JEDDAH/MAKKAH: Shoura Council Chairman Saleh Bin-Humaid, who is also an imam at the Grand Mosque in Makkah, said pilgrimage is an obligatory act of worship that emphasizes the unity of Muslims.
“Like obligatory prayers, fasting and zakah, Haj also underscores the unity of Muslims. These acts unify them, make them turn to the same direction and worship one God and instill in them a feeling of brotherliness,” Bin-Humaid said in his Friday sermon attended by more than one million pilgrims at the Grand Mosque.
Makkah Gov. Prince Khaled Al-Faisal supervised the arrangements for the prayer at the mosque.
Sheikh Ali Al-Hudhaifi led the prayers at the Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah yesterday.
Bin-Humaid said that Haj is the most virtuous journey a Muslim undertakes and it involves the greatest sacrifice in his life. “A pilgrim’s only goal is to win the love of Allah by being present at the holiest locations of Islam in a state of consecration seeking mercy and forgiveness of the Almighty Allah,” Bin-Humaid said.
Hardly a similar scene of collective act of obedience and sacrifice could be seen anywhere in the world. The imam also urged the Muslims to heed the teachings of the Prophet (peace be upon him) who had urged Muslims to build a system free from usury.
The ground, underground and upper floors besides the courtyards of the Grand Mosque were filled with worshippers who had been flocking to the mosque since early morning.
Meanwhile, pilgrims began their homeward journey.
Among the first to leave late on Thursday night were pilgrims heading to Cairo. The first batch comprising 570 Egyptian pilgrims left on five flights of Saudi Arabian Airlines and EgyptAir from Jeddah.
“A well-organized airlift has been planned to transport 80,000 pilgrims to various Egyptian airports on 32 flights,” an Egyptian Haj official said.
The first flight of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) carrying 466 pilgrims left Jeddah for Islamabad yesterday morning. Another group of 321 pilgrims on PIA’s Haj flight left around noon for Quetta. In the post-Haj operation, 12,500 pilgrims from Balochistan will be flown to Quetta from Jeddah.
PIA’s special Haj flights will also land at Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar, Multan, Faisalabad and Sukkur airports. In total, more than 160,000 pilgrims will be transported from the Kingdom to Pakistan through special and commercial flights of PIA and Saudia in a month-long operation. Indonesia and Nigeria also began their post-Haj operations yesterday.
Sri Lankan Minister of Petroleum and Petroleum Resources A.H.M Fowzi told Arab News that he and the 5,200 pilgrims from his country had a successful Haj. “The entire pilgrimage was smooth and safe, thanks to the excellent arrangements that are upgraded year after year," the minister said.
Meanwhile, 13 Indian pilgrims belonging to the southern Indian state of Kerala, who met a “minor" bus accident at Muzdalifah on Tuesday, are reported safe. Doctors of the Sheesha Hospital attended to all the pilgrims. As many as 122,030 pilgrims arrived from India for Haj. Eighty of them, who had come through the Haj Committee of India, have died due to natural causes.
