The ritual of Tawaf Al-Qudum was performed by hundreds of thousands of Hajj pilgrims

Before entering into Mina on Monday, the Day of Tarwiyah, to mark the commencement of the yearly pilgrimage of Hajj, hundreds of thousands of Hajj pilgrims began completing the ritual of Tawaf Al-Qudum (Tawaf of Arrival), on Sunday afternoon. While pilgrims are making final preparations to leave for the tent city of Mina at the beginning of their lifelong spiritual journey, the Saudi authorities and Hajj delegations of many nations have finished massive preparations and failsafe and immaculate arrangements for a hassle-free Hajj.

Following Saudi Arabia's decision to permit this year's Hajj to be performed without any limitations on the number of pilgrims or their ages, the streets of Makkah were overrun with tents housing thousands of pilgrims of all nations. Before proceeding to Mina, a huge expansive tent city, the pilgrims who arrived in Makkah on Sunday performed Tawaf Al-Qudoom, one of the required Hajj rites. The earlier-arrived pilgrims are busy completing last-minute preparations before settling into the tent city on Sunday night.

The sacred city is filled with pilgrims once more after three years of sparse visits. The crowded marketplaces and eateries, which were mostly deserted during the outbreak, have no foothold. Thousands of pilgrims were praying on vibrant carpets in front of hotels and stores in the streets surrounding the Grand Mosque. The pilgrims walked around the Holy Kaaba while wearing seamless white Ihram clothing. While some of the pilgrims were pleading and kneeling on the musk-scented white marble flooring, others had umbrellas to shield them from the intense sun.

Throughout the Grand Mosque, there are also several fire vehicles with their signature yellow paint jobs, and police officers have set up checkpoints and patrolled on foot while toting white umbrellas for sun protection. Some of the pilgrims sprawled out on the squares next to the Grand Mosque's entrances while the security guards stood and sprayed water on them since they were hot and fatigued. Young volunteers wheeling wheelchairs waited in a lengthy queue inside the Grand Mosque while paramedics stood by in various spots to assist the elderly and the ill who were unable to travel large distances.

Workers dressed in green handed cold water bottles across the sacred site, as others sprayed cool mist from cylinders strapped to their backs. Many pilgrims wore clothing with the names and flags of their home nations. Participants from Asia and Africa donned abayas of varied colours.

Beginning on Sunday night, a sizable number of pilgrims will go to Mina, which is located approximately 5 km from the Grand Mosque, to spend the Day of Tarwiyah in tents. In Mina, pilgrims offer abridged versions of the Dhuhr, Asr, and Isha prayers at the appropriate times. The Maghrib prayer is offered as normal and cannot be abbreviated. The pilgrims would spend the day and night in their tents praying and making supplications. They leave Mina on Tuesday after reciting the Fajr prayer and go to Arafat for the 'wuqoof Arafat' rite, one of the four pillars of Hajj, which symbolises the culmination of the yearly journey.

Two years after it was restricted to a few thousand domestic pilgrims only owing to the coronavirus epidemic, the overall number of pilgrims who conducted the Hajj stood at 926,000, and these included 781,000 from outside. throughout 2.5 million Muslims from throughout the world conducted the Hajj in 2019.

To allow the pilgrims to execute their rites easily and comfortably, all the ministries, government agencies, commercial organisations, and security officials have finished their preparations. Thousands of personnel from various security wings would monitor and plan the passage of pilgrims through the highways, tunnels, and bridges that the Saudi government has been steadily building over the years, despite the enormous numbers of people travelling to holy places on foot and in cars.