Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca)

MECCA (Saudi Arabia) - The pilgrimage to Mecca in western Saudi Arabia, one of the five pillars of Islam that every believer is supposed to perform at least once in his life if he has the means, comprises several codified steps.

•    The Hajj takes place once a year at the beginning of the Muslim lunar month of Dhu al-Hajj. It is limited in time as it is limited in space, Mecca and its environs, which are forbidden to non-Muslims.
  
     For the faithful, the hajj begins by proclaiming his intention to make this spiritual rite. When he arrives in a perimeter established around Mecca, he must be purified and shall only dress in pieces of cloth not sewn.
  
     He then proceeds to the tours, making seven times around the Kaaba, the holy of holies, a cube around the building where was built the Great Mosque. He is supposed to embrace each time the black stone embedded in one corner of the Kaaba.
  
     Then the wandering between Safa and Marwa, two locations near the Great Mosque in the footsteps of Hajar, wife of the prophet Abraham, who according to Muslim tradition, ran between the two places to search water for her son, Prophet Ismail, until the source of Zamzam gushed up beneath her feet.
  
     Once completed this ritual, the faithful goes to the valley of Mina where he spends the night before the climax of the hajj, gathering on nearby Mount Arafat, a day devoted to prayers and invocations.
  
     At night, the pilgrims go back on Muzdalifah to prepare the next day to Eid al-Adha (Feast of Sacrifice) which is to sacrifice an animal to commemorate the memory of Abraham who had nearly sacrificed his son Ismail before the angel Gabriel offered him at the last minute to sacrifice a sheep in his place, according to Muslim tradition.
  
     The faithful will then spend the stoning of steles representing Satan at Mina, 8 km from Muzdalifah: the highest on which he must throw seven stones on the first day and three (high, medium and small) that need 21 stones throw the next day or the day after.
  
     The pilgrimage ends with new tours around the Kaaba and the visit to Madinah where the mausoleum of the Prophet Muhammad, optional, may be done before or after the Hajj.
  
     Besides pilgrimage, the four other pillars of Islam are profession of faith (Shahada, which is to proclaim that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is his prophet), prayer five times a day, fasting during the month of Ramadan and the legal alms (Zakat).
  
      
  Ennaharonline/ M. O.