18:00, 7 August 2018

First group of pilgrims leaves Chechnya for Hajj

Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Photo: REUTERS/Muhammad Hamed

174 residents of Chechnya, who decided to make a pilgrimage this year, have flown to Medina today, the republic's Spiritual Administration of Muslims (SAM, or Muftiate) has reported.

This year the Hajj will be undertaken by 2600 residents of Chechnya, the Chechen SAM reports. 15 direct flights from Grozny are organized to transport them.

The authorities of Saudi Arabia have raised prices, so this year's trip will cost pilgrims more than before – 4000 US dollars on the average. In particular, an additional fee has been introduced on a mandatory sacrifice ritual; bus fares from Medina to Mecca have gone up, as well the payment for living in a tent camp in the Mina Valley.

"The trip of 300 people will be paid for by the regional public fund named after Akhmat-Hadji Kadyrov," said a source from the republic's SAM.

The Hajj (one of the five pillars of Islam) is a pilgrimage to the sacred Muslim Mecca. It is prescribed to every Muslim, who has reached the age of majority and has opportunities, at least once in life to make the pilgrimage.

According to the SAM's source, brochures were issued for Chechen pilgrims on the Hajj rules and on how to administer the main religious rites. Also, training seminars were organized, in which theologians talked about the rules of behaviour in holy places.

Pilgrims welcomed the holding of training seminars.

"I was at a seminar and I got a lot of useful information," Magomed, a resident of Chechnya, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on August 6, 2018 at 03:04 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.

Source: CK correspondent