Medical staff carry a Muslim pilgrim who collapsed due to heat stroke for medical examination near the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia on Sunday, June 16, 2024. The activity of stoning the devil.
Rafiq Maqbool/AP
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Rafiq Maqbool/AP
MINA, Saudi Arabia – On Sunday, large crowds of pilgrims began a symbolic stoning of the devil in Saudi Arabia on a scorching summer day. The ceremony marks the final days of the Hajj, or Islamic pilgrimage, and the beginning of Eid al-Adha celebrations for Muslims around the world.
Stoning is one of the last rites of the Hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam. A day earlier, more than 1.8 million pilgrims gathered on Mount Arafat, a holy mountain outside the holy city of Mecca where Muslim pilgrims go for the annual five-day hajj ceremony.
Fourteen Jordanian pilgrims died from heat stroke during the hajj, according to Jordan’s state-run Petra news agency. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that it had coordinated with the Saudi authorities to bury the deceased in Saudi Arabia or transfer them to Jordan.
More than 2,760 pilgrims suffered heat stroke and heat stress on Sunday alone, Mohammed Al-Abdulaali, spokesman for the Saudi Arabian Health Ministry, told reporters. He said the number is likely to increase and urged attendees to avoid the sun during peak hours and drink more water. “Heat stress is the biggest challenge,” he said.
Pilgrims left Mount Arafat on Saturday night and spent the night at a nearby place called Muzdalifah, where they collected pebbles to be used to symbolically stone pillars representing the devil.
The pillars are located in Mina, another holy site in Mecca, where Muslims believe Ibrahim’s faith was tested when God commanded him to sacrifice his only son Ismail. Ibrahim prepared to obey, but then God stopped his hand and spared his son. In both Christian and Jewish versions of the story, Abraham was commanded to kill his other son, Isaac.
On Sunday morning, crowds walked to the stoning area. Some people were seen pushing disabled pilgrims in wheelchairs on the multi-lane road leading to the complex where the large pillar is located. Most of the pilgrims were sweltering and holding umbrellas to protect themselves from the hot summer sun.
Associated Press reporters saw many pilgrims, especially the elderly, collapse on the path to the pillars due to the heat. Security forces and medical personnel were sent to help, taking those who had fainted on gurneys from the heat to ambulances or field hospitals. As temperatures soared at midday, more and more people needed medical assistance. According to the Saudi Arabian Meteorological Department, the temperature reached 116.6 degrees in Mecca and 114.8 degrees in Mina.
Despite the hot weather, many pilgrims expressed joy at being able to complete their pilgrimage.
“Thank God, (the process) is joyful and beautiful,” said Egyptian pilgrim Abdel-Moaty Abu Ghoneima. “No one wants more than this s things.”
Many pilgrims spend up to three days in Mina, each throwing seven pebbles at three pillars in a ritual to symbolize the expulsion of evil and sin.
While in Mina, they will visit Mecca to perform a “tawaf,” or circumambulation, which is seven times around the Kaaba of the Grand Mosque in a counterclockwise direction. Then, as the pilgrim prepares to leave the Holy City, another circumambulation, the Farewell to Tawaf, will mark the end of the Hajj.
These ceremonies coincide with the four-day festival of Eid al-Adha, which means “Feast of Sacrifice,” when Muslims who can afford it commemorate Ib by slaughtering livestock and animals and distributing the meat to the poor. Rushing’s test of faith.
Most countries celebrate Eid al-Adha on the Lord’s Day. Other countries, such as Indonesia, will celebrate the holiday on Monday.
In his statement, President Biden wished Muslims around the world a blessed Eid al-Adha, noting that the holiday is a time of prayer, reflection and sacrifice.
“The Hajj and Eid al-Adha remind us that we are all equal before God, and the importance of community and charity — values that directly reflect the American character,” the statement read. “America is privileged to have millions of American Muslims home, they enrich our nation in countless ways, from medicine to technology, education, public service, the arts and more.”
After the pilgrimage, men have to shave their heads and take off the shroud-like white clothes they wore during the pilgrimage, and women have to cut off a lock of hair to show new life and rebirth.
Most pilgrims then leave Mecca for the city of Medina, about 210 miles away, to pray at the Holy Shrine, the tomb of the Prophet Muhammad. The tomb is part of the Prophet’s Mosque, one of the three holiest sites in Islam along with the Grand Mosque in Mecca and the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.
All Muslims are required to perform Hajj once in their lifetime, if their physical and financial means allow it. Many wealthy Muslims make the pilgrimage more than once. According to Islam’s holy book, the Quran, these rituals are primarily recorded in memory of Prophet Ibrahim, his son Prophet Ismail, Ismail’s mother Hajar and Prophet Muhammad.
More than 1.83 million Muslims will perform the Hajj in 2024, Saudi Arabia and Umrah Minister Tawfiq bin Fazan Al Rabiya said in a briefing, a figure slightly lower than last year when there were 1.84 million Muslims participated in the Hajj ceremony.
Most hajj ceremonies are held outdoors with little shade. It is observed as the second week of Muharram, the last month of the Islamic lunar calendar, so the time of year varies. This year’s pilgrimage coincides with Saudi Arabia’s hot summer.
Palestinians gather near destroyed mosque in Gaza
This year’s hajj takes place against the backdrop of Israel’s devastating war with Hamas, which has pushed the Middle East to the brink of regional conflict.
Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have been unable to make the pilgrimage to Mecca this year because the crossing was closed in May when Israel expanded its ground offensive to the city of Rafah on the border with Egypt. They will not be able to celebrate Eid al-Adha as they did in previous years.
Dozens of Palestinians gathered for Eid al-Fitr prayers near a destroyed mosque in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis on Sunday morning. They were surrounded by debris and rubble from collapsed houses. In the town of Deir al-Balah near central Gaza, Muslims pray in a shelter converted from a school. Some people, including women and children, went to the cemetery to visit the graves of their loved ones.
“Today, nine months have passed, more than 37,000 martyrs, more than 87,000 injured and hundreds of thousands of homes destroyed,” Abdulhalim Abu Samra, a displaced Palestinian Khan Younis told The Associated Press after concluding his prayers. “Our people live in difficult circumstances.”
Also in the occupied West Bank, Palestinians held Eid prayers in Ramallah, the seat of the Western-backed Palestinian Authority. Mahmoud Mohana, the mosque’s imam, said: “We have gone through great suffering and difficult times together with our brothers in Gaza.”
In Sanaa, the Houthi-controlled capital of Yemen, and Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, Muslims celebrated and prayed for war-weary Palestinians in Gaza.
“We are happy because of Eid, but when we see our brothers in Palestine, our hearts are filled with pain,” said Bashar Mashhadani, the imam of Baghdad’s Gilani Mosque. “(We) Arab and Islamic countries are urged to support and stand with them in this ordeal.”
In Lebanon, where militant Hezbollah engages in almost daily attacks against Israel, a steady stream of tourists brought flowers and water jugs to the Palestinian Martyrs Cemetery near Beirut’s Shatila Palestinian refugee camp early Sunday morning. There is a tradition of visiting the graves of relatives.
