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MINA: Pilgrims don’t need to take provisions to the holy sites, for there is free cold water, fruit, and lunch meals, but pilgrims prefer ice cream during these hot weather conditions.
Meals, fruit and ice cream are available all the time, and pilgrims and security personnel distribute them, but ice cream tops the list during the hot Makkah days.
Sometimes a pilgrim comes to buy one scoop, but soon changes his mind and buys the whole lot to give to other pilgrims. When the vendor sees the generosity of this pilgrim, he lowers the price to share the good deed.
Pilgrims could cause stampedes when free ice cream is distributed, unlike food and water. Hygiene standards of vegetables seem higher than those present in lunch packs, but rice pans fill the street that leads to the Namirah Mosque.
Local media stopped to see a Haj pilgrim buying a whole container of ice cream, around 150 cartons; he paid SR250, even though vendors sell a carton for SR3 each. The vendor said he hopes Allah will forgive him through easing the heat of Haj pilgrims.
Once you pass the ice cream vendors you can see other pilgrims competing to distribute free lunches, juices and fruit. Mohammad Mustafa, an Egyptian, was standing in the middle of the road holding a box of fruit and passing them free to pilgrims. Sometimes he does this through a joke and other times he prays for the pilgrims who took the fruit, as if thanking them for accepting his donation.
In light of the scarce public toilets at some holy sites, fruit is the safest choice, especially since meals come from Makkah and aren’t reheated, which gives the impression that they are not very clean.