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Articles: 1.5 million in Saudi for haj

Posted by admin on Tuesday, December 26, 2006 - 05:08 PM

25/12/2006 18:39 - (SA)

Riyadh - More than 1.5 million Muslims have arrived in Saudi Arabia for the annual haj pilgrimage to Mecca which begins on Thursday, the authorities say.

The official SPA news agency on Monday reported the Haj Commission as saying 1 526 603 people had arrived in the kingdom by Sunday to take part in this year's pilgrimage. In addition to expected further arrivals from abroad, Saudis and other Muslims resident in the country will swell the number of the faithful undertaking the haj to about two million. The Haj Supreme Committee said 202 pilgrims have died since arriving in the kingdom, mainly the elderly or infirm and generally from heart problems. In Mecca on Monday, a short-circuit at a hotel housing mostly Yemeni pilgrims caused a fire that was quickly put out, but some people were taken to hospital suffering from smoke inhalation, a Yemeni diplomat said. They included Yemen's Waqf (religious endowments) and guidance minister, Hamoud Mohammad Abad. More than 9 600 medical personnel have been mobilised and 21 field hospitals set up at Mecca and Medina - Islam's two holiest places - for this year's pilgrimage, the health ministry said on Monday. SPA said that on Tuesday, interior inister Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz, who also heads the Haj Supreme Committee, will inspect security arrangements at Mecca and also attend a parade of security and civil defence forces in the holy city. The haj will begin on Thursday, with the faithful assembling in the arid valley of Mina near Mecca. At dawn on Friday, they will begin moving towards Mount Arafat where they will spend the day praying and asking for God's forgiveness at the summit, in a symbolic waiting for the last judgment. The pilgrims then return to Mina to sacrifice an animal, usually a sheep, for Eid al-Adha, the Feast of the Sacrifice, on Saturday. They will spend another two days there for the rite in which standing stone pillars representing Satan are stoned in a ceremony that symbolises a willingness to renounce evil. The pilgrimage to Mecca is one of the five pillars of Islam, and is an obligation for all Muslims at least once during their lives if they can afford to do so.

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