ISLAMABAD — This 12 months’s Hajj in Saudi Arabia attracted the bottom variety of pilgrims for 30 years, excluding the COVID-19 pandemic period, based on figures launched Thursday.
The annual Islamic pilgrimage attracted simply 1,673,230 Muslims, nearly all of them from outdoors Saudi Arabia, based on a publish from the nation’s Hajj Ministry on the social platform X.
Authorities didn’t instantly supply a proof for the low turnout.
It’s virtually 160,000 fewer pilgrims than final 12 months and a far cry from the pre-pandemic increase, when attendance would recurrently push previous 2 million. There was a record-breaking Hajj in 2012, when greater than 3.16 million Muslims took half.
The dominion ran a pared-down pilgrimage through the COVID-19 pandemic, sharply reducing the scale of the Hajj between 2020 and 2022 whereas nonetheless permitting a small variety of the devoted to participate within the annual occasion.
The Hajj in 2023 was the primary to be held with out restrictions because the begin of the pandemic in 2020.
On the Hajj, Muslims collect in Saudi Arabia to unite in spiritual rituals and acts of worship as they fulfil one of many 5 Pillars of Islam, a spiritual obligation. It may be the religious expertise of a lifetime for them and an opportunity to hunt God’s forgiveness and the erasure of previous sins.
However inflation and economic crises world wide are placing the Hajj out of attain for some. Extra warmth and harder guidelines for entry might have additionally deterred potential pilgrims from heading to Saudi Arabia this 12 months.
Earlier Thursday, pilgrims gathered in Arafat to spend hours in worship and contemplation. The rocky hill holds immense significance in Islam. Arafat is talked about within the Quran and it’s the place the Prophet Muhammad is claimed to have given his final sermon on his ultimate Hajj.
On Friday, pilgrims will head to the huge tent metropolis of Mina to hold out the symbolic stoning of the satan ritual by throwing pebbles at pillars.