By Faten Omar

KUWAIT: Flights to Saudi Arabia to perform hajj will begin Friday June 23, as 75 flights will be operated to transport 9,000 pilgrims by five Kuwaiti and Saudi airlines, Deputy Director-General for Planning and Projects Affairs and official spokesperson of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation Saad Al-Otaibi said. Kuwait has affirmed its readiness to meet the needs of the pilgrims and ensure the pilgrims’ safe arrival to Saudi Arabia. Abdulaziz Al-Shatti, Head of the Public Relations Committee of the Kuwaiti Hajj Mission, affirmed in a statement that the committee is receiving and answering calls of pilgrims while coordinating with the Kuwaiti Hajj Mission and hajj campaign owners.

“The committee also coordinates with the ministry of health regarding any emergency and to provide needed medicines or hospital admissions,” he added. Mishaan Shuwais, a member of the Services Committee of the Kuwaiti Hajj Mission, said in a statement to KTV that the mission’s members had arrived in the sacred places in Saudi Arabia to serve the guests and arrange what pilgrims need in terms of services, food and others.

Earlier, Director of the Operations Department at the General Administration of Civil Aviation Mansour Al-Hashimi indicated that according to the quotas assigned to Kuwait, 9,000 pilgrims will depart Kuwait for hajj, affirming that all procedures have been completed to provide counters for pilgrims to coordinate and overcome any difficulties and provide all facilities for campaigns and airlines for visitors to Kuwait International Airport and pilgrims. Every year, millions of Muslims travel to Makkah to perform the hajj, which involves a series of rituals and acts of worship.

The hajj is a complex and physically demanding pilgrimage. Pilgrims must make the intention before entering the state of ihram to perform hajj, where men must wear the prescribed attire, consisting of two seamless white cloths, while women can wear any modest and loose-fitting garments. Upon arriving in Makkah, pilgrims perform tawaf, known as the “arrival tawaf”, and this involves circling the Kaaba seven times, beginning from the Black Stone and following it with two units of voluntary prayer behind Maqam Ibrahim if possible.

After completing tawaf, pilgrims should proceed to perform saee, which involves walking seven times between the hills of Safa and Marwa, following the footsteps of Hajar, the wife of Prophet Ibrahim (PBUH). On the eighth day of the Islamic month of Thulhijja, pilgrims head to Mina and spend the day and night there in preparation for the following day’s rituals, praying the five daily prayers, including the shortened and combined prayers. On the day of Arafat, pilgrims will travel to the plain of Arafat before noon and perform wuquf, to stand in earnest supplication, remembrance of Allah and reflection, seeking forgiveness and mercy.

They will stay in Arafat until sunset. After sunset, pilgrims proceed to Muzdalifah and spend the night there collecting pebbles for the stoning ritual to be performed the next day. Stoning the devil is done by throwing pebbles at the three pillars which symbolizing Satan, starting with the smallest pillar (Jamarat al-Ula), followed by the middle pillar (Jamarat al-Wusta), and finally the largest pillar (Jamarat al-Aqaba). After stoning, some may sacrifice an animal. After stoning, pilgrims return to Makkah to perform tawaf al-ifadah, then perform saee once again. They then return to Mina and spend the 11th and 12th of Thulhijjah there and continue to stone the pillars each day after the afternoon prayer.