By Iram Mehreen

JEDDAH — The Haji Muhammad Ayub Seoharvi Welfare Organization will be distributing 50,000 prayer mats and an equal number of scent bottles among pilgrims during this year’s Haj season. Besides, the Jeddah-based organization will also provide necessary assistance to the needy and aged pilgrims, senior official of the organization Bahjat Ayub Zinjani (Najmi) said here in a press release.

The gift packets to be distributed will have light-weighted prayer mats, brochures, key chains, stickers and wall hangings containing selected Ahadith (sayings of Prophet Muhammad — peace be upon him) and supplications in several languages.

Najmi, founding president of Maulana Hifzur Rahman Seoharvi Academy and a leading dawa worker in Jeddah, said the gifts will be distributed among all the pilgrims based on the quotas decided which include 30% to Pakistani pilgrims, 30% to Indian pilgrims and the remaining 40% to pilgrims coming from other countries.

On behalf of the academy, a group of volunteers of both the genders will carry out the process of gift distribution by traveling to and fro daily from Jeddah to Makkah. The target is to hand over the gifts to at least 5,000 pilgrims each day, Najmi added.

The group plans to reach out to and serve the pilgrims in Madinah and the Haj Terminal at Jeddah airport.

Najmi has been assisting both Umrah and Haj pilgrims by guiding them on ways to perform the rituals and also by advising them about the precautionary measures to be taken into account that can save them from harming themselves and others.

Women pilgrims should refrain from wearing glass bangles while performing tawaf (circumambulation of the Holy Kaba) as they might break leading to an injury in the hand and also can harm other pilgrims in the mataaf, he said.

Najmi and his wife, Umm Fakeha Zinjani, have been providing this device to the pilgrims for over a decade.

Ayub Seoharvi is the son-in-law of Maulana Hifzur Rahman, a great Muslim leader of the Indian subcontinent who participated in the freedom struggle and helped Muslims lead a dignified life following the partition of India. He was an Islamic scholar of repute and a prolific writer, who is much remembered in India and Pakistan for several books, the most notable of which are “Qassasul Anbiya.”