More than 2 million Muslims from around the world, including India, began the annual hajj pilgrimage at first light in Saudi Arabia, circling the cube-shaped Kaaba in Mecca that Islam\u2019s faithful face five times each day during their prayers.<\/p>\n
The five-day hajj pilgrimage represents one of the world\u2019s biggest gatherings every year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are very blessed by Allah to be in this place, and we pray to Allah to make the Islamic nations from the West to the East in a better situation,\u201d said Essam-Eddin Afifi, a pilgrim from Egypt.<\/p>\n
Muslims circle the Kaaba counter-clockwise seven times while reciting supplications to God, then walk between the two hills traveled by Hagar, Ibrahim\u2019s wife. Mecca\u2019s Grand Mosque, the world\u2019s largest, encompasses the Kaaba and the two hills.<\/p>\n
Before heading to Mecca, many pilgrims visit the city of Medina, where the Prophet Muhammad is buried and where he built his first mosque.<\/p>\n
After prayers in Mecca, pilgrims will head to an area called Mount Arafat, where the Prophet Muhammad delivered his final sermon. From there, pilgrims will head to an area called Muzdalifa, picking up pebbles along the way for a symbolic stoning of the devil and a casting away of sins that takes place in the Mina valley for three days.<\/p>\n
At the hajj\u2019s end, male pilgrims will shave their hair and women will cut a lock of hair in a sign of renewal for completing the pilgrimage. Around the world, Muslims will mark the end of hajj with a celebration called Eid al-Adha.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
More than 2 million Muslims from around the world, including India, began the annual hajj pilgrimage at first light in Saudi Arabia, circling the cube-shaped Kaaba in Mecca that Islam\u2019s faithful face five times each day during their prayers. The five-day hajj pilgrimage represents one of the world\u2019s biggest gatherings every year. \u201cWe are very […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39662,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39661"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39661\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39663,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39661\/revisions\/39663"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}