“And every Hajj it was from Shaikh Ibn Baaz’s habit that large numbers of men and women would perform Hajj along with him, most of whom were poor and non-Saudis, so he would say to everyone who asked His Excellency to be able to perform Hajj with him or who asked someone to ask him on their behalf, “Hayaahullaah,” and he wouldn’t ask about who would be going with him, nor how many they were in number, nor about how tight or not the places were.
The number of pilgrims doing Hajj with His Excellency and who would accompany him in his camp
and the place where he would stay during Hajj would be about 800.
And the number of men and women for whom food would be provided in Mina and ’Arafah would range from 800 to 1000 pilgrims. But that is not what is surprising, what is surprising is the fact that food which was meant for 500 people would be enough for them all, but the blessing in his food was evident for all to see, the ones who saw that can testify to it, every time the numbers increased we thought it would not be enough for them, yet despite that it would and some of it would be left over. The number of people who would have lunch with him in Makkah was between 3 and 400. And I don’t know of a time when the food given to them didn’t suffice.”
Jawaanib min Seeratil-Imaam ’Abdul-’Aziz ibn Baaz, pp. 99-100.
