2,500 Indonesian Hajj Candidates Will Carry Out Sunnah Tarwiyah, Government Asks To Maintain Safety

Prospective Hajj Pilgrims (Photo: ANTARA)

JAKARTA - More than 2,500 hajj candidates from Indonesia plan to carry out sunnah tarwiyah on 8 Dzulhijjah, before the peak of the 1443 Hijri pilgrimage. Because it is not mandatory worship, the government does not facilitate but also does not prohibit it.

"Currently, there are only 2,536 pilgrims who will take part in tarwiyah," said the Head of the Worship Guidance Section of the Hajj Organizing Committee for the Ansor Mecca Working Area in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

At this time, some pilgrims follow the sunnah by departing from the inn to Mina on the 7th of Dhulhijjah then staying in Mina on the 8th of Dhulhijjah and continuing the journey to Arafah on the 9th of Dhulhijjah.

However, the sunnah of tarwiyah does not exclude the pillars and obligatory Hajj. Ansor said that the government did not prohibit pilgrims from carrying out the sunnah tarwiyah, but also did not provide facilitation.

Members of the Indonesian congregation who wish to carry out sunnah tarwiyah are required to make a statement regarding the person in charge of their safety.

"They were asked to make a statement, a tarwiyah statement. To make it easier for them to fill out a google form, it was signed by the person concerned, there is also a letter in physical form with a stamp," said Ansor.

Although it does not facilitate the congregation to carry out the sunnah tarwiyah, the government will place several officers to monitor the condition of the congregation who carry out the practice.

He said that during the 2019 hajj pilgrimage, when Indonesia received a full hajj quota for around 218,000 people, until the day of Tarwiyah (8 Dzulhijjah) there were 6,000 members of the congregation who were recorded to want to carry out sunnah tarwiyah.

"Because (this year's hajj quota) the percentage is only 46 percent, this is nearing the peak, we think it might be below 4,000 (which this year is carrying out the sunnah tarwiyah worship)," Ansor said as quoted by ANTARA, Saturday, July 2.

At the time of the Prophet Muhammad, pilgrims filled their water supplies in Mina on Tarwiyah Day, the 8th of Dhulhijjah, to travel to the place of wukuf in Arafah on the 9th of Dhulhijjah.