(18 Jun 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Mina, Saudi Arabia – 18 June 2024
1. Various of pilgrims arriving at the stoning site, some holding parasols, Saudi soldier spraying water on pilgrims to cool them down
2. Various of pilgrims symbolically stoning the devil
3. Pilgrim filming on mobile phone
4. Tilt down on the stoning site
STORYLINE:
Muslim pilgrims are wrapping up the Hajj, or pilgrimage, in the deadly summer heat on Tuesday with the third day of the symbolic stoning of the devil, and the last circumambulation around the Kaaba, Islam’s holiest site, in the city of Mecca.
The three-day stoning ritual in Mina, a desert site outside Mecca, is among the final rites of the Hajj, and symbolizes the casting away of evil and sin.
It started a day after pilgrims congregated Saturday at a sacred hill, known as Mount Arafat.
The final days of the annual Hajj coincide with Muslims around the world celebrating the Eid al-Adha holiday when Muslims with financial means commemorate Prophet Ibrahim’s test of faith, when God ordered him to sacrifice his only son, by slaughtering livestock and animals and distributing the meat to the poor.
The Hajj is one of the Five Pillars of Islam.
Its rituals largely commemorate the accounts of Prophet Ibrahim and his son Prophet Ismail, Ismail’s mother Hajar and the Prophet Muhammad, according to the Quran, Islam’s holy book.
In the Islamic version, God stayed his hand and Ismail was spared.
The burning sun and suffocating hot weather remained Tuesday, with temperatures, expected to reach 47 degrees Celsius (116.6 degrees Fahrenheit) in Mecca and the sacred sites in and around the city, according to the Saudi National Center for Metrology.
Many pilgrims, particularly elderly ones, were seen collapsed and in need of medical assistance because of the heat.
Dozens, including 14 from Jordan, were also reported dead.
After the symbolic stoning, pilgrims head to Mecca to perform “tawaf,” or circumambulation, circling the Kaaba in the Grand Mosque counterclockwise seven times.
That circumambulation, known as the Farewell Tawaf, marks the end of Hajj as pilgrims prepare to leave the holy city.
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