The first batch of 510 pilgrims from Borno will leave Madinah for Makkah on Friday to begin the main Hajj rituals.
In accordance with COVID-19 protocols, the pilgrims would be transported in luxury buses.
According to an official at the Madinah control center, pilgrims will begin the Makkah ritual at Miqat Hulifax.
Hulifa is approximately nine kilometers from Madina and approximately 450 kilometers from Makkah.
It is the Meeqat for people coming from Madina.
The Meeqat is the main border through which pilgrims intending to perform Hajj or Umrah must enter the state of Ihram.
Ihram is a consecrated state in which certain permitted activities are prohibited.
The pilgrims will take a bath, and wear two white clothes by men or any other colour by women, signifying a state of purity, the pilgrims proceed to Makkah to perform the lesser Hajj (Umrah).
The Umrah process involves circumambulation of the Ka’abah inside the Holy Mosque seven times and doing the seven laps of Safa and Marwa.
The Safa and Marwa are in following the process done by Hagar, mother of Prophet Ismail, in search of water for her son in that location.
After this, pilgrims would wait for the five-day Hajj.
Hajj is the pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia, which every adult Muslim must make at least once in his or her lifetime.
The hajj is the fifth of the fundamental Muslim practices.
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