Perform Lesser Pilgrimage by Booking Umrah Packages Early

Posted by Safeena Rahman on April 16th, 2019

Umrah is one of the Islamic pilgrimages that can be undertaken at any time during the year. It is often referred to as the 'lesser pilgrimage' or the 'minor pilgrimage' when compared to the major pilgrimage of Hajj. The lesser pilgrimage is not compulsory but the Hajj is mandatory and must be performed at least once in the lifetime by all the able-bodied and financially capable Muslims. Although Umrah is not an obligation for the Muslims, it is highly recommended, since it is the Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). It brings great spiritual benefits for the pilgrim who performs it.

Many of the Muslims living in the United Kingdom intend to perform their Umrah but are often faced with lack of the required finances. The Umrah packages from UK offered by many of the tour operators that specialise in arranging the religious tours of Hajj and Umrah have given them some hope under such circumstances. Earlier, they had only a few tour operators in the country whom they could rely on for embarking on their journey to the holy city of Makkah. Today, there are numerous tour operators across the country and this has given them wider choices, both in terms of companies as well as packages for performing Umrah.

In recent times, almost all of the tour operators in the UK have an online presence in the form of user-friendly websites. Most of these websites are optimised for phones, which helps the country’s Muslims in browsing through the available packages and choosing a suitable one according to their budget using their smartphones. An online search would also give them plenty of options in Umrah packages that are offered by different tour operators based in the UK. They can make detailed comparisons between them and pick the most affordable one, which helps in reducing the overall cost of their journey to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Another great way of getting one of the Umrah packages that are within their available budget is to book well in advance. Most of the tour operators provide significant discounts on packages for Umrah that are booked several months earlier. However, the UK Muslims must first decide their date of departure and the number of days that they intend to spend in the holy city of Makkah after performing their lesser pilgrimage. Once the dates have been decided, they can go ahead and book their desired package months in advance to have greater savings.

The reliability of tour operators is another great factor to be considered while booking any of the packages. Over the years, numerous travel agents and tour operators have come up at various places in the UK. Not all of them may be authorised by the Hajj Ministry of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It is, therefore, absolutely essential for Muslims of the UK to confirm whether the tour operator they have chosen to book with has been authorised by Saudi Arabia’s Hajj Ministry. Once it is confirmed, they can safely go ahead with their booking.

The UK Muslims can also reduce their overall cost of journey to Makkah with cheap Umrah deals offered by some of the country’s renowned tour operators.