{"id":58804,"date":"2022-07-07T14:20:35","date_gmt":"2022-07-07T14:20:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/tanzania\/all-news\/a-million-muslims-attend-the-beginning-of-hajj-pilgrimage-in-mecca"},"modified":"2022-07-07T15:03:44","modified_gmt":"2022-07-07T15:03:44","slug":"a-million-muslims-attend-the-beginning-of-hajj-pilgrimage-in-mecca","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/tanzania\/all-news\/a-million-muslims-attend-the-beginning-of-hajj-pilgrimage-in-mecca","title":{"rendered":"A million Muslims attend the beginning of Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Tanzania. <\/strong><\/span>One million pilgrims from across the globe amassed on Wednesday in Saudi Arabia&#8217;s holy city of Mecca to perform the initial rites of the hajj, marking the largest Islamic pilgrimage since the coronavirus pandemic upended the event \u2014 a key pillar of Islam.<\/p>\n<p>The hajj is a once-in-a-lifetime duty for all Muslims physically and financially able to make the journey.<\/p>\n<p>Pilgrims spend several days carrying out a series of rituals intended to bring them closer to God, walking the path traversed by Prophet Muhammad some 1,400 years ago.<\/p>\n<p>That includes praying around the cube-shaped Kaaba, the holiest shrine in Islam.<\/p>\n<p>At the centre of the Grand Mosque&#8217;s open courtyard on Wednesday, thousands of unmasked pilgrims circled the Kaaba.<\/p>\n<p>They moved counter-clockwise seven times around the granite building, their hearts tilting toward the structure meant to symbolize the oneness of God in Islam.<\/p>\n<p>This year, the hajj is open to 1 million foreign and domestic pilgrims who have been vaccinated against the coronavirus, tested negative for COVID-19 and are between 18 and 65 years old.<\/p>\n<p>Authorities estimate that 85% of all pilgrims have arrived from abroad.<\/p>\n<p>While this year&#8217;s number is far below the pre-pandemic influx of some 2.5 million pilgrims, it represents a major step closer to normal after two years that saw the pilgrimage restricted to just a small number of Muslims already residing in Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/tanzania\">Tanzania<\/a> Follow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/\">Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Tanzania. One million pilgrims from across the globe amassed on Wednesday in Saudi Arabia&#8217;s holy city of Mecca to perform the initial rites of the hajj, marking the largest Islamic pilgrimage since the coronavirus pandemic upended the event \u2014 a key pillar of Islam. The hajj is a once-in-a-lifetime duty for all Muslims [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":58803,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4,8,16],"tags":[6990,6991,7972,8552,8553,711],"class_list":["post-58804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-culture-and-art","category-homepage-english","category-twitter","tag-africa-press-2","tag-africa-press-tanzania","tag-hajj","tag-mecca","tag-pilgrimage","tag-tanzania"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>A million Muslims attend the beginning of Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca - Tanzania<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"One million pilgrims from across the globe amassed on Wednesday in Saudi Arabia&#039;s holy city of Mecca to perform the init ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/tanzania\/all-news\/a-million-muslims-attend-the-beginning-of-hajj-pilgrimage-in-mecca\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A million Muslims attend the beginning of Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One million pilgrims from across the globe amassed on Wednesday in Saudi Arabia&#039;s holy city of Mecca to perform the init ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/tanzania\/all-news\/a-million-muslims-attend-the-beginning-of-hajj-pilgrimage-in-mecca\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Tanzania\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-07-07T14:20:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-07-07T15:03:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/tanzania\/sites\/17\/2022\/07\/postQueueImg_1-62c6f57c122a5.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"538\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/tanzania\/all-news\/a-million-muslims-attend-the-beginning-of-hajj-pilgrimage-in-mecca#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/tanzania\/all-news\/a-million-muslims-attend-the-beginning-of-hajj-pilgrimage-in-mecca\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/tanzania\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"A million Muslims attend the beginning of Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-07-07T14:20:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-07-07T15:03:44+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/tanzania\/all-news\/a-million-muslims-attend-the-beginning-of-hajj-pilgrimage-in-mecca\"},\"wordCount\":247,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/tanzania\/all-news\/a-million-muslims-attend-the-beginning-of-hajj-pilgrimage-in-mecca#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/tanzania\/sites\/17\/2022\/07\/postQueueImg_1-62c6f57c122a5.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Tanzania\",\"Hajj\",\"Mecca\",\"Pilgrimage\",\"tanzania\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"culture and art\",\"homepage-english\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/tanzania\/all-news\/a-million-muslims-attend-the-beginning-of-hajj-pilgrimage-in-mecca#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/tanzania\/all-news\/a-million-muslims-attend-the-beginning-of-hajj-pilgrimage-in-mecca\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/tanzania\/all-news\/a-million-muslims-attend-the-beginning-of-hajj-pilgrimage-in-mecca\",\"name\":\"A million Muslims attend the beginning of Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca - 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