By SIRAJ WAHAB | ARAB NEWS
MINA: The once-in-a-lifetime journey of faith undertaken by nearly 3 million pilgrims reached its end on Tuesday with hundreds of buses and cars taking them out of the tent city of Mina before sunset.
Many pilgrims chose to walk their way to the adjacent holy city of Makkah where they performed Tawaf Al-Wida or the farewell circumambulation.
Makkah was packed with pilgrims and all three floors were filled with the faithful performing the same task.
At the high-tech Jamarat Bridge, defense and military helicopters monitored pilgrim traffic that flowed smoothly throughout the last day. Chanting “God is Greatest,” the pilgrims threw seven small pebbles at each of the three gray stone walls before moving out of Mina.
Watched by alert, friendly and extremely polite security officers, pilgrims were directed to approach the stoning site in orderly waves. The stoning ritual tends to be the most animated, with pilgrims heaving their pebbles along with declarations against the evils they perceive in the world. Many had political overtones with pilgrims shouting out the names of those they perceive to be persecuting Muslims worldwide.
Categories: Asia, ISLAM, Saudi Arabia