Makkah News and Updates

13 October 2012 - 27 Thul-Qedah 1433 H

MAKKAH — The Tawafa Establishment for Non-Arab African Pilgrims’ committee in charge of grouping pilgrims before they go to Jamarat held a meeting on Thursday with the establishment’s field service groups to discuss how to organize performance of the ritual.

Hisham Madani, director of data support and administrative affairs at the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs, attended the meeting.

The meeting discussed in detail the observations and remarks from last year with a view to avoiding mistakes and building on positive results to ensure pilgrims are provided with safety and comfort to perform the stoning of the Satan ritual.

Madani told the meeting: “There are plans based on quantitative evidence from last year to ensure the safety and comfort of the pilgrims during this year’s Haj season.”

He said each Tawafa establishment would be given special routes for their pilgrims to go the Jamarat and return to their tents in complete ease and comfort.

He added: “The ministry will also have observers to monitor the movement of pilgrims to the Jamarat and back.”

Madani said the ministry would supply all Tawafa establishments and field service groups with copies of a documentary film dubbed in various languages to be shown to pilgrims so they know how to travel to Jamarat and return.

“Pilgrims will be grouped in batches of at most 250 people, making it easy for them to reach the Jamarat area to throw stones.”

Dr. Muhammad Zamzami, deputy chairman of the committee in charge of grouping the pilgrims, said there were many ways to avoid problems that occurred last year and asked observers and grouping officials to use wireless communication channels to inform each other of the movement of the pilgrims.

He called for reducing the number of pilgrims in groups that travel to the Jamarat and those who are reentering their camps to avoid congestion.
Zamzami called for placing billboards at the tents to show the pilgrims the paths designated for them when they go to the Jamarat area.

He said the ministry’s 12 observers would be carrying signboards for pilgrims to follow.

He added: “The observers will monitor the grouping, the movement of pilgrims and the paths leading to the Jamarat.”

At the end of the meeting special costumes for the observers and the guidance signboards were handed over.

http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index...20121013139435

 

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ARAB NEWS

Sunday 14 October 2012

JEDDAH: Al-Shuala Al-Kabida, the contracting company of Haramain speed rail project, expects the first train journey between Makkah and Madinah to start in 52 months from now.

“Al-Arab Company will complete the first phase of the project very soon,” said Osama Adib Salama, the company’s finance director, in an interview with Arabic daily Asharq Al-Awsat.

“The lay over time in each station will be only seven minutes to reduce the total duration of rides between Makkah and Madinah to two and a half hours, instead of five hours by road,” he added.

The Haramain project, widely known in industry circles as HHR, is a 444-km high-speed intercity rail transport system that will link the two holy cities of Madinah and Makkah via King Abdullah Economic City in Rabigh and King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah.

The Makkah-Madinah rail link is part of the major railway expansion project, which includes linking Jeddah with Riyadh and Dammam.

The Makkah-Jeddah-Madinah rail link is expected to carry more than 150,000 passengers daily during peak seasons, such as for Haj and Umrah.

The link, initiated by the Saudi Rail Organization, is one of the country’s major infrastructure projects, and is intended to bolster social and cultural connections between Saudi Arabia’s western cities.

“It is the first project of its kind. The train will accommodate 420 passengers per trip, and it would be the first train in Saudi Arabia to run at a speed of 300 kilometers per hour,” said Salama.

He indicated that amendments would have to be made for the passengers’ luggage system, as the baggage of pilgrims differs from normal luggage. It may require the allocation of a luggage cart or a reduction in the number of seats in the passenger compartments.

http://www.arabnews.com/haramain-rai...tion-52-months

Nadim Al-Hamid

Sunday 14 October 2012

JEDDAH: Makkah people consider receiving pilgrims and providing services a duty with relationships spanning several generations.

Many Makkah residents recall how pilgrims were served in the past and how it compares to the present.

Arab News talked to number of Makkah residents who lived in two different eras. They described how their families prepared for the Haj season for months before it started.

Sheikh Saleh Siddique Koshak said most families in Makkah considered serving pilgrims a duty.

“Pilgrims in the past sometimes arrived in Makkah in Rajab and Shaban and stayed there three months before Haj,” Koshak said. “This required Makkah residents to dedicate their time to look after their guests.”

He said: "My family hosted pilgrims in our house for months without feeling annoyed or tired.

We treated them as family members and sometimes cried when they left. We gave them gifts to remember us when they were home,” he said.

Osama Sheikh Jamalullail said his family used to host pilgrims in their house for six months. “We cooked their food and we never ate or slept before them. We made sure they were comfortable in our house,” he added.

“We did this for free. We only wanted the reward from Allah unlike what’s happening nowadays,” he said.

He said everything was based on brotherhood and teachings of Islam and pilgrims always held people of Makkah as their role model.

“This good treatment sometimes ended in having family relations. It was a reason also for many pilgrims to stay back and live the rest of their lives in Makkah,” said Jamalullail.

Kahalil Farsi said his father used to take pilgrims to the Grand Mosque to perform Umrah and teach them the right ways of Haj and Umrah. He taught them words to use in dua (supplication) when making Tawaf and pray behind Makam Ibrahim.

Pilgrims and Makkah residents used to have special relations because they needed each other,” he said. “They needed us to guide and help them during Haj while we thought of it as a religious and humanitarian obligation,” he added.

Saeed Hussain said he was born in a family that took care of pilgrims. His father taught him to pitch tents for pilgrims, receive them and serve food to them.

http://www.arabnews.com/serving-pilg...rations-makkah