-- Some 1,650,000 copies of the Quran, printed by the King Fahd Complex for the Printing of the Holy Quran, the world's largest publishing company located in Medina, Saudi Arabia, will be given to Hajj pilgrims for free before they return home.
"The Qurans, translated into various languages, will be distributed among Hajjis at terminals during the coming days," Saudi daily al-Watan quoted Minister of Endowments and Islamic Affairs Saleh bin Abdulaziz as saying.
He added pilgrims will also receive books and audio CDs on Islamic ethics and manners.
Millions of copies of the Quran as well as Islamic books and CDs are handed out to the pilgrims undertaking the Major Hajj or Umrah, the minor one, by the Saudi government.
Some believe that the books and CDs are aimed at promoting hard-line Wahhabi version of Islam among pilgrims and targeting the beliefs of other Islamic schools of thought, particularly Shia Islam.
The Saudi Ministry of Endowments has distributed as many as 69 million books for free among Hajjis over the past 5 years.
