Some 2,280 pilgrims out of a total of 28,000 from Malaysia for the Haj in Mecca, the fifth tenet of Islam, have arrived in Medina.

Tabung Haji group corporate affairs and communications manager Mohamad Naser Jaffar said they had arrived here since Sept 17 and placed in various hotels in this holy city, about 339km from Mecca.

“Our (Malaysian) pilgrims’ advantage is that they have the shortest access to the Nabawi Mosque as the hotels they are staying at are only around 50m from this mosque,” he told Malaysian journalists at the Al-Haram Hotel grounds in Media today.

He was grateful that the arrangements made by Tabung Haji had gone on smoothly while the pilgrims were in good health and spirits to do such things as visiting various mosques including the Nabawi, Quba and Qiblatain, and martyrs’ tombs.

All flights from Malaysia to the Holy Land had taken off from the KL International Airport except for today where there will be flights from Johor, and from Penang (Sept 23), Kota Kinabalu (Sept 26), Kuching (Sept 27) and Terengganu (Sept 28). The last flights are expected to be on Oct 19.

It is observed that pilgrims from other countries, especially from Turkey, Indonesia, Thailand and China have started arriving and thronging Nabawi Mosque.

The mosque, the second biggest in the world and where the tomb of Prophet Muhammad is located, is always packed with people during the Haj season that some pilgrims are forced to perform their prayers outside.

The Nabawi Mosque can accommodate a congregation of 600,000 people but with giant marquees that can be automatically installed outside, it can accommodate about one million people for prayers.

- Bernama