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Tens of thousands of Muslim pilgrims climbed rocks on Thursday and nestled between rocks while they launched themselves in a day of worship under a hot sun at Hajj in Saudi Arabia.
Braving the heat and unequal surfaces, they have set up Mont Arafat to carry out a key ritual of the annual Islamic pilgrimage.
They opened their arms in prayer, smartphones and hearts raised, while disproportionate fans sprayed beautiful mists of water to cool them during their long hours of worship. Pilgrims must stay in Arafat to sunset. Temperatures exceeded 40 C.
Far from worship, a nearby ice cream kiosk supported.
Salem Naji Ahmed, from Yemen, traveled four days by land to neighboring Saudi Arabia because he could not afford the flight.
“These sacred feelings are the most luxurious thing and the best about Arafat,” he told the Associated Press. “We came from Yemen, four days and nights. It was very tiring, but we came to please Allah and execute one of his obligations on the holy sites and in the best area in the world.”
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Rocky Hill has immense meaning in Islam. Arafat is mentioned in the Koran and it is there that the Prophet Muhammad would have given his last sermon during his last Hajj.
According to the traditional words of the Prophet, the day of Arafat is the most sacred day of the year, when God approaches the faithful and forgives their sins.
Ibrahim Mahmoud, from Egypt, said heat affected the elderly. “Elderly pilgrims are tired because of the heat. Some do not come out due to high temperatures and cannot walk over long distances.”
The Ministry of Health said Thursday that there was a 90% drop in heat stress compared to last year, when more than 1,300 people died in the midst of high temperatures on holy sites.
Hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam, a religious obligation involving rituals and acts of worship that each Muslim must fill if they have the money and are physically capable of doing so. The Saudi authorities have not disclosed the total number of pilgrims at the Hajj of this year.
Earlier, they said that more than 1.5 million foreigners participated. Last year, there were 1,611,310 pilgrims outside the country.
