A 25-year-old young man from Okara, Punjab, set out on foot to perform Hajj – the annual pilgrimage to Makkah in 2023.
Usman Arshad, 25, is one of those people who is all set to make a new world record: he is walking to Makkah to perform Hajj in 2023.
Usman Arshad, son of a retired air force officer, has begun his arduous journey of walking to the holy city of Makkah all the way from Pakistan. On foot, he will cover more than 6000 km. He will reach Makkah for Hajj in 2023 after travelling through Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia.
Arshad, a communication studies student, began his journey from Okara, Punjab, on October 1, 2022. In 2021, Arshad walked for 34 days to travel to the Khunjerab Pass on the Pakistan-China border. It was then that he decided to go for Hajj on foot. “When I came back from Khunjerab, I thought about it a great deal, and decided to do Hajj by walking to Makkah. I worked on calculating the possibilities and started planning,” he said.
Arshad plans to travel through Iran, Iraq, and Kuwait. “I started my journey early so that I could have ample time to visit different holy places in Iran and Iraq, on my way to Saudi Arabia.”
Arshad is fourth among six siblings and lives in the Okara city. He has completed six semesters of his degree from the University of Okara. “I have put my last two semesters on freeze, and I will continue my studies once I am back from Hajj,” Arshad said.
