The once-in-a-lifetime journey of faith undertaken by more than 3 million pilgrims reached its end yesterday with hundreds of buses and cars taking them out of the tent city of Mina before sunset.

Many pilgrims chose to walk their way to the adjacent holy city of Makkah where they performed Tawaf Al-Wida or the farewell circumambulation.

Makkah was packed with pilgrims and all three floors were filled with the faithful performing the same task. At the high-tech Jamrat Bridge, defense and military helicopters monitored pilgrim traffic that flowed smoothly throughout the last day. Chanting “God is Greatest,” the pilgrims threw seven small pebbles at each of the three gray stone walls before moving out of Mina.

Watched by alert, friendly and extremely polite security officers, pilgrims were directed to approach the stoning site in orderly waves. The stoning ritual tends to be the most animated, with pilgrims heaving their pebbles along with declarations against the evils they perceive in the world.

Pilgrims from Syria — especially those from Aleppo — were sought out by the media.

Haytham Abdullah was happy just to be alive. “I have come to perform Haj to show my gratitude to the Almighty Allah for saving me and my family members’ lives from bombings by our regime,” he said before saying goodbye to Mina. “Please continue praying for the Muslims of Syria; they are in big trouble.”

Syeda Jebeen Shah from New York was delighted at having completed all the rituals. An alumnus of India’s historic Aligarh Muslim University, she was searching for the right words to explain her experience at the Haj. She ended up saying: “Just wonderful, wonderful.”

This was the first time at the Haj for Shah and she promised it would not be the last. “Before coming here, I would wonder why would people come here again and again; I was kind of perplexed and would often deride the chronic Haj repeaters; but having experienced the glory and spirit of the Haj, I now know why they come here again and again, year after year,” she said. “I will come again too, InshaAllah.”

Abdi-Asis Salwe, an American of Somali origin, from Seattle, Washington, was equally delighted. “It went very well for me. I did not use the train at all. I kept walking all the time and enjoyed every moment of my stay in these holy places,” he said.

Salwe said peace and stability in Somalia was top on list of prayers. “I want peace to return to my homeland; it has seen far more bloodshed than what our people can endure. May Allah grant peace to my country,” he said.

Noorul Huda Khan, a former Indian Railway employee and his wife Farhat Bano from Bhagalpur in Bihar, said the act of stoning was nothing but an act of catharsis.

“To me these walls represented those men who either killed or are plotting to kill Muslims,” said Khan. “This is an act of self-purification,” he said as he completed his stone-throwing.

“I feel very comforted, like a new person, and I hope Allah will accept my pilgrimage,” said Khan’s wife Farhat Bano. “I feel spiritually at peace and everything went perfectly well.”

With his head shaved in a tradition dating back to Prophet Muhammad’s pilgrimage 1,432 years ago, Pakistani pilgrim Junaidur Rahman exchanged congratulations with friends and relatives. “Thank God, I completed the pilgrimage. I hope I live long enough to come back here again,” he said before leaving the tent city.

Pilgrims praised the Saudi authorities for the excellent arrangements.

“It is for no small reason that God has blessed them with all His bounty,” said Hatim Suleiman Al-Noor from Sudan. “Their services are unimaginable. We keep hearing people the world over talking ill of them. But we want to tell Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah that you are the real leader of the Ummah. Your services to the pilgrims cannot be described in words. May God bless you and your people,” added Al-Noor.