Mecca: In Mecca, the annual Hajj site, the sons of the Saudi guide who prominent, who died of Covid after three decades serving pilgrims, had taken torches in tribute.
Talaat Tounsi comes from one of six families in Mecca which has traditionally served as a “mutawaf” or a guide that helps foreign pilgrims carry out Hajj and Umrah rituals throughout the year.
A former sports journalist before devoting himself to a call, which was revealed from generation to generation, Tounsi died in August 2020 at the age of 52, leaving six sons and two daughters.
“If something happens to me, you and your brothers must remain together and continue my work,” Tounsi said before his death, according to one of his sons who arrived.
“We all decided to work this year for the first time in pilgrim service to honor our father’s memory,” the 32-year-old doctor told AFP, his voice trembled with emotion.
The whole family fell ill in July 2020 after one of the two daughters of Tounsi, who was also a doctor, was infected with a virus.
“He was treated in an intensive care unit but then suffered a lot of complications.
He fell into a coma and never recovered,” Majed said about his father.
Mutawaf Dean, Abdullah Al-Maliki, said in a video that Tounsi had “physically left us, but with good and moral deeds, he was still among us”, praising his son to continue tradition.
Saudi Arabia, who has recorded more than 500,000 Coronavirus infections including around 8,000 deaths, drastically limited the number of pilgrims in the past two years due to pandemics.
Of the 2.5 million in 2019, the quota was cut into around 10,000 years after the Hajj was held only a few months after the pandemic broke.
Tounsi told AFP in a last year’s interview that he was “very sad” on the prospect of holding limited pilgrimage.
Hajj this year, which reached the highest point on Monday, took a total of 60,000 pilgrims, all vaccinations and both citizens or residents of the royal, with Muslims abroad were excluded once more.
During the month of Ramadan, this year’s fasting month stretched April and May, Majed and his brothers volunteered with the association in Mecca, the most holy city of Islam.
This is home to Kaaba, a large black cubic structure at the center of the Great Mosque of Mecca.
The first Hajj ritual consists of appearing “tawaf” (the word from where mutewaf was lowered) or walked seven times around Kabaa.
At the end of the pilgrimage, followed the stoning ritual on Mount Arafat, pilgrims returned to Mecca to surround the Kaaba final.
Touni’s sons, several accompanied by their own sons, had been mobilized in Mecca in the last few days to meet the needs of pilgrims.
While the youngest family members distribute water, coffee and dates, the older help pilgrims complete the administrative procedure, mostly through the contact-free technology placed by the authorities to curb infection.
“I feel I’m running my father’s mission and role,” Majed said, considering the days spent on his side during his childhood during Hajj and Umrah.
The Tounsi family has worked as a Hajj guide for more than 80 years.
Baton is forwarded through generations in six families in Mecca whose members, both men and women, help with transportation, food, shopping and visits to historic religious sites.
Talaat Tounsi is the head of the pilgrimage service committee in Mecca before his death before his death.
“Every year since we were little, we used to spend the Hajj days in holy places with my father,” Jamal, another from his sons, told AFP.
“He always tells us that this work is an honor that God gives to the people of Mecca and that we should not leave it,” said the 23-year-old engineer.