The Muslim pilgrimage begins. 2.6 million people make the trip to Saudi Arabia a mass event – but what is it actually about? The most important questions and answers.
What is the Hajj?
Every devout Muslim, both male and female, has to fulfill five religious duties. In addition to the daily prayers, fasting in the month of Ramadan, the creed and the giving of alms, the Hajj is part of it.
Those who can afford hajj and umrah packages to perform Hajj and Umrah and have no health restrictions that make the multi-day trip impossible must undertake the pilgrimage – preferably during the pilgrimage month of Dhul Hijah. Only then does the trip count as a Hajj – “Great Pilgrimage”. Outside of the fixed days one speaks of the “Little Pilgrimage”, the Umrah.
What happens at Mecca and why does the pilgrimage lead there?
The Prophet Mohammed was born in Mecca, and according to Islamic tradition, this is where he received the first revelations. However, the history of the Hajj is older. Mecca was already a place of pilgrimage in pre-Islamic times. However, Muhammad changed the rites that are performed during the Hajj.
This year the Hajj begins on Sunday. The men put on a pilgrim’s robe, which consists of two white, unframed cloths. From now on the believers are in “Ihram”, a state of consecration that forbids them to curse, apply lotion, shave, cut their nails or masturbate. Women are also no longer allowed to veil their face.
Then the pilgrims go to the Holy Mosque for the first time. In the center of the mosque is the Kaaba, a black silk-covered cube with a base area of ten by twelve meters. According to Islamic tradition, the Kaaba is the first house of prayer in human history and was built by Adam himself. Abraham rebuilt it after it broke. There is a black stone in one corner of the Kaaba. According to tradition, this stone comes from Paradise and was given to Abraham by the angel Gabriel. The stone is embedded in the wall of the Kaaba at a height of 1.5 meters. At this point, the believers start circling the Kaaba seven times in an anti-clockwise direction.
Then the pilgrims go to the tent city of Mina for the first night.
The believers spend the second day on Mount Arafat outside the city. The pilgrims pray and ask for the forgiveness of their sins. In the evening they move on to the Musdalifah plain. Here they collect stones for the symbolic stoning of the devil the next day. The pilgrims then spend the night outdoors.
The believers return to Mina before sunrise. On the Jamarat Bridge there, the pilgrims each have to throw seven stones at three huge pillars. In order to make the rush more manageable, the authorities have now set up five levels on which the pilgrims can throw their stones.
In the evening the festival of sacrifice, Eid al-Adha, begins. Thousands of sacrificial animals, sheep and goats are slaughtered. Most of the meat is given to those in need.
The pilgrims can now leave the state of consecration and put on their normal clothing again. You go back to the Holy Mosque and circle the Kaaba seven times. Then they walk back and forth between the two hills of Safa and Marwa seven times. The Hajj ends with a final circling of the Kaaba.
Many believers then drive to the Medina, just under 400 kilometers away. There they visit the Prophet’s Mosque, where Muhammad’s tomb is located.
How are the various Islamic faiths doing?
Members of the major Islamic denominations – Sunnis and Shiites – make pilgrimages to Mecca alike. Iran, the largest Shiite state in the world and archenemy of the Saudis, regularly accuses the kingdom of discriminating against Shiites in the allocation of quotas.
Muslims belonging to the Ahmadiyya community would also like to make a pilgrimage to Mecca, but are not allowed to. The Islamic World League, financed by the royal family, excluded the Ahmadiyya from the Islamic community in 1974. Since then, Saudi Arabia has stopped issuing Hajj visas to Ahmadiyya supporters. They, like all non-Muslims, are prohibited from entering the holy precinct in Mecca.
