The Haj reached its high point yesterday when Muslims from across the world converged on a stony hill in Saudi Arabia.
Nearly 2mn people gathered from sunrise to sunset at the hill and a vast surrounding plain known as Mount Arafat, about 15km (9 miles) from Makkah.
In stifling heat they chanted a traditional Haj incantation, “Here I am at your service, O God. Here I am, at your service. You have no partner,” spending the most important day of the annual Haj in prayer and reading from the Qur’an.
After sunset, the throng was on the move aboard buses heading for nearby Muzdalifah, in preparation for the stoning ritual.
Arafat is the site where the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) gave his last sermon about 14 centuries ago after leading his followers on the pilgrimage.
“I have the impression of standing exactly in front of God,” said Khadem Ndyaye, 47, of Senegal.
“Muslims came here from everywhere and we are all the same. If all the world was like that, there wouldn’t be any war. Here, we feel that Islam is a religion of peace.”
A teenage Indian pilgrim, who gave her name only as Janifa, said she had travelled with her parents.
“I truly am lucky, and very grateful,” she said, draped in white under a green parasol.
Another Indian, Mohamed Arafan, 40, said he felt “chosen by God” for being able to perform the Haj.
“It’s beautiful to see the Muslims of the world pray together here.”
At midday prayers, hundreds of thousands of men and women prostrated themselves in wide alleys that run between prefabricated pilgrim lodgings.
For the first time in years, Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh did not give his traditional Haj sermon at Arafat.
Okaz newspaper cited health reasons, but Sheikh still attended the sermon given in his place by Abdul Rahman al-Sudais, imam of Makkah’s Grand Mosque.
From a distance, the hill appeared a snowy white because of the seamless two-piece white garment, ihram, worn by male pilgrims. Women also usually wear white.
They come from every corner of the globe for the Haj, but Indonesia – the most populous Muslim nation – has the largest contingent.
Trucks loaded with bottled water were stationed throughout, and pilgrims doused themselves.
At Muzdalifah, half way between Arafat and Mina, pilgrims gather 49 pebbles for a symbolic stoning of the devil which begins today, in the last major rite of Haj.
It coincides with Eid al-Adha, the feast of sacrifice marked by Muslims worldwide.
A number of safety measures have been taken after last year’s stampede during stoning ritual in Mina’s Jamarat area in which hundreds of pilgrims were killed.
Among these is the distribution of digital bracelets to the pilgrims to help identify and guide them in the congestion. The bracelets are connected to a GPS location system.
Roads have also been widened in the Jamarat area, newspapers reported.
Pilgrims have said they feel safe and have noticed organisational improvements.
“The Saudis organise everything for us. We are truly at ease here in Arafat,” Youssef al-Mehri, 24, of Oman said with a prayer rug slung over his shoulder.
Yesterday, helicopters monitored the crowd flow from the skies, while on the ground, police directed pedestrian movement.
At the sacred hill itself, officers sometimes had to use their bodies to block the flow of pilgrims and avoid bottlenecks.