Thousands of pilgrims visit Madinah

Madinah: Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims stayed behind Friday in Saudi Arabia after the annual Haj pilgrimage ended for an additional visit to the tomb of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) in Madinah.

The journey to Madinah - Islam's second holiest city after Makkah is not an essential part of the Haj, but many pilgrims are encouraged to do it. Of the nearly 3 million pilgrims who performed the week-long Haj this year, many took the extra trip to Madinah 440 kilometres north of Makkah in western Saudi Arabia, to pray at the Mosque of the Prophet (PBUH).

Muchlis Yousuf burst into tears as he saw the green dome of the tomb where the Prophet (PBUH) is buried. Overcome with emotion, a 40-year-old pilgrim from Indonesia said this was "the best moment" of his life as he lifted his hands toward the sky in prayer.

Tomb visit

"You cannot just come to perform Haj and not visit the honourable Prophet's (PBUH) tomb," Fatimah Mahmoudi, a 34-year old woman from Iran, explained her reasons for coming to Madinah.

The tomb was built on the spot where Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) died, in his home that stood adjacent to an earlier mosque. Today, it is inside a giant mosque that can hold more than 700,000 worshippers at a time. Construction work over the past 50 years made the mosque several times bigger, at an estimated cost of $1 billion (Dh3.67b.)

Saudi police officers and long-bearded religious men in clerical robes pushed back the crowds of faithful Friday as the pilgrims tried to move closer to the intricate golden metal structure surrounding the tomb. "Yallah, ya haj,"meaning "Hurry up, move," they shouted at pilgrims passing by the tomb. After praying inside the mosque, visitors flocked to a semicircular area called the Mihrab - the pulpit from where Prophet (PBUH) led the five daily prayers prescribed by Islam during his lifetime.

Special moments

For many, the visit to Madinah has special significance. "The Prophet (PBUH) was a human being. True. But he was God's Messenger," said Javad Ali, 28, from Bahrain.

"It is unifying to see people from all races, colours and geographical locations standing to pray here together. This is the force of Islam's message that the Prophet (PBUH) brought."

The Prophet i(PBUH) s believed to have told his followers that praying at his mosque in Madinah was "better than 1,000 prayers in other mosques" except for those in the Grand Mosque in Makkah.

The Prophet (PBUH) was born in Makkah in AD570. At the time, Madinah was known as Yathrib. In 622, he was forced to flee from Makkah to Yathrib with a group of followers to escape persecution.