It is at this time of the year that the Muslim world enters the countdown to the Eid Al-Adha, which will take place this year on 6 June. In order to celebrate, Samiha and Fatema, two women now in their early 80s, meet at the house of either to pray and recite the Quran and doua.
In their younger years, the two women would also observe the fast at the beginning of the first nine days of the last lunar month of the Hijra year, Dhu Al-Hijjah, leading to the Day of Arafah on the ninth day when the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca starts. Pilgrims stand next to one another on the Plain of Arafat before moving to Muzdalifah where they perform a symbolic stoning of the devil. Then they move to Mecca for the last parts of the pilgrimage and walk around the Kaaba in the centre of the mosque seven times.
It was on the Day of Arafah in the 1970s that the two women, then young teachers, one in Kuwait and the other in Oman, met for the first time. Each was in the company of her husband, and it was the beginning of a friendship that has never failed and that has survived the death of both husbands.
Samiha and Fatema have colour pictures — “quite something at the time,” Fatema said — of the last day of the hajj in the 1970s. The images of two young and vibrant women dressed in white from head to toe with big joyful smiles do not indicate any sign of drama or unease either about the long trips they made to Mecca or about the pilgrimage process itself. In those days, it could be much more hectic than it has since become owing to the massive modern infrastructure that the Saudi government has invested in.
“It took us about a month with the hajj days included. It was long and possibly hard, but we did not complain or feel tired. We were young and we were very happy to be able to perform the hajj so early in our lives,” Samiha said, recalling the two women’s pilgrimage in the 1970s.
A road trip to Mecca then could be long and hectic. However, as Fatema added, it was also economical. “It cost very little compared to the shocking prices that one hears about now,” she added.
According to several hajj operators, this year a road trip to Mecca could cost LE250,000, though this is inexpensive compared to even the most economical hajj packages by plane. “It is a few thousand pounds cheaper,” said one operator, adding that those few thousand, in fact around LE20,000, might not sound much but for many the hajj is a life-time commitment that many people are no longer able to meet owing to the surge in prices.
According to operators who spoke to Al-Ahram Weekly on condition of anonymity, up until 2015 a couple who had saved close to LE100,000 could make a comfortable hajj, where they would travel by plane, stay in hotels close to the venues of the rituals, and have good meals and comfort rides from one point in the hajj to another.
“Today, we are talking about close to a LE1 million to get the same service,” said the head of a hajj business. The spike relates to the value of the Egyptian pound, which has suffered from repeated devaluations since autumn 2016, taking the exchange rate from around LE8 to the US dollar to around LE50 today.
The Egyptian pound has also lost value to the Saudi riyal. This year, with the riyal trading for LE13.25, the prices of the hajj have soared.
“The rise in the exchange rate in favour of the riyal has made it inevitable for prices to jump from around LE25,000 in 2017 to the current LE250,000,” one operator said. “I pay for everything in Saudi Arabia in riyals, including every single bed, every seat on every bus, every lunch box, and every service including the motawef [tour leader],” he added.
For some pilgrims, the spike in the cost has killed their hopes of fulfilling the Fifth Pillar of Islam, the hajj, which is mandatory for those who “can make their way to it”, as stipulated in verse 97 of the Surat Al-Imran of the Quran.
“People were coming to me in tears, saying that they had saved for the least expensive hajj package, which by then had become less than half of the amount required. But there was nothing I could do,” he stated sadly.
It is impossible to pay in installments because the cost has to be paid in full to the Saudi authorities.
Ultimately, the prices of each segment of the hajj are decided by the guidelines of the Ministry of Tourism. “We no longer see big discrepancies in the prices of one operator and another as was the case prior to the ministry stepping in,” he stated.
In 2022, with the resumption of the hajj on a limited scale after the interruption of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Tourism started managing the sector. A law ordered the establishment of an online portal that managed all hajj services.
A HARD RIDE: There are two ways for an Egyptian Muslim who wants to perform the hajj today.
The first is to apply for the Ministry of Interior lottery, while the second is to use a tour operator or one of the civil society operations, the latter being associated with the Ministry of Social Solidarity. The hopeful pilgrim makes a down payment for the hajj package he wants and then waits to be selected.
With the dominance of the lottery-based approach, the government has cut back on the overpricing of hajj entry visas to Saudi Arabia. Only a limited number of visas are left for the lottery selection process, and this is also monitored by the Ministry of Tourism.
This means that even those who can afford the cost might not get selected for a hajj visa. Saher, in his early 40s, said that he had tried last year and this year to obtain the visa but did not get selected, unfortunately.
“I had promised my wife that if we had a child after our long wait, we would go on the hajj. God gave us beautiful twins after close to 20 years of marriage, and I wanted to fulfil what I promised, but no luck yet,” he said.
The intervention of the government put an end to many problems, however, including sometimes dubious deals that left pilgrims in accommodation much cheaper than what they had paid for or even left some unable to perform the hajj after they had paid their dues to the operators in full. The law imposes LE1 million to LE3 million in fines for any operator proven to violate the regulations.
Meanwhile, the law also grants each hajj an ID code. This, at least in theory, allows the state to have a complete account of the Egyptian citizens performing the hajj. In press statements, government officials said that the code facilitates the reaching out to any pilgrim who is in trouble during the processions.
This scheme came as the Saudi authorities also started a new scheme for the hajj by allocating a quota of visas to countries with citizens wanting to carry out the hajj. According to sources in the hajj business, Egypt remains one of the top countries in the allocation scheme for visas issued by Saudi Arabia.
However, this year the Saudi authorities decided to put a temporary ban on regular visas for citizens from Egypt and several other Muslim-majority countries to avoid having people enter Saudi territory on non-hajj visas, staying and working for a few months, and then joining the hajj without having the necessary documents.
Last year, over 1,000 undocumented pilgrims lost their lives in a heat wave during which temperatures reached over 50 °C. The undocumented pilgrims did not have access to air-conditioned tents, air-conditioned buses, or the medical care offered by the Saudi authorities. A government inquiry found that the majority of those who died on the Day of Arafah or subsequent days had entered Saudi Arabia on regular visas.
However, according to Mahmoud, who lost a friend on the hajj last year due to sunstroke, even those who were allowed in with the right hajj visas had a hard time moving from one point to another.
According to the operators who spoke to the Weekly, the management of the hajj last year was conducted using a protocol that has been adjusted this year to avoid waiting hours under the heat of the summer sun.
Saudi officials said that there were around 400,000 undocumented pilgrims last year, out of close to 1.8 Muslim men and women who performed the pilgrimage. To avoid a repeat of last year’s tragedy, this year the Saudi authorities have imposed a screening process on residents of Mecca in April to make sure that anyone who does not have a proper work permit or a valid hajj visa cannot stay in the city of pilgrimage.
Family members of individuals, especially non-Saudi individuals, who work in Mecca have been asked to leave for a temporary residence for the duration of the hajj. The Saudi authorities have been making inspection visits to all apartment buildings where non-Saudi workers live in Mecca to make sure that these are empty.
They have also appealed to Saudi citizens living in Mecca to refrain from accommodating individuals who do not have the proper hajj visa.
A member of the Saudi hajj authorities said that for the duration of hajj “Mecca will be strictly confined to those performing the pilgrimage.” Anyone who violates the regulations will pay a fine of over $26,000, he said, and the authorities will be using drones to spot undocumented pilgrims.
EGYPTIAN PILGIMS: Minister of Tourism Sherif Fathy said earlier this month that those entering Saudi territory under non-official arrangements could face deportation by the Saudi authorities that are being strict on monitoring the process.
Samia Messad, assistant minister of tourism and head of the Egyptian delegation to the hajj this year, said that the delegation would be following up on the pilgrims who are travelling under the umbrella of the Ministry of Tourism, which accounts for about 52 per cent of the overall documented Egyptian pilgrims. Similar statements were made by the hajj delegation that is associated with the Ministry of Interior.
This year, around 75,000 Egyptian men and women are expected to go to the Arafah Plain for the hajj. Despite the increase in the cost and the more layered process of the application, this figure is not significantly lower than in 2017 when around 78,000 Egyptians performed the hajj.
“I cannot believe I am going this year. I have tried several times before, and luckily it is happening this year,” said Amany, a retired civil servant.
For this woman in her late 60s the five-year wait was quite long. “First, it was [the Covid-19] pandemic, and then I applied and did not get selected, but ultimately it is happening,” she said with enormous joy as she unboxed the hajj outfits she had ordered from an online store.
All the while, she was singing along to her favourite song of the season Ya Rayehine Lel-Nabi Al-Ghali.
This song by Egyptian diva Layla Mourad appeared in her film Layla Bint Al-Akaber, which was first screened in 1953. “I read somewhere that this song was written and added to the film at the request of Layla Mourad herself, who had planned to go on the hajj that year but could not due to work commitments,” said Amany.
“I think it makes sense, as the emotions reflected in this song are so beautifully heart-felt,” she added.
“In my mind, this is the song that is most associated with hajj. I have always loved it but during the past few years I would cry every time I heard it and pray to get my chance to go to Mecca,” she said with tears in her eyes.
Mourad’s song is one of several Egyptian songs that hail the hajj, including Ila Arafat Allah by Um Kolthoum, Ya Layali Mona, a duet of Horriyat Ahmed and Mohamed Abdel-Motteleb, Geitlak Saai ala Kadami by Mohamed Kandil, and the famous singer Asmahan’s Alik Salat Al-Nabi that celebrates the centuries-long Egyptian tradition of sending over the Kiswa, the embroidered cloth that covers the cube-shaped Kaaba in Mecca.
The practice, which historians say started during Fatimid rule in Egypt, was only interrupted in 1962 when the Saudis started making the Kiswa themselves. It is replaced every year ahead of the arrival of pilgrims to the hajj.
“We Egyptians love the Prophet [Mohamed], and we love the hajj,” said Nasser, a taxi driver in Cairo. Every year for the past 15 years, Nasser has dedicated part of his time to working for a hajj operating company driving pilgrims to the Cairo International Airport to travel to the hajj.
“I know from experience what it is like for someone to be going on the hajj, especially for those who spend years and years saving for the trip,” Nasser said.
On his trips, Nasser had heard “many different songs that pilgrims sing along, where they would all be chanting Labayk Allahoma Labayk [God, I come to you],” he said.
JOY AND DUTY: According to Al-Hajj: Al-Oughniya Al-Shaabiya (Folk Songs of the Hajj), in rural Egypt, both in the Delta and Upper Egypt, it is customary for pilgrims to celebrate by offering food and drink to relatives and neighbours while performing hajj-related songs.
According to Mohamed Al-Naggar, author of the book that was published in 2023, these songs are usually referred to as honoun al-hajj, a term that could be translated as “yearning for the hajj” or “for the love of the hajj”. This love of the hajj, the book argues, is in part due to the impact of Sufi sentiments that have long been associated with Islam in Egypt and are ultimately a function of Egypt being on the route to the hajj during the period before air travel.
Since the seventh century CE, Egypt has been on the route for pilgrims from North Africa and elsewhere in the continent. According to researcher Ahlam Ragab Salama of the Cairo University Faculty of Arts, the history of trips to Mecca through Egypt are a testimony to the long appreciation that Egyptians have had for the hajj, reflected in the centuries-long investments of the rulers of Egypt in preparing the roads to make the trip as safe and easy as possible.
The hajj routes through Egypt also helped imprint Islam in the country with the ideas of many Sufi orders. Today, the road to Mecca through Egypt is dotted with the sites of Sufi associations. In his introduction to Al-Naggar’s book, the prominent Egyptian novelist Khairy Shalaby wrote that the way Egyptians love and celebrate the journey of the hajj is proof of the impact of Sufism on the practice of Islam in Egypt, making the journey one of joy as well as duty.
The hajj routes through Egypt have meant that some key Muslim figures are buried in the country, having died in Egypt on their way to Mecca or on their way back. They include the 14th-century scholar Ibn Khaldoun, originally from Tunis, the 12th-century geographer and poet Ibn Jubair, originally from Grenada, and the prominent Sufi figures Al-Morsi Abul-Abbas, originally from Algeria, and Ahmed Al-Badawi from Morocco.
According to today’s hajj operators, Egypt has remained on the route to Mecca, especially for people from the African continent or for budget pilgrims from North and South America along with Palestinian pilgrims from Gaza.
Because of the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza, the operators said that this year and last year have seen the route to Mecca mostly blocked for Gazans, except for those already in Egypt and unable to return home.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 5 June, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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