Pilgrims pray for peace, forgiveness as hajj ends

A devotee is offering prayers on the plains of Arafat, southeast of the holy city of Makkah, yesterday. Some 2.5 million pilgrims from more than 160 countries performed hajj this year.Photo: AFPAp, Afp, Al Jazeera, Mount Arafat

An estimated three millions pilgrims gathered on the plains of Arafat in Saudi Arabia yesterday for a key rite of hajj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage.

Throughout the day, the faithful climbed up the Mountain of Mercy, a rocky hill at Arafat, and prayed for Allah's forgiveness of their sins in what Muslims consider the spiritual high point of the pilgrimage.

Pilgrims holding white umbrellas against the blazing sun clambered up a rocky desert hill for prayers following a day of deadly torrential rains. The pilgrims spent the whole day at Arafat in reverent prayer and reading the Quran. The often calling out the chant: "Here I am in answer to Thy call, Allah, here I am. There is no other God but Allah. Praise be unto Thee."

After Wednesday's sudden, unexpected downpours, the heat was scorching as the pilgrims travelled to Mount Arafat, a desert plateau about 20km outside Makkah where Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (SM) delivered his farewell sermon.

The four-day event, which opened Wednesday, is one of the most crowded in the world, with the masses of Muslims from every corner of the globe packed shoulder to shoulder in prayers and rites.

Many could be seen Thursday morning gazing up into the sky with their palms held upward, reciting prayers. Some were crying.

"I'm so happy because I'm in Arafat," said Fatima, a pilgrim from Morocco. "Because Prophet Hazrat Mohammed (SM) spoke with Allah from this place. This is the most holy place in the world. I'm very happy."

Faisal, 52, a Palestinian pilgrim from Israel, said he was praying for "all Muslims to be unified soon to liberate Al-Aqsa and Palestine."

Meanwhile volunteers were passing out thousands of free meals all around Arafat, donated by numerous Saudi charities and businesses.

The weather was improved after heavy rains marred the first day of the hajj, stranding many latecomers on the road between Jeddah and Makkah and knotting up the eight kilometre (five mile) mass move from Makkah to Mina, halfway in between Makkah and Arafat.

Some pilgrims said they would skip the traditional stop in Mina because of the buses carrying pilgrims over the distance were heavy snarled by the rainstorm.

Ignoring Saudi warnings against political activity, the Iranians chanted for Muslim unity and against the "enemies" of the faith in their camp at Arafat outside of Makkah.

"Death to America, death to Israel," thousands of Iranians chanted inside a huge tent on the Arafat plain.

No Saudi security forces were evident as Ayatollah Muhammed Rishari, the representative of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, led the Iranian delegation.

"We need to be purified from our wrongdoings in this hajj," he said in a statement.

"We need all Muslims, Sunni and Shia, to be unified and focus on important issues: Al-Aqsa (mosque in Jerusalem), the occupation of Palestine, the problems in Iraq, the Afghan occupation, and the fighting between brothers in Yemen. We need be purified from all infidels."

Flooding from Wednesday's downpour killed 48 people in western Saudi Arabia, Saudi officials said. None of the dead were hajj pilgrims, said Brig Gen Mansour al-Turki, a spokesman for the Saudi Interior Ministry. The rains tapered off Thursday but meteorologists predicted further showers.

Saudi Arabia's biggest worry for months ahead of the hajj has been swine flu. The Saudi government has been working with the United States' Centres for Disease Control and Prevention to set up clinics and take precautions to stem any outbreak.

There is also the risk of one of the gathering's perennial dangers: deadly stampedes.

In 2006, all it took was a dropped piece of luggage to trip up a crowd and cause a pileup that killed more than 360 people at one of the holy sites. The rains also could cause flash floods or mudslides in the desert mountains where most of the rites take place.

It often rains in Makkah and Jeddah during the winter months, but Wednesday's downpour was the heaviest in years during the hajj. Jiddah was swamped with 7 centimetres (2.76 inches) of rain, more than it would normally get in an entire year, according to Dale Mohler, senior meteorologist at the Web site, AccuWeather.com.