Pilgrims head out of Saudi after hajj success
Print Edition
Some 1.4 million Muslim pilgrims from 188 countries started to leave Saudi Arabia yesterday at the end of what authorities hailed as a successful and incident-free hajj.
Mecca’s provincial governor, Prince Khaled al-Faisal bin Abdul Aziz, said the 2013 hajj marked a “qualitative turning point” in the organization of the annual pilgrimage, marred in previous years by deadly fires and stampedes.
The rites were carried out in a calm atmosphere and free of any political demonstrations, making it a “success” and proving “Islam is a religion of peace, civilization and progress,” he said.
Although the hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam, comes to a close officially today, pilgrims are allowed to leave a day early after taking part in the stoning of the devil ritual.
Pilgrims woke up early yesterday and began stoning three huge concrete structures in Mina representing Satan straight after sunrise, in accordance with the teachings of Islam.
The ritual is an emulation of the Prophet Abraham’s stoning of the devil at the three spots where it is said Satan tried to dissuade the biblical patriarch from obeying God’s order to sacrifice his son Ishmael.
In 2006, more than 300 pilgrims were killed in a stampede during the stoning ritual, the most dangerous of the hajj. More than 250 were killed in a similar incident in 2004.
The deaths prompted the Saudi authorities to invest billions of dollars in transport and other infrastructure to facilitate the movement of the huge numbers of people who take part.
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