Save Our Pak
Near the holy city of Mecca, men dressed in white stand in a long line. They wait quietly for one of the final steps of their Hajj getting their hair shaved, Reported by Save our Pak news channal.
This step happens near the end of the pilgrimage. It’s an important moment when the pilgrims can finally change out of their Ihram clothes, which they wear to show purity and devotion.
One busy barbershop is set up near the Jamarat complex in Mina. This is the same place where pilgrims throw stones in the “stoning the devil” ritual. The shop only opens during Hajj and gets thousands of customers every day.
On the final day of Hajj, which is also Eid al-Adha, the shop serves around 6,000 pilgrims, said Imad Fawzi, the shop manager and a worker with the Hajj team.
Inside the shop, barbers wearing plastic aprons use electric clippers and sharp razors to shave heads very quickly. Each haircut costs 60 Saudi Riyals (about $13).
Even though the shop is very busy so busy that someone has to manage the crowd the barbers stay happy. One of them, Ahmed, a 28-year-old from Egypt, said, “This is a small job, but it gives us so much happiness.”
Fawzi, who has lived in Mecca all his life, said, “I’m a child of Hajj. I’ve been helping during Hajj since I was seven years old.”
“This outfit is exhausting”
That barbershop is not the only place people get their hair cut. During this part of Hajj, the streets of Mecca and Mina become open-air barbershops.
As people leave Jamarat, some start shaving their heads right there. One man from Southeast Asia took out a razor and began shaving while walking. A little farther away, a few African men were using clippers to shave each other’s heads.
In many parts of Mecca, streets are full of barbershops doing non-stop work. While men shave their heads completely, women trim their hair just a little usually the length of a fingertip.
This year, about 1.6 million people came to Mecca for Hajj the holy journey that every Muslim who can afford it must do at least once.
Outside the barbershop near Jamarat, Hani Abdel Samih, a pilgrim, looked happy as he got ready to change out of the Ihram the two-piece cloth he had been wearing for three days.
“The stoning at Jamarat is tough. We’ve been wearing this outfit all day,” he said. “We just wanted to get into regular clothes and feel relaxed. So we came to the closest barbershop.”
Even after standing in line for a long time, he was smiling. He said he didn’t mind waiting, because this haircut means a lot to him.
“I’m excited, of course! Because this is Sunnah of our Prophet (peace be upon him),” he said. “We love this ritual and we can’t skip it.”
The Hajj follows the same steps that the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) took in his last pilgrimage. This includes visiting the Grand Mosque in Mecca, standing in prayers at Mount Arafat, and finally throwing stones at the large walls in Jamarat known as “stoning the devil.”
