The Saudi Arabian authorities have given themselves a pat on the back for the successful completion of this year’s haj.

A total of 1.4 million foreign pilgrims from 188 nations completed the Nafar Awal ritual which signifies the early completion of all the main requrements of the haj ritual. This allows , them to head for Makkah early (on the second day of Tasyriq on the 14th Zulhijjah) to perform the tawaf and saei before heading for home upon completion of the tawaf wida’ to bid goodbye to Makkah and the Kaabah.

According to Makkah Governor Prince Khaled al-Faisal bin Abdul Aziz, all the careful planning had contributed to the successful conclusion of the haj, including the highlight which came to its climax with the wuquf in Arafah on 9th of Zulhijjah.

That concentration of a sea of humanity in the plains of Arafah and the following three days of Stoning the Devil ritual in Mina went on smoothly despite some worries that it would be marred by planned demonstrations.

The security authorities were wary of planned demonstrations that were rumoured to have been planned by disenchanted groups as a result of political turmoil back in their native countries.

The Saudis had taken ample precautions to ensure the haj went out without any security hitches. This included deploying nearly 100,000 troops, the wide use of closed-circuit cameras for crowd monitoring duties and aerial surveillance using helicopters put on constant patrol.

Meanwhile, the first batch of Malaysian pilgrims will set for home on October 21 after having set foot in the Holy Land, first in Jeddah more than a month ago, followed by Madinah and then Makkah. They will head for home on a Saudia flight scheduled to leave Jeddah at 7am and arrive in KLIA at 8:50pm (Malaysian time).

On the other hand, those pilgrims who have yet to visit Madinah will be spending a minimum eight days in the Prophet’s City beginning 28 October in batches. This is to allow for flight scheduling, with the last flight home to take place on Nov 18.

The Media team which left Malaysia back in Sept 3 will head for home on Oct 26.