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Labbayk Allahumma… two million Muslims assemble at Mt. Arafat

By: Abdulali

MOUNT ARAFAT, Saudi Arabia: Some two million pilgrims from around the world on Wednesday crammed Mount Arafat near the holy city of Mecca at the climax of the annual hajj.

From sunrise, the pilgrims dressed in white robes that erase differences of class or culture, chanting in unison “Labbayk Allahumma Labbaik, Labbayk La Sharika Laka Labbayk, Innal Hamda Wan Ne’mata Laka Wal Mulk La Sharika Lak”, headed to Mount Arafat, where the Prophet Mohammad (p) gave his farewell sermon 14 centuries ago, from Mina valley where they spent the night in a city of tents.

The faithful spent the day praying for forgiveness and beseeching God for success. Tens of thousands gathered for prayers in the Namra mosque on Arafat, a small plain some 250 metres (800 feet) above sea level and surrounded by high mountains from all directions.

During a hajj sermon, Saudi grand mufti denounced what he said were hostile campaigns against Islam and rejected any link between religion and terrorism.

"O nation of Islam, the military, ideological, economic and media-related campaigns are led against Islam and our nation qualified as terrorist," Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh said in a sermon in the Namra mosque which was broadcast over loudspeakers to the camps of pilgrims in the area.

"Muslims are also qualified as backward, violators of human rights and freedom, yet Islam is a religion of justice, equity and rights," the kingdom's highest religious authority said.

He also condemned al Qaida-linked attacks on the Saudi kingdom. The cleric said, "The greatest affliction to strike the nation of Islam came from some of its own sons."

After performing the ritual symbolizing the Last Judgment on Mount Arafat, the pilgrims return to Holy Mecca on Thursday, the first day of Eid-ul-Adha, or Feast of the Sacrifice.

Most sacrifice an animal, generally a sheep, in remembrance of Prophet Abraham's readiness to sacrifice his son on the order of God.

More than a million sheep have been imported for slaughter to mark the Eid.

On Friday and Saturday, they will return to Mina to stone the "jamarat," or three pillars symbolizing the devil -- the ultimate ritual.

According to the official SPA news agency, 1,534,759 pilgrims have come from abroad for this year's largest annual Muslim gathering while the remainders are Saudi nationals or expatriates living in the kingdom.

More than 50-thousand security forces are deployed amid terrorism concerns and to prevent stampeding that has troubled the hajj in recent years.

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