KHUJAND, October 13, 2008, Asia-Plus — Applicants from the Sughd province for free participation in this year’s Hajj have passed exams.
Speaking in an interview with Asia-Plus, Abdusalom Rajabov, head of the Hajj and travel department within the directorate for religious affairs of the Ministry of Culture (MoC), said that 50 persons in northern Tajikistan, including representatives of mosques and officials practically from all districts of the province, had been nominated by local authorities for participation in the contest for free participation in the Hajj.
“The applicants were divided into groups to take exams and 27 persons will be competitively selected from them,” the MoC official, noting that those 27 persons will head groups of local Muslims that will participate in the Hajj this year. According to him, their travel expenses will paid by the MoC.
We will recall that authorities of the southern Khatlon have also launched a competition to select persons to head groups of local Muslims that will participate in the Hajj. 30 persons will be competitively selected from 70 applicants to head the groups. Each of those groups will consist of 50 persons.
Like last year, more than 5,000 Tajik Muslims will participate in the Hajj this year. The directorate for religious affairs within the Ministry of Culture controls participation in the Hajj, and the government continues to require air travel for the Hajj. Tajik pilgrims fly to Saudi Arabia from both Dushanbe and Khujand.
The Hajj is a pilgrimage to Mecca. It is the largest annual pilgrimage in the world.
It is the fifth pillar of Islam, an obligation that must be carried out at least once in their lifetime by every able-bodied Muslim who can afford to do so. It is a demonstration of the solidarity of the Muslim people, and their submission to Allah.
The pilgrimage occurs from the 10th to the 15th day of Dhu al-Hijjah, the 12th month of the Islamic calendar. Because the Islamic calendar is a lunar calendar, eleven days shorter than the Gregorian calendar used in the Western world, the Gregorian date of the Hajj is eleven days earlier from year to year. In 2007, the Hajj was from December 17 to December 21; this year from the first week of December.
