More than two million Muslims begin hajj pilgrimage

Nearly two million Muslims from all around the world began the annual Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia on Sunday.
“Labbaik Allahumma Labbaik” (I come to you, Oh my Lord, I come to you), the white-clade pilgrims chanted as they moved to the tent-city of Mina at the beginning of the spiritual journey.
On Monday, the pilgrims will ascend Mount Arafat, where Prophet Muhammad delivered his sermon to pilgrims during his last Hajj, at the climax of the soul-searching ritual, asking for God’s forgiveness and mercy.
“All pilgrims wear the same dress during Hajj because they are all equal before Allah,” Talip Ozdes, a professor of Sharia law at Cumhuriyet University in Turkey, told Anadolu Agency.
“They come together with the feeling of being brothers,” he said.
Hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam.
The ritual consists of several rituals, which are meant to symbolize the essential concepts of the Islamic faith, and to commemorate the trials of Prophet Abraham and his family.
Every able-bodied adult Muslim who can financially afford the trip must perform Hajj at least once in a lifetime.