Hajj pilgrims perform the last stage of the pilgrimage

The Hajj, the canonical pilgrimage that Muslims make to Mecca, as stipulated in the fifth pillar of Islam, has come to an end. The pilgrims would have already performed the farewell Tawaf at the Grand Mosque, one of the Islamic pilgrimage rituals performed after completing the stoning on the third day of Tashreeq.

The Farewell Tawaf, also known as Tawaf Al-Wida, is one of the most important rituals of the Hajj and is performed just before the pilgrim departs from Makkah and ends his pilgrimage.

According to the General Presidency for the Affairs of the Two Holy Mosques, it would have provided the usual services in accordance with the Kingdom's plans to help pilgrims complete their ritual with ease.

Some 500 civil security workers have managed to organise the crowds, minimising the risks of crowding, in cooperation with the security of the Grand Mosque. For its part, the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah announced that 90% of the pilgrims completed the stoning ritual at the Jamarat without any altercation.

Thus, the Ministry has confirmed "the success" of the 2022 pilgrimage after all the pilgrims were grouped together to perform the farewell Tawaf. This process of grouping would have been carried out in coordination with the government plans organising the Hajj pilgrimage services.

In turn, an intelligent robot has been tasked with redistributing copies of the Quran to pilgrims on the last leg of the Hajj. According to the presidency's vice president for guidance affairs, Sheikh Badr bin Abdullah Al-Furaih, the robot would use an automatic navigation system and would have a three-dimensional sensor in order to avoid collisions with obstacles. According to Al-Furaih, the use of technologies such as artificial intelligence and modern applications are "one of the Kingdom's priorities". 

So far, no crowding problems have been reported at either the Jamarat facility or on the road to the Grand Mosque, where tragedies have been reported in previous years. In 2015 an avalanche outside Makkah claimed the lives of 715 people and left more than 800 injured in its wake. This event was the largest reported Hajj disaster in the last 25 years and since then the country has tried to work to make the pilgrimage as safe as possible for the faithful.