“Today, Friday, I am on my way to Mina to perform the Hajj. I am doing this on behalf of my late mother who died 4 months ago and whom I promised to do a pilgrimage for.
The Haj of today is very different from the past. One has to go through digital services and be computer savvy. All contacts with the Mutawiffs (the pilgrimage guides) and through application and social media.
This speeds the communication process.
So, today, I am sitting on a bus, along with other pilgrims from across Saudi Arabia and on my way to Mina camp where, after spending the night, I and other pilgrims will make our way to Arafat where pilgrims will renew their faith in their hearts and action and spend the day to get closer to the ALMIGHTY.
The standing on the plains of Arafat is on the ninth day of the Islamic month of Zil Hijja (which falls on Saturday)
In Arafat pilgrims will spend the day beseeching the Almighty for forgiveness.”
Note from the Editor: From Arafat, the pilgrims will move to Muzdalifa in the evening, spend the night there, and in the morning go back to Mina. There they go through the rituals of removing their hair (males), sacrificing a sheep, and go for the stoning of the three Satans—small, medium, and the big.
(It is a symbolic rejection of the evil in life and a promise that one will try to desist not to fall prey to the persuasions of Satanic acts that are all against the wish of God). They would begin returning home (to Makkah or Madinah or elsewhere in the world on the 12th day of Zil Hijja which incidentally is the last month of the Islamic Lunar Calendar.
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