Muslim pilgrims pray at desert mountain in key hajj ritual

Friday, December 29th 2006, 8:46 am

By: News On 6

MOUNT ARAFAT, Saudi Arabia (AP) _ Hundreds of thousands of Muslims prayed Friday on the desert mountain where the Prophet Muhammad delivered his final sermon, seeking forgiveness of their sins in a key ritual of the annual hajj pilgrimage.

Nearly 3 million pilgrims flooded into a sprawling tent city at Mount Arafat, outside the holy city of Mecca. Lines of buses, with pilgrims riding on the roofs, packed highways leading into the site, while others on foot swarmed between the vehicles.

Even before sunrise, lines of pilgrims made their way up Jebal Rahmah, Arabic for ``mountain of mercy,'' to perform prayers on the rocky hill on the edge of the site. A group of Indonesian women clambered with difficulty over the boulders, past handless beggars asking for alms.

At the top, crowds raised their palms toward the sky as tour leaders with loudspeakers led them in prayer.

The prayers at Mount Arafat are the first major rite in the five-day hajj, which began Thursday. The faithful spend the day in prayer and meditation and reading the Quran.

They also spend it getting used to life in what amounts to a moving city _ a population the size of Chicago or Madrid that will spend nearly every night in a different location around Mecca.

``Thank God, the harder it is the more blessings it brings,'' said Selim Idris, a burly, bearded Yemeni who was stripped to the waist as he set up his tent on the side of the road. His wife, her face covered by a black veil, sat among their bags of blankets and canned goods, waiting for their temporary home to be completed.

Along the streets were more tents and hawkers selling groceries, meals of rice and chicken, prayer beads and cell-phone cards. ``This helps a little bit in covering the cost of the hajj, or at least in getting dinner,'' said Badr Abdullah, a 67-year-old Sudanese, whose son was selling phone battery chargers.

The vast majority of pilgrims stayed in ready-made, fireproof tents erected by the Saudi government over the nearly 8-square-mile site. The tent city is sectioned off by country.

In one of the camps of the Iraqi section, a group of men slept on the ground after the tiring journey from the nearby site of Mina, where most of the pilgrims spent Thursday night. Others had tea and crackers before the long walk to Jebel Rahmah for prayers.

Pilgrims' processions marched toward the hill, chanting ``I am here, Lord,'' led by tour guides holding up umbrellas, tree branches or flags to keep their groups together in the pressing crowds. The Prophet Muhammad delivered his final sermon at Mount Arafat in 632.

A major theme of the hajj is the equality of all mankind before God _ rich or poor, young or old _ symbolized in the seamless white robes known as the ``ihram'' that all the pilgrims wear. Still, the differences in wealth can show in the tents. Camps organized by private tour groups often provide meals of lamb and rice _ while those in government camps often give only meager rations.

``We have 30 people in our tent. It was so crowded some people just slept outside,'' said Mohammed Awadallah, an Iraqi pilgrim. ``Now compare ours to that,'' he added, pointing to a nearby tent where a top Iraqi official was staying, with colorful rugs and plush mattresses.

``We all wear the ihram, but you can tell with one look who's better off and who's poor like us,'' said Awadallah, a government bureaucrat from Baghdad.

``Still, thank God, we're here, we're the guests of merciful God,'' he added, using a common term for the hajj pilgrims.

Egyptian Suleiman Ibrahim still couldn't believe his luck in coming to the hajj, as he recounted the day months ago when he was notified that he had won in the Egyptian government lottery used to decide which would-be pilgrims will be allowed to go. In most countries, the number of applicants far exceeds the quota Saudi Arabia sets for each nation _ 1,000 pilgrims per 1 million population.

``The whole family started singing and congratulating me,'' when he learned he won, said Ibrahim, a 45-year-old furniture maker from the southern Egyptian city of Sohag. ``Four times I didn't make the lottery, but this time God smiled on me.''