A trip to the city, located in Saudi Arabia, is one of the pillars of Islam and needs to be done at least once in a lifetime by every Muslim who follows religious precepts to the letter and has the conditions (health and money) to do so. Women can perform the hajj provided they are accompanied by a male family member (mahram). If you are over 45 years old, you can go on your own, but you need written permission from the mahram. The pilgrimage can only be made between the eighth and the 13th day of Dhu al-Hijja, the last Islamic month (in 2016, the period fell in September). The ritual is so detailed that it is usually done in guided groups.
STEP BY STEP
There are several types of pilgrimage, but all include introductory steps and culminate in the ritual called the hajj.
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1. It is common to precede the hajj with a “mini pilgrimage” called umrah, which anticipates several rituals of the main one, but is not obligatory. The hajj itself begins on a Miqat (image above), holy warehouses near Mecca (A), where pilgrims enter ihram, a state of purity that requires prayers, bathing, grooming their beards and hair, and abandoning perfume, cigarettes, sex and nail clippings. The faithful wear white cloths that symbolize equality before finally leaving for Mecca
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two. In Mecca, pilgrims enter the central courtyard of the Great Mosque and do the tawaf, the rite of walking seven times around the Kaaba, the sacred Black Stone of Islam. The route is done counterclockwise. One must pray and, if possible, kiss the stone. If not, the believer can simply point to the Kaaba at the end of the seven laps.
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3. The pilgrims then complete the sa’i, the act of going back and forth seven times between the Safa and Marwah mountains, along a 400 m stretch that is now part of the structure of the mosque. The act recalls the despair of Abraham’s wife, Hagar, as she fetched water for her son Ishmael.
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4. Having completed these three preparatory steps, on the 8th of Dhu al-Hijja the actual hajj begins: the pilgrim makes a morning prayer and leaves Mecca for Mina (B)where he will spend the rest of the day and night in prayer, and sleep in large, air-conditioned tents set up by the Arab government in the middle of the desert.
NEARBY PLACES THAT ARE PART OF THE CIRCUIT
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5. The next morning, pilgrims head to Mount Arafat (W), 13 km east of Mina, where Mohammed delivered his last sermon. The faithful stay here until late afternoon in a meditative state called waquf, during which they repent of their sins, offer prayers and listen to sermons.
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6. After sunset, worshipers walk nine kilometers to Muzdalifah (D), an area between Arafat and Mina. Here, they perform evening and evening prayers and collect 49 stones to be used on the third day of the pilgrimage. Pilgrims spend the night here, usually sleeping on the desert floor, out in the open.
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7. At dawn on the 10th of Dhu al-Hijja, the faithful return on foot to Mina, where they perform the ritual stoning of the Jamrat al Aqabah, a 26 m wide wall that represents the temptations of the devil. They are to stone the wall seven times, using part of the stones they collected in Muzdalifah. Until 2004, stoning was done on pillars instead of walls, but the Arab government replaced them with walls due to accidents in which people ended up throwing stones at other worshipers.
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8. Still in Mina, it’s time to sacrifice an animal, usually a lamb or a goat. In the past, the pilgrim himself was the one who killed the animal, but today it is enough to buy a voucher that guarantees that the local butchers will make the sacrifice in the name of the pilgrim. Meat is distributed to charities
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9. After the sacrifice, the faithful cut their hair. They can choose between a more discreet trim, called a taqsir, or a full shave, a halq. Afterwards, the pilgrims return to Mecca, where they make another tawaf, the seven laps around the Kaaba. The night of the 10th to the 11th of Dhu al-Hijja is spent in Mina
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10. On the 11th of Dhu al-Hijja, in Mina, the stoning ritual of Jamrat al Aqabah is repeated, this time including two other walls: Jamrat Oolah and Jamrat Wustah. The rule is to throw seven stones on each of the walls in order from east to west. The ritual is repeated the next day, totaling 42 stones.
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11. If the second complete stoning is finished before sunset, the pilgrims return to Mecca to perform a farewell tawaf, called Tawaf al-Wadda, and there they are released. If they cannot, they must perform the stoning ritual on the 13th of Dhu al-Hijja and then the farewell tawaf in Mecca.
Reader Question Leonardo Miloch, Dracena, SP
SOURCES Book Islamic Pilgrimage to Mecca, published by the Ministry of Religious Affairs of Oman; Islamic Union, IslamemLinha, Al Jazeera and BBC websites
CONSULTANCY Mohamad Al Bukai, director of Islamic affairs at the National Islamic Union and Sheikh of the Santo Amaro Mosque (Sao Paulo)