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Pilgrims Conclude Epidemic-free Hajj
10-08-2014
MAKKAH – More than two million Muslim pilgrims will begin leaving the holy city of Makkah, concluding epidemic-free as they performed peacefully the last of the solemn rituals of the soul-searching journey of hajj.
"I wish I could always stay here and not return home," an Indonesian pilgrim who gave her name only as Umm Mohammed, 58, speaking in Arabic, told Agence France Presse (AFP) on Monday, October 6.
In the last ritual of the annual pilgrimage, the white-clad pilgrims performed the final Tawaf (circumambulation) as they walked seven times around the Ka`bah in the Grand Mosque complex in Makkah.
The Ka`bah, with a black stone set in the eastern corner, is not an object of worship, though Muslims pray towards it, but a sanctuary and a spiritual center.
The farewell Tawaf should be done at the last hour before leaving Makkah. If the pilgrim spends another night in Makkah after the tawaf, he or she must repeat the ritual.
The farewell circumambulation came after the pilgrims, some in groups others alone, completed on Monday the three-day ritual of stoning the Devil at Jamrat Al-Aqaba, hurling pebbles at all three wide walls representing Satan.
Muslims from around the world pour to Makkah every year to e perform hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam.
Hajj consists of several ceremonies, which are meant to symbolize the essential concepts of the Islamic faith, and to commemorate the trials of Prophet Abraham and his family.
Every able-bodied adult Muslim who can financially afford the trip must perform hajj at least once in a lifetime.
Muslims who perform hajj properly return to their homes having all their sins washed way as promised by Prophet Muhammad.
Epidemic-free
Concluding hajj, Saudi officials announced that the peaceful gathering has been epidemic-free.
“I am pleased to announce the hajj was free of all epidemic diseases,” Adel Fakieh, Saudi Arabia’s acting health minister, was quoted by AFP.
Among its preventive measures, Fakieh’s ministry set up a “command and control” center to direct the hajj health operation, and required every pilgrim to complete a health screening questionnaire.
Passengers were monitored by thermal cameras that detect high body temperature, and 15 isolation rooms were set up to hold any suspicious cases at the airport in the city of Jeddah.
Fakieh said 170 people were considered as possibly having Mers but all proved to be negative.
Saudi Arabia is the country hardest hit by Mers, which has killed 322 people in the kingdom since it first appeared in September 2012.
The health ministry on Sunday reported two more Mers deaths, one in the capital Riyadh and another in Taif, 50 miles (80km) east of Mecca.
Ebola has killed more than 3,000 people in west Africa.
Saudi Arabia did not allow pilgrims to come from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, which have been hardest hit by the illness.
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