Saudi Arabia has prepared more than 20,000 mosques and prayer halls across pilgrims’ routes and accommodation centres as part of extensive arrangements for the Mashair phase of Hajj, while also mobilising 1,822 preachers and 220 translators to provide religious guidance and support.
The Kingdom’s Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Dawah and Guidance said the measures form part of its comprehensive operational and awareness plan for pilgrims converging on Mina, the sprawling tent city, ahead of the Day of Arafat on Tuesday, the climax of Hajj rites.
According to the ministry, maintenance, operation and cleaning works have been completed at major mosques across the holy sites, with upgraded air conditioning, sound, lighting and public safety systems put in place to enhance comfort and safety for worshippers.
The ministry said the preparations cover over 20,000 mosques and prayer halls across the Kingdom, including 1,650 mosques and designated prayer areas within the boundaries of the Grand Mosque in Makkah and its central zone.
To support religious awareness and guidance during the pilgrimage, Saudi authorities said 1,822 preachers and 220 translators have been mobilised to assist pilgrims, delivering more than 160,000 religious lectures and outreach programmes after daily prayers.
In addition, the ministry said it had distributed more than 1.4 million printed awareness materials in 27 languages and was coordinating the dispatch of over 120 million multilingual text messages to educate pilgrims on Hajj rituals and safety guidelines.
Saudi Arabia also prepared approximately 1.9 million copies of the Holy Quran and translated editions in more than 80 languages as gifts from the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques for departing pilgrims.
As part of efforts to improve the spiritual experience through digital technology, the ministry said free Wi-Fi networks have been deployed across pilgrim locations, while advanced video-conferencing facilities have been installed to provide real-time fatwas at border crossings, reception halls, miqat stations and throughout the holy sites.
…as Yoruba, Hausa make 35-language Arafat sermon broadcast list
Meanwhile, the Kingdom has announced that this year’s Arafat sermon will be translated into 35 languages, including Yoruba, Hausa, English, French, Swahili, Somali, Urdu, Turkish, Persian, Indonesian, Chinese, Russian, Bengali, Hindi and several others, and broadcast through digital platforms and affiliated channels to reach Muslims around the world.
Other languages approved for the initiative include Spanish, Malay, Amharic, Pashto, Punjabi, Tamil, Filipino, Bosnian, German, Italian, Portuguese, Swedish, Uzbek, Tajik, Nepali, Sinhala, Malayalam, Oromo, Tigrinya, Lithuanian and Ugandan, reflecting Saudi Arabia’s effort to make the sermon accessible to diverse global audiences.
Head of the Presidency of Religious Affairs at the Grand Mosque and the Prophet’s Mosque, Sheikh Abdulrahman Al-Sudais, said the initiative is designed to extend the spiritual and humanitarian messages of the sermon beyond Arabic-speaking audiences and project Islam’s message of moderation globally.
He said the translation project reflects Saudi Arabia’s continued commitment to serving Islam and Muslims, while also highlighting the leadership’s care for pilgrims and efforts to maximise the global impact of the Hajj season through modern technologies.
“The Arafat sermon translation project is one of the presidency’s key initiatives, built on years of accumulated expertise, and contributes to enriching religious content in multiple world languages. The initiative enables non-Arabic-speaking Muslims to benefit from the sermon’s spiritual and humanitarian messages,” Al-Sudais said.
He added that technical, media and specialised teams have been mobilised to ensure the sermon reaches the widest possible audience worldwide with high professional and quality standards.
The latest measures come as hundreds of thousands of domestic pilgrims join more than 1.5 million international pilgrims already in the Kingdom for this year’s Hajj, with movement into Mina marking the beginning of the sacred Mashair rites ahead of Arafat.
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