Over two million people from across the world including India will perform Haj in Saudi Arabia today. Marking the beginning of five-day Haj rituals, pilgrims converged at tent city of Mina yesterday. After offering pre-dawn prayers, they will proceed to plains of Arafat today for the main ritual of Haj -reciting prayers. They will spend the day there praying and asking for God’s forgiveness. The pilgrims will listen the Khutba-e-Haj or Haj Sermon at Nimra mosque and offer midday and afternoon prayers together before leaving for Muzdalifah in the evening.
The pilgrims will return to Mina tomorrow morning for ritual of animal sacrifice and symbolic stoning of devil. More than one lakh 75 thousand pilgrims from India are participating in the pilgrimage. The highest number of four thousand Indian women pilgrims are performing Haj without Mehram or male guardian this year. Around 2.5 million pilgrims including record two lakh from India performed Haj in 2019 before the outbreak of pandemic.