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When they chant 'Here I am, O Allah, here I am'
More than 2 million pilgrims from around the world are performing the peak ritual of the haj, or wukuf, in Arafah today, including some 230,000 Indonesian Muslims.
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More than 2 million pilgrims from around the world are performing the peak ritual of the haj, or wukuf, in Arafah today, including some 230,000 Indonesian Muslims. (Shutterstock/File)
M
ore than 2 million pilgrims from around the world are performing the peak ritual of the haj, or wukuf, in Arafah today, including some 230,000 Indonesian Muslims; possibly the largest number of pilgrims from one country performing the haj in history, and certainly the biggest from Indonesia.
The regular quota for Indonesian pilgrims is 221,000 this year, but an addition was granted to compensate for last year’s decreased allotment because of renovation and construction work around the pilgrimage site. Royal invitations and special haj schemes also contributed to our largest body of pilgrims.
This year has been marked as one of the best years in the history of bilateral relations between Indonesia and Saudi Arabia. Following the visit of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz, to Indonesia in March (the previous one by a Saudi king was 47 years ago), cooperation in various sectors is about to be implemented.
More than 10 memorandums of understanding and agreements were signed during the visit with an estimated value of no less than US$10 billion. And an additional 10,000 haj slots were approved this year for Indonesian pilgrims.
To serve 230,000 pilgrims, the Indonesian government deployed more than 4,000 haj assistants comprising officials, students and professionals in a joint task involving numerous ministries and national institutions.
The Saudi government has also made special preparations for this year’s haj. This is the year when the extension of Al Haram Grand Mosque is open to accommodate up to 2.5 million people. The circumambulation area around the Holy Kabah is expected to hold more than 100,000 pilgrims per hour. The extension work on the mosque known as Masjidil Haram began in 2015, with estimated costs of $10.6 billion.
Serving the pilgrims may be a challenging task, but their stories were overwhelming to those of us working to assist them: from the fortunate ulema from Aceh who was allowed to go on the haj after three days of immigration detention in Jeddah and the 104-year-old, the world’s oldest pilgrim this year, who happens to be Indonesian, to the special disbursement of endowment funds for pilgrims from Aceh.
