JEDDAH, 29 October 2005 — More than two million faithful attended the Friday prayers at the two holy mosques in Makkah and Madinah yesterday, the last Friday of this Ramadan.
The Makkah Grand Mosque and its surrounding courtyards overflowed with worshippers and many had to stand in nearby streets and pathways to join prayers.
In his Juma sermon, Dr. Saleh Bin-Humaid, one of the imams in the Grand Mosque, emphasized the role of Ramadan in reforming the faithful and bringing about positive changes in their lives.
“Ramadan is a month of strengthening bonds, a month of worship, charity and good work, a month of patience and victories,” Bin-Humaid, who is also the Shoura Council chairman, told the huge gathering.
He urged Muslims to return to the teachings of Islam in order to change their pathetic situation. He stressed the need for Muslims to adopt the Qur’an as their guide, constitution and law of governance.
“The Holy Qur’an is the panacea for all our ills,” the Saudi Press Agency quoted the imam as saying. The whole of humanity must follow divine guidance to end injustice and oppression and establish peace and stability in the world, he added.
Thousands of faithful had come to the mosque the night before to attend special prayers on the Lailat Al-Qadr or the night of power, which is expected on the odd-numbered days in the last 10 days of Ramadan. The first verses of the Qur’an were revealed on Lailat Al-Qadr, which is according to the holy book better than a thousand months.
On Thursday night, leading the Qiyamullail prayers, Sheikh Abdul Rahman Al-Sudais prayed for the unity of the ummah and for the liberation of Al-Aqsa, the third holiest mosque in Islam.
The government deployed a large number of security personnel and traffic police to control the mammoth crowd in and outside the mosque. Despite the presence of hundreds of thousands of people, no major incidents were reported.
In Madinah, Sheikh Ali Al-Hudaify led the Juma prayer. In his sermon, Hudaify emphasized the importance of giving Zakah and charity in this holy month. He also spoke about Lailat Al-Qadr and said those who worship in that night would get the reward of worshipping 83 years.
Millions of Muslims from the Kingdom and abroad have already performed Umrah this Ramadan.
According to Ibrahim Al-Kharashi, Foreign Ministry undersecretary for consular affairs, the ministry issued a total of 2.89 million Umrah visas during the last nine months. “This is 11 percent more than last year’s 2.6 million,” he added.
The largest number of Umrah pilgrims came from Egypt. Saudi missions in the country issued 654,537 visas to Egyptian pilgrims. Kharashi said Pakistanis were the second largest beneficiaries as they received 361,937 visas.
