And some said, "We felt awe while we were praying." So he said to them, "Abdullah, peace be upon him, asked you about your worries." And he pointed to the place, and people flocked to it, believing in it. And that place was surrounded by thorny bushes so that whoever intended it would be known.

From the stories of the Mahdi's call to the people of Sudan to perform the pilgrimage in Omdurman.

The Mahdi had forbidden people from traveling to perform the pilgrimage, claiming that the Kaaba was in the hands of the infidels, and he published many pamphlets to this effect. He said that his participation in jihad was better than striving to perform the pilgrimage. He also said that migration with the Prophet, peace be upon him, was better than the pilgrimage, and he even said that seeing him was equivalent to the reward of seventy pilgrimages.

And for the Mahdi's family, the Mahdi, the two caliphs, and Hajj Mahmoud Sharif gathered. They decided to spread a lie that has never been heard of in Islam, except what was heard about the Mahdi, the owner of the era in the sixth century of Hijra. This was that they would issue a pamphlet saying that the pilgrimage to the Sacred House had been abolished. They decided to build a dome in Omdurman and make Jabal Kurru instead of Jabal Arafat, where the rituals of Hajj would be performed. People would visit the Mahdi's tomb instead of visiting the tomb of the Prophet, peace be upon him. Indeed, they began to say that digging the necessary wells for this ceremony would be done after standing at Jabal Arafat and performing the Eid prayer, then they would depart for the Sacred House, dig the well of Zamzam, and return to spend the days of Tashriq in Mina.