Pilgrims set to converge on Arafat Thursday

Makkah: About 2.5 million pilgrims are expected to converge on Thursday on Mount Arafat, about 15km east of Makkah.

Chanting 'Labbaik Allahumma Labbaik... (Here I am answering Your call, O God),' the pilgrims, resembling a white sea of humanity, will move into the plains of Arafat on Thursday morning, after spending a night of meditation and introspection in the tent city of Mina.

The pilgrims will spend the day in Arafat praying and asking for God’s mercy and forgiveness. The ritual of standing at Arafat will begin after Dhuhar. Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti Shaikh Abdul Aziz Ali Al Shaikh will deliver the Arafat sermon and will lead the Dhuhar and Asr prayers together in the shortened form. The most important ritual of Haj is standing at Arafat, where the Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him) gave his last sermon more than 14 centuries ago.

King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz has ordered distribution of more than three million packets of free meals among the pilgrims in Arafat. A total of seven million free meal packets will be distributed as per the order of the king during Haj days.

The pilgrims will spend the time in Arafat with prayers for acceptance of their pilgrimage and recitation of Quranic verses until sunset. After sunset, they will march toward Muzdalifah Valley and spend the night there in prayers. On Friday morning, the Day of Sacrifice, the faithful return to the valley of Mina for performing four major rituals of Haj, beginning with throwing stones at the Jamarat Al Aqaba, representing Satan. Then, they will sacrifice animals, cut their hair or shave their heads and then proceed to Makkah to perform Tawaf Al Ifadah (circumambulation of Ifadah). They will spend another two or three days in Mina for the stoning at three pillars of Jamarat before leaving for Makkah to perform the last ritual of Tawaf Al Wida (the farewell circumambulation).

Meanwhile, King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz issued a royal decree extending the service of Shaikh Saleh Bin Abdul Rahman Al Hussain, president of the General Presidency for the Affairs of the Haram Mosque and Prophet’s Mosque, for another term of four years at the rank of a minister, effective from Wednesday.

Security, Health arrangements complete

The Saudi authorities have readied massive security and medical preparations for the Haj. More than 100,000 security men and officers have been deployed to facilitate smooth and safe conduct of the pilgrimage. Addressing a press conference on Tuesday evening, Maj. Gen. Mansour Al Turki, spokesman of the Ministry of Interior, emphasised that the security forces are ready to deal with any threat to the safety of pilgrims, including those posed by the infiltrators. "Security forces have also tightened control over Makkah entry points to stop the smuggling of pilgrims and prevent the entry of unlicensed street vendors," he said.

Meanwhile, Dr Yaqoub Bin Yousuf Al Mazroui, chairman of the Haj Preparatory Committee at the Ministry of Haj, said medical staff are ready for any eventuality, especially in the wake of four swine flu fatalities among pilgrims earlier. "The 160-bed Mina Al Wadi Hospital with a 25-bed intensive care unit, which was built in 11 months, is now fully operational. The Ministry of Health also has a PCR laboratory (Polymerase Chain Reaction) for the state-of-the-art detection of various viruses, including the H1N1 virus," he said.

Khaled Merghalani, spokesman of the Ministry of Health, said recently that there have only been four deaths from swine flu, from a total of 68 cases among some 1.6 million pilgrims. "The ministry has mobilised more than 17,609 medical staffers, including doctors, technicians, nurses and administrators to provide quality medical service to pilgrims," he said.