Eid al-Adha 2017: Explaining the Muslim pilgrimage of haj

Eid al-Adha 2017: 1.7 million Muslims have gathered this year in the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia for the annual pilgrimage – the hajj. The five-day pilgrimage is a once-in-a-lifetime obligation for all Muslims who have the physical and financial ability to undertake the journey.

Millions of Muslims from diverse countries such as Indonesia, Russia, India, Cuba, Fiji, the United States, Nigeria and others congregate in Mecca during the last month of the Muslim lunar year.Pilgrims wear plain, white garments. Men drape seamless, unstitched clothing and women dress in plain white dresses and headscarves. The idea behind dressing simply is to mask any differences in wealth and status.

The pilgrimage is considered the fifth pillar of Islamic practice (the other four being the profession of faith, five daily prayers, charity and the fast of Ramadan). In calling Muslims to perform the hajj, the Quran says,“Proclaim to men the pilgrimage: they will come to thee on foot and on every lean camel, coming from every remote path.”The rites of the hajj are believed to retrace events from the lives of prominent prophets such as Ibrahim and Ismail.

Pilgrims then proceed to a ritual walking – about 100 meters from the Kaaba – to hills known as “Safa” and “Marwah.” Here they re-create another significant event recorded in the Quran: when Ibrahim was granted a son by God through his Egyptian slave girl Hajar. After the birth of Ismail, God instructed Ibrahim to take Hajar and her newborn son out into the desert and leave them there. Ibrahim left them near the present-day location of the Kaaba. Ismail cried out with thirst and Hajar ran between two hills, looking for water until she turned to God for help.