[Al Arabiya Latest] Around two million Muslim pilgrims in Mecca launched into the final rituals of the Hajj pilgrimage on Saturday as flash floods wreaked havoc in the city of Jeddah, where Saudi Arabia's civil defense authorities put the death toll at 99 people and a human rights lawyer said he would sue the city.
Tens of thousands of the faithful were circling the Kaaba at the heart of the mosque in Mecca while many more continued the three stage ritual of stoning of the devil at the jamarat pillars in the nearby city of Mina.
The stoning — casting 49 pebbles against the three broad stone pillars over two or three days — mark Abraham's three rejections of the devil's attempts to persuade him to ignore God's instructions to sacrifice his son Ishmael, as related in Islam's holy book the Quran.
After the stoning they circumambulate the Kaaba to complete Hajj, required of all able Muslims and for many a purifying, once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Many who had completed the rigorous process were out on the streets of Mecca shopping for souvenirs to take back when departures begin en masse late Saturday.
Saudi-style jalabiya caftans, prayer beads, Saudi perfumes and dates were popular with pilgrims, along with jugs of holy water for drinking and ablutions produced by the Zam Zam well inside the Grand Mosque.
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