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| Plane load of pilgrims arrive
in Jeddah |
Approaching the boarding gate at Zurich airport it immediately became apparent which flight is headed to Jeddah. As the snow fell gently outside, some travellers start to remove their clothes and don two sheets; others kneel on prayer mats praying in the direction of Mecca. This holiest of cities is to be their final destination.
Almost everyone on the flight is embarking on the trip of a lifetime, Hajj. Even though there are many different tongues being spoken, their voices soon join as one in the common bond of Islam, prayer.
By the time we reach Jeddah they are transformed from ordinary people
into pilgrims. The ihram symbolised by the wearing of two sheets coupled
with the air of excitement and anticipation, differentiates them from
us civilians.
Those of us not in ihram look out of place, we are the minority. This
scene on Saudi Air to Jeddah has been repeated thousands of times
in the last days and weeks as pilgrims from more than 170 countries
converge on Saudi Arabia for this year's Hajj.
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| Iraq is well-represented at
the Hajj |
They come from all corners of the earth; 120,000 from India, 22,000 from France, 20,000 from Great Britain and 3,400 Singaporeans to name a few.
More than 16,000 Iraqi pilgrims are in Mecca and about 7,000 Americans.
Both groups talk of Ummah the global Islamic community overcoming
the differences of nationality and homelands.
They all come through the Hajj terminal at the King Abdul Aziz airport
in Jeddah. The terminal's clinic has treated 86,000 mostly elderly
pilgrims in the last month. In the same period there has been eight
fatalities.
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| Prayer-time in Mecca |
Friday is the day of prayer in Muslim countries and this week the Holy Mosque at Mecca was overrun with the faithful. During the Mahgrib or evening prayers the city ground to a halt as people dropped wherever they were to their knees and prayed to Allah.
Pilgrims waited in the hot sun for hours to secure their positions, some even resorted to kneeling on the roof of buses parked near the Mosque.
The Holy Mosque at Mecca holds more than one million people and the lead up to Hajj has stretched that capacity to the limit.
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| Kosser Sheikh |
Interior Minister Prince Naif said recently he believes the slogan
for all Saudis should be, 'service to pilgrims is a duty and honour
for us' and that they have the opportunity to serve the guests of
Allah.
On Sunday, the first day of Hajj, the pilgrims head to Mina, described
by some as the 'biggest hotel on earth' with more than 44,000 air
conditioned tents pitched in the middle of the Saudi desert housing
around 1.5 million people.
Don't miss our update of Day One at the Hajj on Monday, here at channel4.com/hajj
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Live at the Hajj