THE 2025 Hajj pilgrimage ended Monday, the thirteenth of Dhul Hijjah, corresponding with the ninth of June, with over 1.6 million Muslims from more than 150 nations that participated in this year’s exercise.
Saudi authorities from the Hajj and Umrah Committee announced the conclusion in Mina, declaring it free of any health, security, or service-related incidents.
On Monday, the Deputy Emir of the Makkah Region, Prince Saud bin Mishaal, who made the announcement, praised the Kingdom’s leadership for ensuring the event was incident-free.
Prince Mishaal, who commended the efforts of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz, and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, attributed the smooth and successful conduct of the 2025 pilgrimage to their leadership.
While maintaining that the Kingdom and its leadership take great pride in serving the holy sites and visitors, they revealed that preparations for Hajj 2026 have commenced immediately.
Marking the end of Hajj 2025, pilgrims left Mina, the tent city, after spending three days performing the stoning of devil ritual and other acts of worship and returned to Makkah, where they performed the Dawaaf Al-Ifadah: circumambulation of the Holy Ka’abah and the Sa’e: the running between the hills of Safa and Marwah and exited the state of Ihram; the state of ritual purity.
This year, Saudi authorities put in place several measures, including amenities, security, health, and infrastructure, ensuring that pilgrims performed a comfortable and safe pilgrimage.
As the 2025 Hajj came to an end, the authorities announced that there were no major health, security, or service-related incidents recorded.
Some Nigerian pilgrims who participated in the pilgrimage narrated their experience to Channels Television in Mina, the tent city.
A Nigerian pilgrim from Osun State, Muritala Fakunle, said, “This year’s Hajj has a greater impact on the pilgrims than last year. More facilities are deployed, I must confess to you in Mina, Muzdalifah, as well as Arafat, we have more facilities. The beddings and the cooling are of high quality.’
“For this year, the people who came here last year and came this year, they will know that this year is a top-notch year.”
Another Nigerian pilgrim from Katsina State, Nasir Yahaya, shared similar remarks, saying, “Operations for this year’s Hajj 2025 are excellent, there is no problem with the Nigerian Hajj pilgrims. There is no problem, 100 percent in terms of food, the activities, even in Mina, very neat, not like before, not like last year. This year is excellent, there is not too much crowd.’
A first-time Nigerian pilgrim, Nurudeen Babajide, noted that, “This is my first time coming to Hajj, I always heard some complaints from people that used to come before but for this year, I think they changed the system entirely because what I have seen for this year Hajj is quite different from what I heard before. It is perfect, the service from Madina to Makkah, and we have visited different places. I think the services are well-arranged.”
Another Nigerian pilgrim, Qomorudeen Bello, hailed the people of Saudi Arabia for their warm reception of visitors.
He said, “Saudi Arabia is one of the forefront countries in the world because there is nowhere in the world that people are congregating or converging for a religious purpose that cuts across the world except Saudi Arabia. Another thing I observe in them is sincerity and love above all, they are so magnanimous, they give Sadaqah (charity) at any time, so with this, I believe there is beauty in Islam.”
This year, over 1.6 million pilgrims from more than 150 nations were served with more than 130 digital services, over 50,000 healthcare personnel and 40,000 security forces deployed, seven new hospitals opened, 23,000 trees planted, 300,000 square meters of shaded areas introduced, emergency care expanded by 60 percent, over 20,000 buses and trains used among other services with the goal primarily to ensure that the Hajj journey is comfortable and spiritually fulfilling.
According to official figures, over 1.6 million pilgrims performed the 2025 Hajj, comprising 877,841 male pilgrims and 795,389 female pilgrims, with 1,506,576 pilgrims from outside Saudi Arabia, and 166,654 domestic pilgrims, comprising citizens and residents.
The leadership of the kingdom reiterates its commitment to serving the holy sites and visitors, revealing that preparations for Hajj 2026 have commenced immediately to further enhance pilgrims’ performance under the leadership of the custodians of the Two Holy Mosques.