Last week, as millions of Muslims made the five-day pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina, many decided to capture their once-in-a-lifetime experience with the picture craze of the year - the selfie.

Despite warnings by Muslim scholars not to take pictures without valid reasons, young devotees armed with smartphones and monopods flooded social media with shots tagged with #Hajjselfie.

One of the top trending pilgrim selfies, posted by Somalia Pundit on Sept 30, replicated the popular Oscar shot taken by American celebrity Ellen DeGeneres.

The tweet read: "Can the #HajjSelfie beat the #OscarSelfie in Retweets? Let's RT this to infinity #Muslim and say #mashAllah."

Though many saw it as an opportunity to record their memories and to document their journey, others disagreed with the popular phenomenon.

Twitter user Kahwaaa wrote: "It's a time to connect to Allah and purify my soul. #Hajselfies shouldn't be taken."