MORE than two million Muslims from around the world began the hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia yesterday, circling the cube-shaped Kaaba from first light in Mecca that Islam’s faithful face five times each day during prayer.

The five-day hajj pilgrimage represents one of the world’s biggest gatherings every year, a trip required of all able-bodied Muslims once in their life.

The hajj offers pilgrims the chance to feel closer to God amid the Muslim world’s many challenges, including the threat of extremists in the Mideast, and the plight of Burma’s Muslim Rohingya minority.

“We are very blessed by Allah to be in this place, and we pray to Allah to make the Islamic nations from the West to the East in a better situation,” said Essam-Eddin Afifi, a pilgrim from Egypt.

“We pray for the Islamic nations to overcome their enemies.”

Muslims believe the hajj retraces Mohammed’s footsteps, as well as those of the prophets Ibrahim and Ismail, Abraham and Ishmael in the Bible.

At the hajj’s end, male pilgrims will shave their hair and women will cut a lock of hair in a sign of renewal for completing the pilgrimage.

Around the world, Muslims will mark the end of hajj with a celebration called Eid al-Adha.