brothers are dying.” With the largest Muslim population in the world, Belinda Elham of Indonesia declared that she would “pray every day so that what’s happening in Palestine ends”.
To welcome 1,000 pilgrims “from the families of martyrs and the wounded from the Gaza Strip,” Saudi King Salman issued an order on Monday, to increase the total number of Palestinian.
One of the five pillars of Islam, it is obligatory for all Muslims who can afford to do so to perform at least once. Upon arriving in the most sacred city of Islam, the pilgrims from all over the world will first perform the “tawaf,” which involves circumnavigating the Kaaba seven times.
After that, they’ll travel a few kilometers (miles) outside Makkah to Mina, a valley encircled by rugged mountains, where they’ll spend the night in air-conditioned tents. On Saturday, they will perform daylong prayers on Mount Arafat, the site of the Prophet Mohammed’s last sermon, marking the culmination of events.
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