A group of four Kenyan cyclists and two support members have embarked on a lengthy trip from Nairobi to Makkah.
The goal is to perform the life-time journey of hajj and raise funds to educate needy children in Kenya, Nairobi News reported.
The team, led by Mohammed Zahir, is expected to take the journey in 45 days.
During the lengthy journey, they hope to raise Sh 5 million for the construction of Al Furqan Towers.
Other team members include Anwar Mansoor Abdalla, Solomon Okoth (Osman) and Mohamed Salim Mohamed. Zaher Taj Yakub and Zakir Piyush Budhdeo.
The Al Furqan Institute, started in 1996, has so far given a full scholarship to 150 students from needy families across the country for both secular education and deen.
“I have no doubt that any project started for the sake of Allah, Allah will make it possible and He will ensure that it’s completed. Let us stand with our brothers in this project,” said former Mandera Senator Billow Kerrow, asking Kenyans to support the initiative.
The team has been training for the past nine months for the 4,500km journey which will require them to cycle approximately 100km every day for the next 45 days across four countries
The journey will take them from Kenya through Ethiopia to Sudan at Port Sudan – where they will cross the Red Sea by ferry to Jeddah – and continue cycling to Mecca.
There have been previous similar adventures, especially with regard to performing Hajj.
In 2018, a family of five Indonesian Muslims took a lengthy cycling journey of 13,000 km to Makkah to perform hajj.
In 2017, another Indonesia Muslim walked more than 9,000 kilometers to perform hajj.
In 2012, 47-year-old Bosnian Muslim, Senad Hadzic, reached the holy city of Makkah on foot to perform hajj.
During his journey, the man walked for nearly 3,600 miles (5,900 km) from his Bosnian village to the holy city of Makkah.
Muslims from around the world pour into Makkah every year to perform hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam.
Hajj consists of several rituals, which are meant to symbolize the essential concepts of the Islamic faith, and to commemorate the trials of Prophet Abraham and his family, may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon them.
Every able-bodied adult Muslim who can financially afford the trip must perform hajj at least once in a lifetime.