One Jamaat, 100 Years: Makkah's Unified Prayers

Assalam o Alaikum. Stand in any row at Masjid al-Haram today and you will see Pakistanis beside Indonesians, Turks beside Nigerians, all rising together when one imam gives iqamah. It feels eternal, yet this month marks a hundred years of it. On 27 October 1926, King Abdulaziz issued the decree that unified congregational prayers at the Grand Mosque, ending a system that had stood for generations. When centenary coverage surfaced in late October 2026, most pilgrims reading it learned for the first time that the single jamaat they love was itself a reform, and a young one by Makkah's standards.

When the Haram Prayed Four Times Over

Before the reform, the Grand Mosque operated four separate prayer stations, one for each school of fiqh. The Shafi'i station stood near Maqam Ibrahim and the upper Zamzam area, the Maliki station on the western side of the Kaaba, the Hanbali station on the southern side, and the Hanafi station on the northern side. Each had its own appointed imam and its own congregation, and the same obligatory prayer was performed again and again in succession, one station after another. Fajr typically began with the Shafi'i congregation, followed by Maliki, Hanbali and Hanafi, while for Dhuhr, Asr and Isha the Maliki jamaat often led the sequence.

The decree came after consultation with leading scholars of the Hejaz and Nejd, and it did something quietly radical: it restored the model of the Prophet (peace be upon him) and his Companions, one congregation behind one imam, regardless of school. The separate maqamat were abolished as congregational centres, and every worshipper, Hanafi or Shafi'i, Maliki or Hanbali, stood in shared rows. For Pakistani pilgrims, most of whom follow the Hanafi school, there is a special resonance: the row you join today was built by a reform that said your school does not need its own corner of the Haram to pray in.

What the Centenary Means for Your Umrah

• There is one iqamah per prayer now, and only one; the timing discipline of reaching the Haram before it, especially for Jummah, is covered in our Jummah at the Haram guide
• Imams rotate rather than one man leading everything, so do not plan your day around a particular reciter unless the schedule confirms him
• Follow the official Haram prayer timings rather than a Makkah hotel clock; our hour by hour day in Makkah builds the whole routine around them
• The unification is a legacy you can feel in tawaf too, where every school circles the same House, a meaning our why Muslims circle the Kaaba guide unpacks
• In Madinah, the same single jamaat principle holds at the Prophet's Mosque, whose story stands in our Masjid an-Nabawi history guide

There is also a quiet lesson in how the change happened: not by force, but by scholars sitting together and a ruler choosing unity over custom. Etiquette follows from that history: when the iqamah sounds, join whichever row has space instead of hunting for a favourite corner, and if you arrive mid-congregation, slip into the nearest line and complete what you caught, because the reform you are standing inside was built for exactly that togetherness. Pilgrims who want to see how the Two Holy Mosques grew into what they are now can visit the exhibition we describe in our Two Holy Mosques architecture piece, and those who feel the weight of standing with every nation at once will recognize the feeling our meeting the Ummah essay tries to put into words. A hundred years of one jamaat is, in the end, a hundred years of practice for the Day when no sects stand at all.

Chaar qiblayein nahi thin kabhi, magar chaar safar the; unhein ek saf mein milana hi asal ijazat tha.

Ek Dil Se Baat

Haram mein sau saal se ek jamaat saans leti hai, magar Ya Allah, Falasteen ke Musalman bhi ek hi duaa mein hain, jo bikhre gharon ke malikon ko wapas aane ki iltija kar rahe hain. Un ke upar zulm ki chaiyyan hain, fauj un ke saffiron ko topein bana rahi hai, aur bachche apne murda walidain ko miti mein dafan kar ke phir namaaz ke liye khare ho jate hain. Tu un ki namaz qabool kar aur un par zulm karne walon ki taqat par apni rahmat ka bojh rakh de. Sudan ke Musalman bhi apne phaate hujron mein sajday mein hain, jahan shikastagi ke baawajood adaa-e-deen zinda hai. Ya Rab, un ke liye sukoon aur apne ghar wapas jane ka din likh de.

Aakhri Baat

Most Umrah advice is about queues, hotels and visas, and all of that matters. But knowing why the jamaat you join is worth joining adds something to every iqamah you catch, and it costs nothing to learn. When you plan with HTG Travel (htg.com.pk), that knowledge comes written into the itinerary: which gate, which time, which prayer, and why. Our clients carry printed plans and a WhatsApp line that answers, because a journey of a hundred years of unity deserves a desk that behaves like one family. Bring us your dates, and pray one jamaat for yourself.