Makkah — Over 62,000 Muslims across the globe have so far benefitted from a special invitation to perform Hajj and Umrah, as guests of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, instituted 28 years ago.
Among the 4,951 guests of the King for this year's Hajj and Umrah are 20 Ghanaian Muslim professionals, including one from the Ghanaian Times.
Under the programme the guests are offered "five-star service" from arrival to departure, to perform the Hajj and Umrah under serene environment, devoid of hustle, and at no cost to them.
The guests are selected through the Saudi Arabia Embassies in the various countries across the world.
The two Holy Mosques under the care of the King are Masjid- Al Haram in Makkah where the Kabbah is situated and Al- Masjid Al- Nabawi (the Mosque of the Holy Prophet of Islam, Mohammed) in Madinah.
The rituals performed by pilgrims while in Makkah and Madinah, include going round the Kabbah seven times, drinking of Zamzam water, running between Mount Safar and Marwa seven times, trip to Mina, Muzdalifah and Arafat for prayers and supplication to climax the Hajj, stoning the devil seven times at Jamarat among others.
Addressing a press conference here in Makkah, the Minister of Islamic Affairs, Call and Guidance and General Supervisor of the programme, Sheikh Dr Abdullatif ibn Abdulaziz Al- Sheikh, said it was a gesture from the King to host and honour Muslims across the globe.
Touching on projects, Al-Sheikh said the ministry had completed the construction of 75 mosques in Makkah at the cost of a quarter of a billion Riyal to accommodate the influx of pilgrims among others, adding that, 7,200 national cadres, were deployed to provide varied services to the pilgrims.
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Sharing their perspective of the programme of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, to the Ghanaian Times here in Makkah, Yousouf Fofana, Imam of the Montreal Mosque in Canada, a beneficiary, praised the King and people of Saudi Arabia for developing beautiful infrastructure to make the Hajj, very successful.
"The reception is wonderful, everything is free, some of the services I may not have had them if I was on my own. I lost my way in Mina, I approached a police, once he saw my card as guest of the King, he gave me special help," Imam Fofana said.
Another beneficiary, Mohammed Mubarak Hidri, Arabic lecturer at the Department of Modern Languages, University of Ghana, said he was selected to benefit from the programme "by dint of his hard work".
He commended the King for instituting the programme for the sake of Allah, for his guests to perform the Hajj with "ease and comfort."
For his part, Mohammed Al-Malkawi, Media Advisor for the Deputy Prime Minister of Jordan, told the Ghanaian Times that he shed tears of joy when he was selected to go to Hajj, explaining that it entailed a lot of financial commitment which he could not have afforded on his own, because he had other financial commitments to meet.
Fattuddin Zamani, a journalist from the Republic of Tajikistan, for his part expressed gratitude to King Salman and the Crown Prince, Mohammed Ibn Salman for their ability to unify Muslims across the globe to perform Hajj under a special programme, describing it as good for tolerance and international cooperation.
