Srinagar, April 18 (IANS) The first batch of 431 pilgrims for this year’s Haj pilgrimage left on Saturday from Jammu and Kashmir for Saudi Arabia, officials of Haj committee said.

The pilgrims, including 230 males and 201 females, left in three flights from the Srinagar International Airport.

Authorities had made all arrangements of foreign exchange, documentation and baggage handling at the Haj House in Bemina area of Srinagar city.

The pilgrims left in special buses from the Haj House for the airport as hundreds of families members, relatives and friends bid them farewell.

This year, 4,764 pilgrims from Jammu and Kashmir are scheduled for perform the holiest Muslim pilgrimage of Haj.

Haj in Islam is the pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia, which every adult Muslim must make at least once in his or her lifetime.

The Haj is the fifth of the fundamental Muslim practices and institutions known as the Five Pillars of Islam.

The pilgrimage rite begins on the seventh day of Dhu-al-Ḥijjah (the last month of the Islamic year) and ends on the 12th day.

The Haj is incumbent on all Muslims who are physically and financially able to make the pilgrimage, but only if their absence will not place hardships on their family.

A person may perform the haj by proxy, appointing a relative or friend going on the pilgrimage to “stand in” for him or her.

The pattern of pilgrimage rites was established by the Prophet Muhammad, but variations have arisen in it, and the stringent formal itinerary is not strictly adhered to by the mass of pilgrims, who frequently visit the various Meccan sites out of their proper order.

–IANS

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