Muslim haj can confuse first-timers

By Jonathan Wright

MECCA, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) - As the annual pilgrimage opens in the Muslim holy city of Mecca on Monday, few first-time pilgrims say they are entirely free of anxiety and confusion about the rituals they must perform.

In the heat of the moment, in the crowds, the jostling and the kaleidoscope of sensations, they say they can easily forget what they learnt in months of study and practice.

If they have waited years for a chance to come, because of the costs and visa quotas, they are under extra pressure to carry out correctly haj rituals that have changed little since the first Muslims performed them more than 1,400 years ago.

The procedures, down to the minutiae of dress and personal hygiene, matter to believers because to perform the haj properly at least once in one's lifetime is a religious obligation for every Muslim who has the means to do so.

Wajid Ali, for example, a barrister from the Pakistani capital Islamabad, said he had been anxious about possible violations of his ihram -- the state of ritual purification that pilgrims enter for two stages of the full pilgrimage.

"I worried a lot," he said, "because when you are in ihram you are not supposed even to scratch your skin or use perfumed soap. Luckily I have my father with me for advice."

A group of Shi'ite Muslim pilgrims from California spent months preparing, but when they first entered the Grand Mosque the initial experience was too bewildering to be as inspiring as they had expected, said one of their companions.

The haj, like most highly charged religious activities, has also attracted its fair share of myths and superstitions, often passed on from one group of hajis to the next by word of mouth despite the denials and objections of the experts.