PILGRIMS visiting Makkah and Madinah document the spiritual atmosphere and their experience using cellphones in the square of the two holy mosques as well as the historical monuments surrounding them.

Speaking to the Saudi Press Agency in Madinah, Egyptian pilgrim Samira Hanoumah said, “I always make sure that I involve my family and friends in Egypt on my trip to the holy land, where I document everything since arriving at the Grand Mosque in Mosque until reaching Madinah through videos and photographs showing the spirituality of the place and its sanctity.”

Ogan Sat, an Indonesian pilgrim, said social media has played a big role in her being able to reach family and friends everywhere in the world. This helps people from different cultural backgrounds to connect and understand each other, she added.

Sat said for her personally, it helped her show Makkah and the Grand Mosque to her family in Indonesia who really wished to see them.

Moroccan Mona Hamoudi said social media made people closer to each other as her friends were still able to be with her every step of her spiritual journey through these platforms, even though they were not physically there. She added that doing Umrah involves going to a lot of breathtaking locations, which deserve to be documented with pictures or even a tweet.

Kuwaiti pilgrim Sara al-Baluchi said she appreciated the value of social media when she thought about the situation 10 years ago where there were no communication platforms except SMS and phone calls.

Lobna Kathem from Iraq expressed her happiness from sharing her spiritual moments during Umrah with her parents and siblings, saying that it is as if they were with her physically. She said she communicates with them several times a day showing them the monuments she visits, the services around the holy sites and the areas around the Grand Mosque and Prophet's Mosque. — SG/SPA