4,000 Muslims leave Malawi for Mecca

Malawi’s Muslim community has sent to Mecca over 4,000 of its faithful on a pilgrimage known as the Hajj, making it the biggest number ever sent form the country, according to Sheik Amman Matiya, one of the local organisers of the annual pilgrimage to Islam’s holiest site in Saudi Arabia, said here Monday.

The Saudi government gave Malawi a quota of 10,000 pilgrims to visit Mecca this year but Matiya said his community could not afford to take advantage of this number due to high costs of the undertaking at more than US$2,000 per person.

“Although we have failed to beat the 10,000-person quota, the representation this year is amazing because over 4,000 Muslims are attending the Hajj and this has never happened before in Malawi,” Matiya said.

Islam requires a Muslim – who has the means to do so – to make the trip to Mecca at least once in a lifetime. The trip is one of the five pillars of Islam required to be fulfilled by all Muslims.