148 years waiting time for Malaysians to perform haj

The waiting time for Muslims in Malaysia to perform the haj has now reached 148 years, according to Tabung Haji (TH) executive director Syed Saleh Syed Abdul Rahman.

He said currently more than 3.8 million TH depositors have registered and are waiting for their turn to fulfil the fifth pillar of Islam.

Therefore, Syed Saleh, who is also the head of the Malaysian haj delegation, reminded the selected pilgrims to take full advantage of the opportunity to be in the Holy Land by performing the act of worship as best as they can.

"We have to stick to two keywords, which are gratitude and patience. We should be grateful because we are finally in the Holy Land after waiting for so long and be patient with every test such as no compatibility with our roommates and the hot weather throughout this haj journey," he said when speaking at a get-together and the appointment of Sahabat Maktab (Malaysian pilgrims who act as volunteers to assist fellow pilgrims) in Mecca.

TH adopts an open haj registration system based on the concept of "first registered, first served" which has been implemented since 1995.

Through this open registration system, TH depositors can register to perform haj when savings reach RM1,300.

Each depositor who has registered will be given the turn of the allocation year to perform haj based on the date and time the registration is made.

Malaysia is allocated a haj quota of 31,600 pilgrims from the government of Saudi Arabia for this 1444 Hijrah haj season.