The authorities of Uzbekistan and Saudi Arabia have agreed to double the Hajj quota for pilgrims from the republic, MIR 24 reports with reference to the press service of Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev.
According to it, in Tashkent on September 29, Mirziyoyev and the Minister of Hajj and Umrah of Saudi Arabia, Tavfik bin Favzan ar-Rabi, discussed issues of expanding cooperation in organizing pilgrimage programs.
“An agreement was reached to double the quota for citizens of Uzbekistan to perform the hajj, up to 24,000 a year, and also die, up to 100,000 pilgrims,” the report says.
Recall that this year, the Saudi authorities, in connection with the improvement of the epidemiological situation with COVID-19, allowed to increase the number of pilgrims to more than a million people from 60,000 who participated in 2021. For the first time since the beginning of the pandemic, pilgrims from other states took part in the Hajj this year.
Hajj is one of the five pillars on which Islam is based. The pilgrimage to the holy places in Mecca is prescribed for every Muslim to make at least once in his life. Hajj is divided into small and large. A Muslim can perform a small Hajj at any time of the year, while a large one is performed in the month of Zul-Hijja dedicated to this.