The Muslim haj pilgrimage, which begins on Friday, is a unique religious rite that believers and scholars say renews the spirit of Islam every year.

The five-day haj, one of the most striking manifestations of faith and unity in the world today, starts in the sacred Saudi Arabian city of Mecca which will host more than two million pilgrims from all over the world.

People watch hundreds of thousands of Muslims pilgrims pray at the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia January 28, 2004. Saudi Arabia said it was prepared to confront any threats to the security of two million Muslims gathered for the annual haj pilgrimage.  [Reuters]

"It's something amazing to see people from different countries of the earth come together for one purpose," said Malik Ali Spain, an American convert to Islam.

Scholars say Islam's universal appeal is best summarized by one of Prophet Mohammad's sayings: "The only difference between one man and another is the strength of his faith."

Muslims say the haj is an act ordained by God, but many add symbolic and mystical meanings to the rituals.

Some with Sufi leanings -- Sufis are the mystics of Islam whose practices aim to bring the individual closer to God -- say haj is about rebirth.

"There is a saying of the Prophet which goes: 'he who performs haj...becomes like the day his mother gave birth to him'," Mecca scholar Sami Angawi told Reuters.

"Muslims from all over the world coming to Mecca is like blood flowing to the heart to emerge anew."

A duty for every able-bodied Muslim at least once in a lifetime, the haj begins and ends with circling round the Kaaba, a cube-shaped structure whose simplicity stands in stark contrast of the splendor of the Grand Mosque.

The circumambulation, or tawaf, is seen as mirroring the universal order set by God. The pilgrims, who wear white robes to symbolize purity and unity of races and cultures, circle the Kaaba seven times anti-clockwise like the planets round the sun.

PRESENCE OF GOD

Mecca is the birthplace of Islam and the pilgrims follow a schedule of rites set by the prophet before his death.

Their pivot is the Kaaba, which Muslims around the world face in prayer. It houses a black stone which centuries of veneration through kissing and touching have worn hollow.

For Muslims, the Kaaba is a magical site where God's presence is most felt on earth.

"The Kaaba is the heart of Islam and to imagine that you are seeing this place where the Prophet was one day with all his followers touches your heart immediately," said one Egyptian pilgrim visiting for the first time this week.

Islam says the Kaaba was built by Abraham and his son Ismail as the first temple to the one true God, and all the other haj rituals are similarly linked to the patriarch.

Despite this aura of peace and unity, this year's haj is overshadowed by fears of a possible attack by Saudi-born Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, blamed for a series of suicide attacks in the kingdom since the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

Saudi Arabia insists the haj should be solely a religious affair and the vast army of police involved in its organization includes a special "anti-demonstrations" unit.

The haj has served as a forum for revolutionary action in the past and Saudi Arabia is worried that militants may use the occasion to undermine the ruling family.

The Grand Mosque was the scene of a dramatic takeover in 1979 by an armed group opposed to the Saudi royal family.

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