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American Morning

Muslims Begin Final Leg of Hajj Pilgrimage

Aired February 21, 2002 - 08:22   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Turning now to what is the largest annual outpouring humanity for a single event, a spiritual journey of Hajj. More than 2 million Muslims today began their final leg of the annual pilgrimage as they poured into the plains of Arafat in Saudi Arabia.

CNN's Zain Verjee is in Mt. Arafat and joins us now.

ZAIN VERJEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A stunning sea of white on the streets of Mt. Arafat. Two million Muslims are teaming the streets. They're on top of the mountain surrounding the area, praying this the most important day of the Hajj pilgrimage. They walked. They wheeled themselves. They bussed it here. They biked it here. Whatever it took, they got themselves here, the most important day of this religious ceremony that they're undertaking.

Basically, what they're doing is they're going to pray from -- until dusk and they've been doing that since midday, and they're going to ask God basically for forgiveness, say look, you know, forgive us all our sins, give us a purity of heart and mind and soul and body, and they say this is this place where we feel closest to God. And the reason they feel that is because this is the place where the prophet Mohammed is believed to have delivered his last sermon.

He delivered it on a place called the Mount of Mercy, and when he was delivering the sermon, he said God look, all the pilgrims that are standing here in front of me, all these people that are standing, forgive them their sins. So there's been somewhat of a literalist interpretation of that. So, you see a lot of people standing and praying and in fact, the ceremony is also called the Standing.

Now you know there's been enormous preparations for this event by the Saudi government. It's extremely hot. There are 2 million people here. Security is tight, but everyone is on the streets chanting this (speaking in foreign language) meaning God, I'm finally here, I have come.

Back to you.

COOPER: All right, Zain Verjee, in Mt. Arafat, Saudi Arabia. Thanks very much.

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