Hajj is an annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the holiest city of Islam. Hajj is a mandatory religious duty for Muslims that must be carried out at least once in their lifetime by all adult Muslims who are physically and financially capable of undertaking the journey, and of supporting their family during their absence from home.
In Islamic terminology, Hajj is a pilgrimage made to the Kaaba, the “House of Allah,” in the sacred city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia. It is one of the Five Pillars of Islam, alongside Shahadah, salah (prayer), zakat (almsgiving) and sawm (fasting during Ramadan). The Hajj is an annual practice when Muslim brotherhood is on display and their solidarity with fellow Muslim people and submission to Allah is fulfilled. The word Hajj means “pilgrimage made to the Kaaba”, a long pious journey taken by Muslims to cleanse their souls of all worldly sins, which connotes both the outward act of a journey after death and the inward act of good intentions. The rites of pilgrimage are performed over five to six days, extending from the 8th to the 12th or 13th of Dhu al-Hijjah, the last month of the Islamic calendar. Because the Islamic calendar is lunar and the Islamic year is about eleven days shorter than the Gregorian year, the Gregorian date of Hajj changes from year to year.
The Hajj is associated with the life of the Islamic prophet Muhammad peace been upon him from the 7th century AD, but the ritual of pilgrimage to Mecca stated in Muslim sources stretches back to the time of Prophet Ibrahim. During Hajj, pilgrims join processions of millions of Muslim people, who simultaneously converge on Mecca for the week of the Hajj, and perform a series of pre-Islamic rituals ,each person wears a single piece of unstitched white clothing (Ihram dress), walks counter-clockwise seven times around the Kaaba ,kiss the black stone mounted on the corner wall of Kaaba named Hajar al aswad, walks briskly back and forth between the hills of Safa and Marwah seven times, then drinks the Zamzam Water, goes to the plains of Mount Arafat to stand in vigil, spends a night in the plain of Muzdalifa, and performs symbolic Stoning of the Devil by throwing stones at three pillars. After the sacrifice of cattle, the pilgrims then are required to either shave or trim their heads (if male) or trim the ends of their hair (if female). A celebration of the four-day global festival of Eid al-Adha proceeds afterwards.