​Pilgrims perform main rituals of Haj

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Thursday 24 Sep 2015 - 14:30 Makkah mean time-11-12-1436 Mina , (IINA) -  Nearly two million pilgrims performed on Thursday, Dhul Hijjah 10, also known as the Day of Sacrifice, four main rituals of Haj. They performed their ritual of symbolic stoning of Satan in the Mina valley after returning to the Tent City from Muzdalifah where they spent the night praying. The occasion coincided with the first day of Eid Al-Adha, the feast of sacrifice, which is celebrated by Muslims around the world. At the break of dawn, pilgrims started walking into the tent city and headed toward the multistoried Jamarat complex. Dressed in the ihram, a two-piece seamless white garment, they stopped talbiyah and started chanting “Allahu Akbar” (God is the Greatest) as they hurled pebbles at Jamarat Al-Aqba. The ritual symbolizes Prophet Ibrahim’s stoning of the devil that appeared three times to him and to his son, Ismail, and tried to dissuade them from carrying out God’s command. The ritual, in actual, is renunciation of evil in all its forms and a promise never to fall prey to the machinations and intrigues of Satan, the cursed. After the first stoning, pilgrims offered sacrifices by slaughtering sheep or cattle and the meat is handed out to the needy. Most of the pilgrims delegated the task of sacrifice to the Kingdom’s Sacrificial Meat Program by purchasing Adahi coupons. Later, male pilgrims shaved their head or cut their hair, and women cut off small strands of their hair.  Pilgrims then headed back to the Grand Mosque in Makkah to perform the tawaful ifadha and sai, two pillars of Haj. After circumambulating the Holy Kaaba seven times, they performed the ritual of sai by walking between the hills of Safa and Marwah seven times. In the second day of the stoning ritual on Friday, pilgrims will stone at each of the three Jamrat (pillars symbolizing Satan) in Mina. They will stone seven pebbles first at Jamrat Al-Sughra, then at Jamrat Al-Wusta, and finally at Jamrat Al-Aqba. Most of the pilgrims will leave Mina after performing stoning at the three pillars on Saturday, while the remaining pilgrims will complete the stoning ritual on Sunday, the last day of Haj. Stoning at Jamrat is the main ritual pilgrims have to perform in the last three days of Haj. HA/IINA