MOUNT ARAFAT, Saudi Arabia, Oct 25, (Agencies): Hours before sunrise Thursday, thousands of Muslims from around the world stood in the dark on a rocky desert hill, preparing for prayers on the first day of the annual hajj pilgrimage, a central pillar of their faith.

Muslims believe that prayer on Mount Arafat is their best chance to erase past sins and start anew.
The four-day hajj features millions packed shoulder to shoulder in prayer and supplication. According to Islam, each able-bodied believer must make the pilgrimage once.

“Let all your feuds be abolished,” the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said in his last sermon on the hill called Jabal al-Rahman, Mountain of Mercy, in the area of Mount Arafat. “You must know that every Muslim is the brother of every Muslim ... between Muslims there are no races and no tribes ... do not oppress and do not be oppressed.”

Belief
Some 1,400 years later, Muslims believe on this day and at this place, the gates of heaven are open for prayers to be answered and sins to be forgiven.

“I have feelings that cannot be described in words. We thank God for the chance to perform the hajj here and visit God’s house in Makkah,” said Mustafa Daama, 27, from Mauritania.

On other parts of the mountain, Muslims chanted in unison, “Labayk Allahuma Labayk,” or “Here I am, God, answering your call. Here I am.”

Muslims believe the hajj traces the paths of the Prophets Abraham (PBUH), Ishmael and Muhammad. The hajj typically concludes as it began, with a set of rituals at the Kaaba, the cube-shaped structure in Makkah’s Grand Mosque that observant Muslims around the world face in prayer five times a day.
Technology and the modern world have changed the atmosphere surrounding the hajj.

Contemplation
For centuries, the rocky mountain was a quiet place for contemplation and serene prayers. Now it is crowded with pilgrims pushing and shoving to take pictures with their iPads and mobile phones.
Adding to the tumult, ultraconservative men with loudspeakers yelled at pilgrims to stop crowding the hill, saying the whole area of Mount Arafat is sacred and that men and women should avoid the inevitable brushes of physical contact.

Ignoring their calls, many pilgrims were uploading their pictures online from the hilltop to share instantly with friends and family, while others used touch screens to read the Quran, rather than carrying it in printed form.

Casually dressed photographer Bandar Maarouf, 22, from Yemen, stood out from the sea of pilgrim men who wear white seamless garments and seamless sandals meant to represent equality and unity.
Wearing a bright pink shirt, low slung jeans and a hat turned sideways, he was taking photos for pilgrims at around $3 apiece. His camera prints the photos on the spot. He expected to sell at least 400 photos on Thursday.

“This season helps a person live. (I earn) some from here and there, and God is always giving,” he said.
Some of the pilgrims’ prayers had to do with current events.

Carrying a large Sudanese flag, Mohamed Ali said he was praying for an end to the civil war in Syria and victory for rebels over President Bashar Assad. “Victory is close, God willing,” Ali said.

“May God bring Muslims together and help us unify, and help our Christian brothers, even those who
made the film against the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH),” he said, referring to a movie that sparked violent protests last month around the Islamic world.

Others had more personal prayers.

An Egyptian mother of three, Nadia Abdel Aziz, appealed emotionally to God to make her children behave more kindly toward her. The 65-year-old widow said she was able to perform the hajj with the help of donations from a mosque in Cairo.

“O God! I want my kids to come and see me and be sensitive toward me, as I see with other families,” she cried.

With her arms outstretched, she begged God for salvation, wiping a stream of tears from her face.
Saudi officials say about 3.4 million Muslims from all corners of the world are making the pilgrimage this year.

A sea of millions dressed in white, some waving their national flags, stretched for miles in the area of Mount Arafat, many chanting in unison, their prayers echoing.

Mount Arafat, about 20 kms (12 miles) east of Makkah, is a required stop for Muslims during the hajj.
As the sun and temperatures rose Thursday, tens of thousands of pilgrims began climbing the Mountain of Mercy.

By sunset, pilgrims head to Muzdalifa, where Muslims believe prophets before Muhammad once prayed. They collect pebbles there and then walk or drive to nearby Mina for a symbolic stoning of the devil that begins Friday and marks the start of Eid al-Adha, or feast of the sacrifice, when Muslims slaughter lambs to feed the hungry.

Hajj rules – based on centuries of interpretation of the Sunna, the traditions of Muhammad – are extremely elaborate. Pilgrims must all gather at certain sites at specific times. Some rites are repeated, others are partially repeated and some performed only once.

Many pilgrims being their journey in the Saudi Arabian city of Madinah with a visit to Prophet Muhammad’s (PBUH) mosque, where he is buried. They then head to Makkah and perform a set of pre-hajj rituals, including circling the Kaaba counterclockwise with their hearts tilted toward it – the same rituals that conclude the hajj for many.

Massive throngs of pilgrims on Thursday headed for the town of Muzdalifah to collect stones for the final ritual of the hajj which marks the first day of Eid al-Adha, the feast of sacrifice.

Men, women and children from 189 countries flooded roads linking Mount Arafat, where they had spent the peak hajj day in prayer and reflection, to Muzdalifah.

There, the symbolic “stoning of the devil” which begins in the early Friday hours is followed by the ritual sacrifice of an animal, usually a lamb.

While many came by bus or used the Mashair Railway track linking the three holy sites of Arafat, Muzdalifah, and Mina, hundreds of thousands were on foot.

Some carried small children on their shoulders while others pushed elderly pilgrims on wheelchairs.
Cars, buses and the avalanche of humans — men in white “Ihram” shrouds and women covered from head to foot except for their hands and faces — all moved together as police and ambulance sirens sounded into the early evening.

At noon prayers in Namira mosque at Arafat on Thursday, Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah al-Sheikh warned pilgrims against using any “national or extreme slogans” during their stay in the kingdom.

He also criticised those who “nowadays call for a civil democratic state not linked to Islamic law and which acknowledges many forbidden acts... This contradicts the teachings of Islam as well as the Quran, Sunnah and Islamic sharia” law.

“Our Muslim world is facing sedition, tragedies, and bloodshed,” he said, calling on people and leaders to “work on dialogue... end bloodshed, not resort to the use of arms,” and not to implement “foreign” agendas.