Every Stage Of Hajj Pilgrimage Explained in 22 minutes

Millions of Muslims go for Hajj every single year, but many of them still do not fully know how to perform it. That is why they take special classes and are guided by special person called Hajj guide or Mutawif. But today, will explain Hajj in simple stage-by-stage way that even your kids can understand. We will analyze the complete Hajj ritual in just nine stages where you will learn everything, including why people throw stones at Shaytan and why they shave their heads. So, hit subscribe, but before explaining every stage, you first need to know how Hajj began. So, let's start from the beginning of Hajj. Here is something most Muslims have never been told. Hajj did not start with the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. It did not start 1,400 years ago. It started with man who was asked to do the most impossible thing father could ever be asked to do, and he said yes without hesitation. His name was Ibrahim, and his story is the reason you pray the way you pray, face the direction you face, and one day hope to stand in valley in Saudi Arabia wearing two white clothes with 2 million strangers. But before Ibrahim built anything, before there was Kaaba, before there was Mecca that anyone knew about, Allah gave him command that made no sense. He was told to take his wife Hajar and his infant son Ismail into desert valley with no water, no trees, no people, and no sign of life, and leave them there. And he did. He left Hajar with only small bag of dates and waterskin, and he started walking away without looking back. And Hajar followed him asking where he was going, and he did not answer. She asked again and again, and he kept walking. And finally, she asked the one question that changed everything. She said, "Has Allah commanded you to do this?" He said, "Yes." And she stopped. She turned around and walked back to her infant son in the middle of desert and said five words that every Muslim should memorize for the rest of their life. She said, "Then he will not neglect us." The water ran out, the baby cried, and Hajar did what every mother would do. She ran. She climbed the hill of Safa and looked for any sign of help, saw nothing, ran down to Marwah, climbed it, looked again, saw Found Back and forth seven times, desperate, refusing to give up. And on her seventh run, she heard sound. Water burst from the ground beneath her son's feet, and it has not stopped flowing for 4,000 years. That water is the Zamzam well you will drink from when you arrive in Mecca today. Years passed, Ishmael grew, and then Ibrahim came back, and together, father and son, they built the Kaaba from stone by stone, raising its walls and making the dua that every pilgrim still recites today. Rabbana taqabbal minna, innaka antas sami'ul alim. Our Lord, accept this from us. Indeed, you are the all-hearing, the all-knowing. Surah Al-Baqarah, 2:11-2:127. When the Kaaba was complete, Allah told Ibrahim to stand on hill and call all of humanity to come for pilgrimage. Ibrahim asked, "How can my voice reach people who are not even born yet?" Allah said, "You call them, and we will carry the sound." And that call reached every soul that would ever live on this earth. And the ones who answered said, "Labbayk, here am." And those are the people who feel the pull toward Mecca every year without being able to explain why. You are one of them. Stage one, wearing the ihram. Before you even land in Saudi Arabia, something is going to happen that will feel unlike anything you have experienced in your life. Every pilgrim reaches geographical boundary called the miqat. And at that point, whether you are on plane, in car, or walking, you must stop everything, change your clothes, and enter sacred state called ihram. For men, this means removing every stitch of normal clothing and wrapping yourself in two plain white unstitched cloths. No underwear, no shoes that cover the ankle, no hat, no perfume. For women, it means plain modest clothing covering everything except the face and hands. No niqab and no gloves during ihram. And here is where it gets powerful. The two white cloths men wear are not random. They are almost identical to the kafan, the burial shroud every Muslim is wrapped in when they are lowered into their grave. The moment man puts on ihram, he is dressed as dead person. Because Hajj is rehearsal for death and the day of judgment, and Allah wants you to feel that from the first moment you arrive. The rich man and the poor man now look exactly the same. The CEO and the taxi driver, the Arab and the Nigerian and the Pakistani and the American. Two pieces of white cloth. No brand names, no status, no difference. There are five boundary points called Miqat where Ihram must be worn. Dhul Hulayfah for those coming from Medina, Al-Juhfah for those coming from Europe and North America, Qarn al-Manazil for those from the Gulf and South Asia, Yalamlam for those from Yemen and East Africa, Dhat Irq for those from Iraq and Iran. If you cross any of these boundaries without entering Ihram, you must go back or sacrifice an animal as an expiation. And the moment Ihram is on, the Talbiyah begins. Here am, Allah, here am. Here am, you have no partner, here am. Verily, all praise, grace, and sovereignty belong to you. You have no partner. This is said constantly by men out loud and by women softly from the moment Ihram begins until the first pebble is thrown on Eid day. And when 2 million people say it together in the streets of Mecca, it does not sound like recitation. It sounds like the earth itself is answering call. And now you understand something important. This stage is not just about clothes. It is about who you are choosing to be for the next few days. Stage two, first tawaf. You have been in Ihram for hours. You have been saying Labbaik since the plane. And then the car stops and someone says, "We are here." You walk through gate. The corridors are crowded. The air is thick with people. And then you turn corner and suddenly you see it for the first time, the Kaaba. Nothing prepares you for this moment. People who have seen it dozens of times still stop completely when they see it. Some people cry before they even realize they are crying. Some people freeze in the middle of the crowd. Some people cannot speak for several minutes. And then you move toward it because there is something you have to do. Tawaf is circling the Kaaba seven times in counterclockwise direction, starting and ending at the black stone in the southeastern corner. You begin by facing the black stone and raising your right hand and saying Bismillahi Allahu Akbar, and then you begin walking. The black stone itself descended from paradise, and the prophet, peace be upon him, said it was whiter than milk when it first came down, and the sins of people turned it black. Jami at-Tirmidhi 877. But, here is the most important thing to understand about the black stone. It is not worshipped. It has no power of its own. And the person who made this clearest was not scholar or shaikh, but the second caliph of Islam, Umar ibn al-Khattab, who stood in front of the black stone, kissed it, and said public, "By Allah, know that you are just stone. You can neither benefit nor harm. Had not seen the messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, kiss you, would never have kissed you." Sahih Bukhari 1597. This is one of the most powerful moments in Islamic history. The leader of the Muslim world standing at the most sacred spot on earth and publicly defining the line between following sunnah and worshipping an object. The black stone is kissed because the prophet kissed it, not because the stone does anything. Men in the first three circuits walk briskly with their shoulders back. The remaining four are walked normally. Between the Yemeni corner and the black stone, the pilgrim recites, "Rabbana atina fid-dunya hasanatan wa fil-akhirati hasanatan waqina adhaban-nar." Surah al-Baqarah 2:201. "Our Lord, give us good in this world and good in the hereafter, and protect us from the punishment of the fire." The rest of tawaf is open dua in any language for anything. After seven circuits, two rak'ahs are prayed behind the Maqam Ibrahim, the stone with the footprints of Ibrahim still visible inside it, because Allah commanded in Surah al-Baqarah 2:125, "Take from the station of Ibrahim place of prayer." Then the pilgrim drinks Zamzam. The same water Hajar found for her crying son is now flowing into cup in your hand inside the grandest mosque on earth. And whatever dua you make while drinking Zamzam, drink it with the certainty that woman in desert once trusted Allah completely and he answered her before she finished running. Stage three, running between Safa and Marwah. Most people know that Sa'i is running between two hills but almost nobody knows the full story of why and when you understand the full story, you will never perform Sa'i the same way again. Hajar was young black woman, mother, alone in valley with no food, no water and baby who was dying of thirst. She had just watched her husband walk away and disappear over the horizon. She had no tribe, no family, no rescue team coming. She ran to Safa, the first hill and climbed it and looked out in every direction and saw nothing. She ran down and ran to Marwah and climbed it and looked out and saw nothing. She came back. She went again, seven lengths back and forth, alone, desperate, refusing to sit down and wait for death. And on her seventh run, she heard voice. She called out, have heard you. Do you have anything to help me?" The angel Jibreel struck the earth with his heel or his wing and water erupted from the ground next to her baby son. She cupped her hands around it to form basin saying, "Zamzam." Meaning, "Stop, stop." Because the water was flowing so fast, she was afraid it would flood. The prophet, peace be upon him, said, "May Allah have mercy on Isma'il's mother. Had she let Zamzam flow without stopping it, it would have been river flowing on the surface of the earth." Sahih Bukhari 3364. That story is what Sa'i commemorates. The pilgrim begins at Safa, faces the Kaaba and recites the dikr the prophet, peace be upon him, taught saying three times, "La ilaha illallah wahdahu la sharika lahu." wa lahu al-hamd wa huwa ala kulli shay'in qadir. Sahih Muslim 12118. Then walks toward Marwah. In the section marked by green lights, men jog. Women walk the entire way. One length from Safa to Marwah is one circuit. The seventh circuit ends at Marwah. No specific words are required during Sa'i. The pilgrim makes any du'a they wish. And now here is the thing that should stop you in your tracks. Every Muslim who has ever performed Hajj, every king, every scholar, every billionaire, every political leader was required to literally run in the footsteps of single woman who had nothing. No one is exempted from Sa'i. No one does Sa'i on someone else's behalf while they sit. You run where Hajar ran, you climb where Hajar climbed. Allah did not just answer Hajar, he immortalized her. He made her act of desperation and trust an act of worship that will be performed until the end of time. For Tamattu' pilgrims, those who perform Umrah first and later do Hajj in the same journey, after completing Sa'i, men shave their heads and women trim small part of their hair. This ends their first Ihram and they return to normal life in Mecca for few days, resting, praying, and preparing for the most important days of Hajj. And if you are wondering, wait, does the shaving happen again later? Yes, it does. And that is not mistake because Tamattu' pilgrims enter second Ihram on the 8th of Dhu Hijjah specifically for Hajj. The shaving happens twice in total. The first time here after Sa'i ends the Umrah Ihram. The second time on Eid day after the sacrifice ends the Hajj Ihram. Two Ihram periods, two separate haircuts, each one marking the completion of different act of worship. Stage four, the night in Mina. On the 8th of Dhu Hijjah, something changes. Tamattu' pilgrims put their Ihram back on. They make the intention for Hajj. They begin the Talbiyah again and they start moving east away from Mecca toward valley called Mina. Mina is 8 km from Mecca and on this day it transforms into the largest temporary city on Earth. Roughly 100,000 permanent white tents fill the entire valley. Each one air-conditioned, fire-resistant, and packed with pilgrims from every corner of the world. You are assigned tent based on your country. Your neighbors in the tent next to you might be from Mali or Kazakhstan or Brazil. No one cares. You are all wearing the same thing and heading to the same place. The day is called Yawm at-Tarwiyah, which means the day of quenching thirst because historically pilgrims would drink deeply and fill their water containers here before pushing in into the desert ahead. The Prophet, peace be upon him, arrived in Mina on the 8th of Dhu Hijjah and prayed Dhuhr, Asr, Maghrib, Isha, and Fajr there, five prayers, each shortened to two rak'at, but prayed at their correct times, not combined. Sahih Bukhari 1656. And the Sunnah is to follow this exact pattern. The night in Mina is not ritual night in the same way Muzdalifah will be. It is night of preparation, night of reciting Quran, making dhikr, praying nawafil, and mentally and spiritually preparing for what comes the next morning. Because tomorrow is the day the Prophet, peace be upon him, described in one sentence that leaves no room for misunderstanding. Tomorrow is the day that is Hajj. Stage five, the day of Arafat. The Prophet, peace be upon him, said it clearly, "Al-Hajj Arafah." Hajj is Arafat. Sunan an-Nasa'i 3016. Not the Kaaba, not the talbiyah, not the stoning, not the sacrifice. Arafat. If you miss this one day, this one afternoon, your entire Hajj is void, and you must come back next year. There is no makeup, there is no expiation. This is the single most important day of Hajj, and for many pilgrims, it is the single most important day of their lives. After Fajr in Mina, after the sun rises, the pilgrims begin moving east toward the plain of Arafat, roughly 14 km from Mecca. And what they find there is something no amount of description prepares you for. flat open plain stretching in every direction, filled with 2 million human beings, all in white, all standing, all facing the same direction. The Prophet, peace be upon him, waited until after midday. Then the Imam delivers khutbah from Jabal al-Rahmah, the Mount of Mercy, small granite hill in the heart of the plain, reviving the Sunnah of the farewell sermon that the Prophet, peace be upon him, delivered on this exact spot in the 10th year of Hijrah with 120,000 companions surrounding him. After the sermon, Dhuhr and Asr are prayed, combined, and shortened at Dhuhr times. Sahih Muslim 1208. And then the wuquf begins. Wuquf means standing. From after midday until sunset, the pilgrim stands on Arafat doing nothing but making dua, begging Allah, weeping, remembering sins, asking for forgiveness, praying for the people they love, praying for the Ummah, praying for the dead, praying for the living. The Prophet, peace be upon him, said, "The best dua is the dua of the day of Arafat. And the best thing and the prophets before me have said is la ilaha illallah wahdahu la sharika lahu lahul wa lahul hamd wa huwa ala kulli shay qadir." Jami al-Tirmidhi 3585. And then he said something else. He said, "There is no day on which Allah frees more of his servants from the fire than the day of Arafat." Sahih Muslim 1348. Think about what that means. 2 million people standing in valley asking for forgiveness, and Allah freeing more people from hellfire on this single afternoon than on any other day of the year. The sun starts to lower, the shadows grow longer. People are weeping openly, not because they have been instructed to, but because standing there, stripped of everything, with nowhere to go and nothing to do except face Allah, something breaks open inside every human being. Hardened businessmen weep. Young men who never cried in their adult lives weep. Elderly women who have been to Hajj three times weep as if the first. And just before sunset, the wuquf ends. The pilgrims do not pray Maghrib at Arafat. They mount their transport and begin moving toward Muzdalifah, because the night is not over yet. Stage six, the night of Muzdalifah. After sunset on the day of Arafat, 2 million people begin moving at the same time. The roads from Arafat to Muzdalifah are some of the most congested stretches of ground on Earth during this hour. But the sunnah is clear, do not pray Maghrib at Arafat. Wait until you reach Muzdalifah, and there pray Maghrib and Isha combined at Isha time. Sahih Bukhari 1672. Muzdalifah is an open plain between Arafat and Mina. No tents, no hotels, no walls, just open sky and ground and 2 million pilgrims. Here is what happens when you arrive. You pray Maghrib and Isha combined. You eat whatever food you have, and then you lie down on the ground in your ihram, under the stars, surrounded by millions of people doing exactly the same thing. No mattress, no roof, no air conditioning. The ground of Muzdalifah under your back and the sky of Arabia above your face. Allah describes this place in the Quran as Al-Mash'ar Al-Haram, the sacred monument, and commands the pilgrims in Surah Al-Baqarah 2:198, "When you depart from Arafat, remember Allah at Al-Mash'ar Al-Haram, and remember Him as He has guided you." Before sleeping, the pilgrim collects pebbles for the stoning that comes the next day. Small pebbles, roughly the size of chickpea, 49 for those who will leave Mina on the 12th, 70 for those staying through the 13th. At Fajr time, the pilgrim prays and then stands facing the Qibla at Al-Mash'ar Al-Haram making dua until just before sunrise. Then, after sunrise, the movement begins again toward Mina, but there is concession built into this stage that shows the mercy of Islam. The Prophet, peace be upon him, specifically allowed the weak, the elderly, women, and children to leave Muzdalifah after the moon set, which is the latter part of the night, so they could perform the stoning at the Jamarat before the massive crowds arrived. Sahih Bukhari 1678. Their Hajj is fully valid and no expiation is required. And now as Muzdalifah ends and the pilgrims move toward Mina in the dark, the heaviest and most emotionally charged day of the entire journey is about to begin. Stage seven, the day of sacrifice, the 10th of Dhu al-Hijjah, Eid al-Adha, Yawm al-Nahr, the busiest single day in the entirety of Hajj, and the day that connects every Muslim on Earth, those performing Hajj in Mina and those celebrating Eid at home to the same moment, the same man, and the same sacrifice. Four rituals must be performed on this day, and the Prophet, peace be upon him, was asked about those who did them in different order and said, "No harm, no harm." Sahih Bukhari 83. But the recommended order is what follows. The pilgrim arrives at Jamrat al-Aqabah, the largest of the three stoning walls closest to Mecca, and throws seven small pebbles one at time saying Allahu Akbar with each throw. And here the Talbiyah stops. The first pebble ends it. The constant response to Ibrahim's call, recited since Ihram was put on, goes silent at this moment. After stoning comes the sacrifice. The pilgrim slaughters sheep or shares in cow or camel with up to six others. Most pilgrims today pay through certified Saudi channels and the meat is distributed to the poor worldwide. This is the Hadi, the sacrificial animal, and its connection to what Ibrahim was asked to do is direct and deliberate. Remember the dream Ibrahim had? He saw himself slaughtering his son. He told Ismail. Ismail said, "Do what Allah commanded you." And as the knife was raised over his son and the act of complete submission was complete in Ibrahim's heart. Allah called out, "You have fulfilled the vision." And ram was provided as ransom. Surah As-Saffat, 37:104-107. Every animal slaughtered during Eid al-Adha in every Muslim home in every country in the world is the global ummah saying the same thing Ibrahim said, "We submit." After the sacrifice, the pilgrim shaves or cuts the hair. Men shave the entire head and the prophet, peace be upon him, made dua three times for those who shave before he made it once for those who only trim. Sahih Bukhari 1727. Women cut fingertip's length only. Then comes tawaf al-ifadah, the obligatory tawaf of Hajj itself, without which Hajj is not valid. The pilgrim travels back to Mecca, circles the Kaaba seven times, and for tamattu pilgrims, performs sa'i again. After tawaf al-ifadah, everything becomes permissible again: perfume, normal clothes, marital relations, and the pilgrim returns to Mina for the days ahead. Stage eight, stoning the shaytan. Most people think the stoning at the jamarat is about throwing rocks at devil. It is not. There is no shaytan standing at the pillar waiting to be hit. He is not there and the pebbles are not weapons. What you are doing at the jamarat is reenacting the moment Ibrahim walked toward the place of sacrifice with his son and shaytan appeared to him three times to whisper doubts and fears and human hesitation. And Ibrahim rejected him three times by throwing stones and kept walking toward what Allah had commanded. You are declaring with every pebble, reject you. reject every whisper that told me the prayer was not worth. reject every thought that told me my sins were too many for forgiveness. reject every voice that told me to choose comfort over obedience. That is what the stoning means. Now, before we go further, you might be thinking, wait, we already stoned on Eid day in stage seven. So, what is this stage about? Here is the difference. On Eid day, you stoned only one wall, Jamrat al-Aqabah, with seven pebbles only as part of the four Eid rituals alongside the sacrifice, the shaving, and tawaf. That was the beginning of the stoning. What happens now, in the three days that follow, is the continuation and the completion of it. And this time, all three walls are stoned, not just one, on the 11th, 12th, and 13th of Dhu al-Hijjah, the days of Tashriq. The pilgrim returns to Mina and stones all three jamarat in order after Dhuhr time. First, Jamrat al-Sughra, the smallest wall furthest from Mecca, seven pebbles, Allahu Akbar with each. Then, move forward and face the qibla and make long dua with hands raised. Second, Jamrat al-Wusta, the middle wall, seven pebbles, Allahu Akbar with each. Move forward, face the qibla, make long dua. Third, Jamrat al-Aqabah, the largest wall closest to Mecca, seven pebbles, Allahu Akbar with each. No dua after this one. Move away. Three walls, 21 pebbles per day. The nights of the 11th and 12th must be spent in Mina. Allah gives concession in Surah al-Baqarah 2:203. Whoever hastens their departure after two days, there is no sin upon them. So, pilgrim may leave Mina after the 12th of Dhu al-Hijjah, provided they leave before sunset. Those who stay through the 13th stone one final time and then leave. And before leaving Mecca entirely, one final act remains. Stage nine, the farewell tawaf. You have done everything. You have worn the ihram, circled the Kaaba, run between Safa and Marwah, stood on Arafat, slept under the stars of Muzdalifah, sacrificed, shaved, stoned, and now it is time to go home. But, before you leave Mecca, you must return to the Kaaba one final time and say goodbye. The prophet, peace be upon him, commanded it in Sahih Bukhari 1755. The people were ordered that their last act should be the tawaf of the house, tawaf al-wada, the farewell tawaf, seven circuits, no sa'i, running between Safa and Marwah, after this one, and then you leave with the Kaaba as the last thing you see before walking out of the gate. There is something about this tawaf that is unlike the others. The first tawaf you were overwhelmed and trying to take everything in. The tawaf of Ifadah, you were exhausted and grateful, but this one you know is the last one. And pilgrims describe it as one of the hardest moments of the entire journey. People stop and turn back to look. People walk slowly. People make one final dua at the Multazam, the area between the black stone and the door of the Kaaba, pressing their hands against the cloth and asking Allah for whatever is left in their hearts. And the Prophet, peace be upon him, said in Sahih Bukhari 1521, "Whoever performs Hajj for Allah's sake and does not utter any obscenity and does not commit any evil will return as free of sin as on the day his mother gave birth to him." You leave Mecca the same way you arrived, but you are not the same person. The person who arrived had the weight of every sin they had ever committed on their back. The person walking out of Mecca after tawaf al-wada has been given something that no amount of money, no act of worship, no number of good deeds could give them on its own, completely clean start. The Prophet, peace be upon him, called it Hajj al-mabrur, the accepted Hajj, and said it has no reward except one thing, paradise. If this video brought Hajj closer to your heart, share it with someone you love because maybe they needed to hear this today. Now, please watch the next video.