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- EDD K. USMAN | X (Twitter): @edd1819 | Instagram: @bluestar0910 |Facebook: SDN – SciTech & Digital News
COTABATO CITY, January 24, 2025 (SDN) — Every Filipino pilgrim for Hajj 2025 needs to come up with US$3,160 (around Php186,000, more or less) for the five-to-six day Islamic rituals. (Exchange rate: $1 = Php58.70.)
A two-way ticket for the trip, Manila-Jeddah/Madinah-Manila, is not included in the cost of the pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, which could balloon the total expenses, excluding pocket money.
Hajj pilgrims have the right to book their own flights through the travel agency they choose based on provisions of Republic Act No. 9997, the Charter of the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos (NCMF) — free choice of airline and travel agency.
A check on the internet shows that a round-trip ticket to Saudi Arabia from Manila was pegged at around Php60,000 (more or less $1,000). So, that would bring the total cost of Hajj 2025 to approximately Php246,000. Take note these figures are only estimates, especially that the exchange rate regularly fluctuates. And exact cost of plane fare varies from airline to airline and routes also affect the price of tickets which may further increase or decrease the rates.
Umrah, the minor pilgrimage, on the other hand, had already been privatized in 2013, thus, the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos (NCMF) headed by Secretary Sabuddin N. Abdurahim, who is well-acquainted with the ways of the pilgrimage, being a former “sheikh” (pilgrims’ leader) himself, has announced the “Schedule of Hajj Mutawiff Fees” recently to enlighten pilgrims on how much money they need, minus the plane fare, for their religious journey.
He said the Mutawiff Fees this year is $3,160 for each pilgrim.
Abdurahim told SDN — SciTech & Digital News on Friday, January 24, that the Saudi Ministry of Hajj and Umrah has granted the Philippines a total quota for this year at 5,000.
It could be remembered that Saudi Arabia grants each pilgrim-sending country a quota of 1,000 per a million Muslim population. So, in practice the NCMF may send around 10,000 pilgrims reckoned from the number of Islam believers in the country which is often times placed at 10,000 people, more or less.
NCMF holds meeting with Lanao sheikhs
Over here at the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), at its Cotabato City capital, the Bangsamoro Pilgrimage Authority (BPA) headed by Member of the Parliament (MP) and BPA Executive Director Ustadhz Said Salendab, plans to send 350 pilgrims this year, comprised of Moro marginalized sectors.
The Hajj, the Pilgrimage to Mecca, is the fifth pillar of Islam of which Muslims are obliged to perform once in a lifetime.
Aside from the Hajj, the other pillars of the Muslim religion are Shahaddah (Profession of Faith), Salat (Five daily prayers), Sawm (Fasting during Ramadan), and Zakat (Obligatory charity).
Prof. Norodin Salam of the Cotabato State University (along Santos Avenue here), deputy executive director at the BPA, told SDN the BARMM plans on sending the 350 pilgrims to Mecca for this year’s Hajj rituals.
He hastened to add the pilgrims under the auspices of the Bangsamoro government will be processed in coordination with and through the NCMF as required by the Saudi Hajj and Umrah ministry that recognizes only one government agency dealing with the Hajj operation.
Salam said the 350 pilgrims will come from the decommissioned former combatants of the Moro Islamic Liberation Fron (MILF), and other sectors chosen under a criteria for them to qualify as beneficiaries of the pilgrimage.
Hajj rituals are being conducted annually in Mecca at the Masjidil Haram (Grand Mosque), in the plains of Arafat, and Mina (the Tent City).
From Arafat, the pilgrims passed through Muzdalifah for an overnight stay, praying and picking up pebbles for the Throwing of Stones ritual at the three Jammarats (Pillars or Walls representing Satan) in Mina.
While the Prophet’s City of Madinah is not part of the Hajj rituals, pilgrims also visit Masjidil an-Nabawi (Prophet’s Mosque) to pray for Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him) and seek mercy from Allah Subhanna Taala.
It is during the Mina portion of the Hajj that Eid’l Adha (Feast of Sacrifice) is celebrated at the climax of the religious rituals. Muslims across the world estimated at over 1.6 billion celebrate the Eid through early morning congregational prayers in mosques and open fields.
In a related development, NCMF Commissioner Michael M. Mamukid said the Commission is presently holding in Iligan City a meeting with the “sheikhs” of Lanao del Sur and Lanao del Norte.
Mamukid, who represents the Kagan tribe of Davao de Oro in the Commission, told SDN in a message the meeting is discussing salient aspects of the pilgrimage with the Hajj Management Team led by Abdurahim im preparation for Hajj 2025.
As the coronavirus pandemic that barreled through the world starting in 2019, Saudi Arabia has started accepting millions of pilgrims every Hajj season. (♡)