The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, through the Letter of the Minister of Hajj and Umrah of Saudi Arabia, announced in early April that it would allow one million pilgrims from within and outside the country to perform the Hajj in the 2022 Hajj Season after limiting the annual rituals to only Muslims lived inside the Kingdom for the past two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
To date, most of the pilgrims are reported to have arrived in the Kingdom to perform preliminary worship or simply to prepare for the Hajj ritual, which is expected to start between 7 and 12 July.
To anticipate the crowds at Masjid al-Haram in Makkah during the 2022 Hajj season, the administrators of the Holy Mosque have imposed a new rule by shortening the time gap between Azan, the first call to prayer, and Iqamah, the beginning of prayer.
Mosques tend to set aside 20 to 30 minutes between the two to allow time for the worshippers to get ready, do their wudu (ablutions), and reach the mosque.
