What is the significance of mecca for muslims

Made by Bayram B. Ilyas, Turkey, Story highlights British Museum hosts first major exhibition on Hajj Three million Muslims a year take Hajj to Mecca Qu'ran says all Muslims should go at least once in their lifetime. From a few thousand people traveling by camel in the 7th century to three million a year today: The story of the Hajj -- the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca -- is an epic journey. That journey is celebrated in the first major exhibition dedicated to the Hajj, opening at the British Museum in London on January It includes sacred objects, pictures and the human stories of pilgrims past and present.

Yet despite the changes over the years, it was what hadn't changed which most struck Porter. The exhibition falls into three sections, the first focusing on the journey to Mecca, particularly along the major routes used through history across Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East.

The second section focuses on the Hajj today, its rituals and what the experience means to pilgrims. Finally, the exhibition takes on Mecca itself, its origins and importance.

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Previous Next. Middle East. August 18, PM. Associated Press. More Middle East News. Bomb Explodes in Eastern Afghanistan Mosque. The Day in Photos. November 12, You may also like. Men and women, even married couples, sleep in separate tents. For 51 weeks of the year, the tent city, roads, and other infrastructure built to accommodate pilgrims are almost completely deserted. Then for one week each year, they seethe with humanity.

There is also an extensive security apparatus in place to monitor every aspect of the hajj — to maintain order and safety, but also to ensure that proper Islamic protocol is followed by all in attendance. This year, the Saudis have deployed tens of thousands of security forces to control crowds and help keep pilgrims safe.

Though this was the deadliest hajj disaster in history, other disasters have occurred. A stampede inside a pedestrian tunnel killed almost 1, people, while stampedes in the stoning of the devil area in , , , , and claimed the lives of hundreds. The eruption of a fire in burned thousands of tents and killed over people.

Health issues are also a major concern during the hajj. So many people from all corners of the globe gathering in such a small area means the chances of contagious diseases spreading through the population are very high. There is also a high risk of heat stroke, heat exhaustion, dehydration, and sunburn, especially when the hajj falls in the summer months as it does this year.

For instance, in August , 2, cases of heatstroke were reported, and more than 1, of the sufferers died within a few days. To try to prevent this from happening, the Saudi government makes all pilgrims adhere to strict guidelines regarding vaccinations, especially for particularly contagious diseases such as meningitis.

Pilgrims are also advised to drink lots of water and to be mindful of the perils of the blistering desert heat. The Saudi government also provides complimentary water distributed from refrigerated trucks, air-conditioned tents at Mina, large sun-blocking canopies, and thousands of fine-mist sprinklers, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Medical facilities are also available in and around the main hajj sites. As Asaad Shujaa and Sameer Alhamid write in the Turkish Journal of Emergency Medicine , in there were 25 hospitals with 4, bed capacity critical care and emergency care and health centers with 20, qualified specialized personnel.

They also note that all health care is provided at no cost to all pilgrims. Saudi Arabia and Iran have for years been in a sort of proxy struggle for dominance of the Middle East and the broader Muslim world.

Saudi Arabia's government is officially Sunni, and Iran's is officially Shia. Both countries frequently exploit this by pushing a sectarian worldview of Sunni versus Shia. And that often comes to a head over the hajj. The political legitimacy of the Saudi royal family rests largely on its religious credentials, which it gets at home from the support of the country's ultra-conservative Wahhabi religious establishment, and internationally from being the "custodian" of the two holiest places in Islam, the Prophet Mohammed's mosque in Medina and Masjid al-Haram in Mecca.

Iran, then, has long sought to portray the Saudis as incompetent custodians in an effort to damage their credibility, and has even called for an international body to take over administration of these places. When a horrific stampede occurred at the hajj, Iran jumped at the chance to blame the Saudis. More than Iranian pilgrims were reportedly killed in the incident. But before most of the victims had even been identified, Iranian leaders issued statements blaming the Saudis for the accident.

The fight bled into the hajj. Khamenei issued a blistering statement on his website calling the Saudis murderers for their handling of the stampede last year and suggesting they may even have caused the stampede on purpose:. Saudi rulers were at fault in both cases. This is what all those present, observers and technical analysts agree upon. Some experts maintain that the events were premeditated.

The hesitation and failure to rescue the half-dead and injured people, whose enthusiastic souls and enthralled hearts were accompanying their praying tongues on Eid ul-Adha, is also obvious and incontrovertible. The heartless and murderous Saudis locked up the injured with the dead in containers- instead of providing medical treatment and helping them or at least quenching their thirst.

They murdered them. From Al Jazeera :. In comments to the Makkah newspaper published on Tuesday, Saudi Arabia's Grand Mufti Abdulaziz Al Sheikh was quoted as saying that Khamenei's remarks blaming Riyadh for last year's tragedy were "not surprising" because Iranians are descendants of Magi.

Magi refers to Zoroastrians and those who worship fire. Predating Christianity and Islam, Zoroastrianism was the dominant religion in Persia before the Arab conquest. In , however, Iran lifted the ban, and around 80, Iranians performed the hajj that year.

And there are tons of Shia Muslims from other countries, too. For the most part, Sunni and Shia pilgrims on hajj get along just fine — despite the best efforts of the governments of Iran and Saudi Arabia to stir up sectarian tension every year for geopolitical gain.

That Sunni and Shia pilgrims come together as brothers and sisters in Islam during the hajj is a powerful reminder of how religion can unite people as well as divide them. Pilgrims planning to go on hajj are advised to avoid conflict and disagreement with other Muslims, to refrain from judging or being harsh toward others whose customs or interpretations of Islam may seem ignorant or incorrect.

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Reddit Pocket Flipboard Email. Muslim pilgrims on hajj perform the final walk Tawaf al-Wadaa around the Kaaba at the Grand Mosque in the Saudi holy city of Mecca on November 30, What is the hajj?

What is the religious significance of the hajj? Oh, and aliens.