Almost 3 Million Muslims stand Arafat + pics

[Emperor]

Muslims from Around the World Flock to Mecca for Annual Hajj Pilgrimage

 

 

By Amin Fekrat

Washington

18 December 2007

 

 

The annual season of Hajj is now under way. Every Muslim who is financially capable is required by the Koran - the Muslim holy scripture - to make the pilgrimage to Mecca at the annual season of Hajj, at least once in their lifetime. The culmination of the Hajj is the Id-al Adha, the festival of sacrifice, which this year falls on Wednesday, December 19 and Thursday, December 20. Amin Fekrat describes the Muslim celebration.

 

 

Muslim pilgrims arrive on the Plain of Arafat near Mecca, 18 Dec 2007

The muezzin repeatedly calls to prayer, "God is most great… I bear witness to greatness of God." At the muezzin's call, Muslims, around the world, turn toward Mecca and prostrate themselves in humility before God to say their daily prayer:

 

"God is great

 

I bear witness to the oneness of God

 

And, I bear witness that Muhammad is His messenger."

 

It was in Mecca, close to the year 570, that Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, was born. Forty years after his birth, Muhammad began to guide his people and to teach them the oneness of God. By doing so, the Islamic faith teaches, Muhammad completed a tradition begun by Adam and followed by a succession of prophets, including Abraham, Moses, Jesus, in order that humanity would be in peace and in covenant with God.

 

Soon after Muhammad started his teachings, he asked his clansmen from the elite tribe of Quraysh to abandon their worship of idols.

 

But, faced with defiance and persecution, Muhammad fled Mecca with a handful of his followers and journeyed to Medina, then an oasis 320 kilometers north of Mecca. The flight, or Hegira, of the prophet of Islam in the year 622 marks the beginning of the Muslim calendar.

 

Muhammad thrived in Median and, eight years after his flight, he returned to Mecca, in triumph, to witness the removal of idols from Ka'ba, the House of God.

 

Muslim tradition has it that Abraham, the Patriarch, built Ka'ba as the House of God. Located in one corner of Ka'ba is the "black Stone," or "Hajar-al-Aswad," which Muslims believe was given by God to Abraham as reward for his faithfulness. The stone represents the covenant between God and humans.

 

The great Patriarch, in a test of his faith and rectitude, was ordered by God to sacrifice his son, Ismael. However, God, satisfied that Abraham had passed the test of faith, offered a ram to be sacrificed in place of his son at the last minute. The "Eed-al Adha," or the festival of sacrifice commemorates these events.

 

For more than 14 centuries, Muslims around the world have cast their eyes toward Ka'ba and looked forward to the day when they would be able to set foot in Mecca, a barren valley, surrounded by harsh hills in today's Saudi Arabia.

 

Pilgrims to Mecca start their arduous journey stripped of the trappings of class, power, privilege and status. Men don the "Ihram," a two-piece cloth cover. Women pilgrims wear a head-to-toe white garment that reveals only their faces and hands. The pilgrims then head toward Ka'ba, chanting the "Talbiyya," a prayer to Allah:

 

"Here we come O' Allah

 

No partner have thee

 

And the Blessings are yours."

 

 

Muslims circle around the holy Kaaba in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, 16 Dec 2007

After reaching Ka'ba, the pilgrims start their "tawaf," or the act of circumambulation, a ritual in which they walk seven times, counterclockwise, around Ka'ba. They then make the "Sa'ay," the trip between the hills of Safa and Marwa seven times. A trip to Mina takes place on the eighth day of the Hajj.

 

The following morning, the pilgrims make a trip to the plains of Arafat, near the site of Muhammad's "Farewell Address," where they pray from noon to sunset. At night, the pilgrims retreat to a place called the "Muzdalifah."

 

Then they return to Mina for three days, where they cast stones at the three pillars representing the Satan. A final walk around the Ka'ba and sacrifice of animals bring the Hajj to a close.

[Emperor]

post the best eye blossoming pictures you may find Insha'alaah.

 

Muslims from around the world

[Emperor]

Muslim pilgrims gather at holy mount for zenith of hajj

 

 

ARAFAT, Saudi Arabia (AFP) — More than two million Muslims from across the globe gathered on Tuesday around Mount Arafat near the Mecca birthplace of Islam for the zenith of their annual pilgrimage.

 

At Arafat, in western Saudi Arabia, a massive crowd of the faithful was to spend the day praying and asking for God's forgiveness, in a symbolic wait, or "wuquf", for the final judgement.

 

Among this year's pilgrims is Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, invited by Saudi King Abdullah to become the first president of the Islamic republic to take part.

 

Ahmadinejad was due to have joined Iranian pilgrims at Arafat but an announcement at the gathering said that "due to the heavy traffic, the president was not able to make it."

 

Men wearing two pieces of unstitched white cloth, called the Ehram that Muslim tradition says will serve as their shrouds, and women entirely covered apart from their face and hands tirelessly repeated the formal refrain.

 

"I am here in response to your call, Lord, I am here," they cried, many of them in heavily-accented Arabic, gathered on a plain dotted with hills.

 

"This is the first time I am doing the hajj. I registered with the hajj organisation five years ago," said an elderly woman called Fatemeh, accompanied by her husband.

 

It was on Mount Arafat -- also called Jebel ar-Rahma, or Mount Mercy -- that the Prophet Mohammed gave his final sermon more than 14 centuries ago.

 

A total of 1,707,814 pilgrims from 181 different countries have travelled to Saudi Arabia for the hajj, Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz said, joined by hundred of thousands of Saudis and other residents of the kingdom.

 

Ahmadinejad was to join other pilgrims in carrying out a series of other sacred rituals, such as walking counter-clockwise seven times around the Kaaba, the cube-shaped structure at the Grand Mosque in Mecca.

 

His pilgrimage has an added significance because of the sometimes rocky relations between Shiite Iran and Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia.

 

An Iranian demonstration during the hajj in July 1987 led to Tehran and Riyadh breaking diplomatic relations. Security forces tried to break up the protest and 402 people, including 275 Iranians, were killed.

 

Iranian pilgrims stayed away from the hajj until 1991.

 

They have since held peaceful anti-US demonstrations inside their hajj compound, during which a message from Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is read out.

 

Khamenei this year urged Muslims to stand united against world "arrogance," Tehran's reference to the United States.

 

"All the Islamic nations and especially their scholars and intellectuals should create a united front against the world arrogance and solidify it day by day," Khamanei said.

 

At the Grand Mosque, the massive Kaaba monument was being draped in a new "kiswa", its silk cover adorned with Koranic verses embroidered in gold and silver-plated thread, costing more than five million dollars.

 

Muslims face the Kaaba when they pray five times a day.

 

At sunset on Tuesday, the faithful were to move toward Muzdalifah valley, several kilometres (miles) from Mount Arafat, to spend the night and collect pebbles to cast at columns in Mina symbolising the Devil.

 

On Wednesday morning, pilgrims flock Mina for the last part of the hajj -- the ritual stoning of Satan.

 

Later the same day, the pilgrims will sacrifice a beast, generally a sheep, in remembrance of the sacrifice God asked Abraham to perform by giving up his son to prove his devotion.

 

This ritual marks the start of Eid al-Adha, or Feast of the Sacrifice.

 

Thousands of Saudi security forces have been deployed along the routes being used by the pilgrims to ensure the safety of the faithful during the often risky ceremonies, with dozens of field hospitals and clinics set up.

 

The hajj, which this year ends on Friday, is one of the five pillars of Islam that Muslims are expected to perform at least once in their lives if they have the means to do so.

[Emperor]

Mount Arafa, the mountain of mercy

 

The day-long station at Arafat symbolises Muslims' wait for the day of judgement. They spend the day praying.

 

The pilgrims make a sea of white as they stream in their thousands onto the plain of Arafat.

 

Some of the pictures and comments is taken from other sources... to name the BBC website

[Emperor]

One of the VIPs invited by the Saudi government this year is the controversial Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on his first pilgrimage.

[Gar-haye]

manshallah. its truly beautiful when muslim are united in there actions. jzk for pics EMP.

[FatB]

i was there last year, god i wish i could have been there again this year....

[Warrior of Light]

Mashallah, what a blessed sight!! You feel humbled by the magnitude of all the people submitting themselves to the Lord of the Heavens and Earth. Allahu Akbar.

 

Eid Wanagsaan

[Thierry.]

Mashallah beautiful pictures Inshallah it is my intention to go there next year

[Abaay Heylay]

Masha'Allah that is beatiful, seeing all the muslims uniting together.

[A.J.]

That has to be one of the most beautiful sights in the world.

 

Maasha'allah.

 

Inshallah i will be going there soon

[Rahima]

Can't wait to take my turn.

 

This year inshallah!

[chubacka]

I cnt find my sister anywhere! Jazakallah for the pics...we should all go when we are young and fit so we can really get the most out of hajj.

 

salaams ppl