Thousands of Muslim pilgrims started one of the final rituals of the Hajj early Thursday, each throwing seven pebbles at large stone pillars symbolizing the devil.
The majority of the 2 million pilgrims who have come in the Saudi city of Mecca from around the world will perform the rite around midday, but those who completed the ceremony early acted under a fatwa, or religious edict, issued last year that allowed the stoning before the dawn prayers.
On Wednesday, the pilgrims converged on nearby Mount Arafat, where Islam's 7th century prophet Muhammad gave his last sermon in the year 632, three months before his death.
Saudi Arabia's top cleric, speaking at a mosque near Mount Arafat, lamented the violence waged by some armed groups against Saudi Arabia and complained that a hostile world was conspiring against Islam.
''The greatest affliction to strike the nation of Islam came from some of its own sons, who were lured by the devil,'' Sheikh Abdul-Aziz al-Sheik said, according to The AP. ''They have called the nation infidel, they have shed protected blood and they have spread vice on earth, with explosions and destruction and killing of innocents.''
Meanwhile, King Fahd bin Abdulaziz and Crown Prince Abdullah delivered a speech to citizens and pilgrims on the occasion of Eid Al-Adha of this year. The speech was delivered on television and radio by the Saudi Minister of Culture and Information Dr. Fouad bin Abdulsalam Al-Farsi.
In their speech they said "Eid in Islam has many meanings: to show joy and satisfaction, to look after the needs of other Muslims and seek what is goof for them, to cooperate on the enhancement of good deeds, and to build bridges of mercy and sympathy with Muslims to achieve the bounds of brotherhood in Islam, and to resort to the firm tie away from extremism in a manner that expels terrorism, the plague whose ruinous nature is the very thing Islam proscribes and warns against."
