Long lines are a part of the inimitable Al Baik experience and always have been. From the first store opened in Jeddah in 1974 to the latest branch in The Dubai Mall, its winding queues are a testament to the fandom apparent at all Saudi Arabia's famous broasted...

Ms Samia Ahmed saved up for 16 years, but, like many older Muslims, she feared that renewed Covid-19 curbs would prevent her from ever making the Hajj pilgrimage. For a second consecutive year, Saudi Arabia confined the annual Hajj to a limited number of residents,...

Every year, Saudi Arabia welcomes millions of Hajj pilgrims. It can be a bewildering experience full of new sights, sounds and smells as crowds move from place to place along the trail. But pilgrims have never been left to fend for themselves, and they never will. The...

When Indian ex-pat Mohammed Salim performed Hajj in 2019, there were millions of them in the holy city of Makkah. This year, the pilgrimage restricted to residents of Saudi Arabia for the second year amid Covid-19 will only be 60,000. “To me, it’s unimaginable that a...

Shaikh Anjum Pervez and his wife Samina have performed the annual Haj since 2008 without a break till the coronavirus-induced precaution against crowding made Haj 2020 and 2021 out of bounds for the foreigners. Seeing it as a ‘divine decision’, Pervez used the money...