The Haj pilgrimage culminated on Wednesday with over two million pilgrims from around the world converging on Mount Arafat. From sunrise, convoys of more than 20,000 buses carried the pilgrims from Mina valley where they spent the night in a city of tents. The faithful spend the day praying for forgiveness and beseeching God for success. Tens of thousands will gather for prayers in the Namera mosque on Arafat, a small plain some 250 meters above the sea level and surrounded by high mountains from all directions.
"Here I am Allah, answering your call, here I am," the pilgrims chanted as they approached Mount Arafat.
Despite warnings from the Saudi Arabian religious authorities, the more zealous climbed up the 70-metre-high Mount of Mercy (Jabal Al-Rahma) where pilgrims pray for mercy.
Saudi Arabian grand mufti denounced during a Haj sermon what he said were hostile campaigns against Islam and rejected any link between religion and terrorism.
"O nation of Islam, the military, ideological, economic and media-related campaigns are led against Islam and our nation qualified as terrorist," Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh said in a sermon in the Namera mosque, which was broadcast over loudspeakers to the camps of pilgrims in the area.
"Muslims are also qualified as backward, violators of human rights and freedom, yet Islam is a religion of justice, equity and rights," he said.
He also denounced the "false slogans of defence of the rights of men used as a pretext to exploit the (Islamic) nation and control it."
Three makeshift hospitals and 46 clinics were set up to treat those in need while police used loudspeakers to regulate the movement and continuous flow of packed-full buses, some of which picked up pilgrims as they poured in.
Amer Abbas, 45, came from war-ravaged Iraq to find serenity in the spiritual journey.
"I beg to God to make the Americans leave our country and put an end to the occupation. The Americans are responsible for all the destruction that has hit our country," Abbas said, who is from "Diyala, in the Sunni Triangle, which resists the occupation."
After performing the ritual on Mount Arafat the pilgrims will return to Makkah on Thursday to celebrate Eid-ul-Azha.
According to the official SPA news agency, 1,534,759 pilgrims have come from abroad for this year's Haj, while the remaining are Saudi Arabian nationals or expatriates living in the kingdom.