MINA: Nearly three million pilgrims performed the symbolic act of stoning the devil yesterday in a very orderly fashion.
Masses of faithful, still clad in a two-piece seamless white cloth or ihram, completed the largest human movement on earth and flocked to the Mina Valley from Muzdalifah where they spent the night praying and collecting small rocks for the stoning of devil.
Pilgrims began the journey of faith on Wednesday, moving from Makkah to Mina, and on Thursday they moved to Mount Arafat for the Haj climax, before returning to Mina where three giant structures symbolizing “Satan” stand.
The faithful threw only seven small stones at the first pillar known as the “Big Satan” (Jamarat Al-Aqaba) on Friday.
“I am very proud that God has given me the opportunity to perform Haj,” said Ikramuddin Farooqui, from Allahabad, India. “May God accept our Haj.”
“I am so moved, I can't describe the happiness inside me,” a Syrian pilgrim said, tears streaming down his cheeks. “It is a dream come true.”
The Saudi leadership and its people came in for fulsome praise for the wonderful arrangements at the Jamarat complex.
"I was here some seven years ago and there were many deaths while performing this ritual," recalled Ibrahim Mohammad Kutty, an Indian pilgrim. "This place used to be like an ordinary pedestrian bridge and stampedes were a regular occurrence."
He prayed for the long life of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah and other princes, governors and government officials for pouring billions of riyals into the Jamarat project and turning it into a massive multistory complex. "Stoning the devil has now become the easiest and most organized ritual ... God bless Saudi Arabia and its people," said an emotional Ibrahim Mohammad Kutty.
Pilgrims threw the small stones to cries of “Allahu Akbar,” or God is Greatest. According to tradition, the stoning ritual takes place at the site where Satan appeared to Prophet Abraham, to his son Prophet Ismael, and to Abraham's wife Hajera.
Prophet Abraham and his family each threw seven stones at Satan. The gesture has been perpetuated, and Muslims must perform it to complete the Haj.
Helicopters hovered constantly overhead to monitor the huge crowds with the help of thousands of high-tech cameras, all connected to a control room run by top security authorities.
After the stoning, pilgrims offered sacrificial meat, normally by slaughtering a sheep and even camels. Most of the sacrifices were slaughtered at a number of state-of-the-art abattoirs run by the Jeddah-based Islamic Development Bank (IDB). The meat is sent to poor countries.
Also on Friday, the pilgrims visited the Grand Mosque in Makkah to circumambulate the Holy Kaaba, the cube-shaped structure, seven times; it is called as Tawaf Al-Ifada. Some of the pilgrims also walked the 500 meters between Safa and Marwa seven times to commemorate Hajera’s run between the hillocks in search of water, before they take off ihram and don normal dress.
Delivering the Eid sermon in Makkah, Imam-e-Haram Sheikh Saleh Mohammed Al-Taleb called on Arabs and Muslims to take “practical and urgent” steps to stop bloodshed in Syria that has killed some 30,000 people, and urged world states to assume their moral responsibility towards the conflict.
“The world should bear responsibility for this prolonged and painful disaster (in Syria) and the responsibility is greater for the Arabs and Muslims who should call on each other to support the oppressed against the oppressor,” said Sheikh Al-Taleb.
"The solution should be practical and urgent because the oppressor becomes even more fierce as the days pass," he said.
“The world should take moral and legal responsibility against the massacres and the oppression that the Syrian people are subjected to as well as the continuing violations in Palestine,” Sheikh Al-Taleb, one of the most senior religious scholar in the Saudi Arabia, said.
“The war and destruction should be stopped and the higher interests should be ahead of personal interests in order to stop the spill of the Muslims' blood,” he added.
The stoning ritual continues over the next two days during which pilgrims will hurl seven stones every day at each of the three massive structures. They used to be mere pillars in the past.