MINA, Saudi Arabia — The rituals of Islam’s annual hajj pilgrimage are enormously complicated, so it helps to have someone to advise how to do them right: Thus the long lines yesterday at the “ask a sheik” booths scattered around the holy sites.

“Fast for three days when you get back to your home country,” the Islamic cleric inside one booth told a pilgrim who had made a mistake in one of the rites yesterday, the final day of the pilgrimage for many of the 3 million Muslims participating in this year’s hajj.

More than two dozen pilgrims were lined up at the sheik’s window, much like a ticket booth, pressing to ask the sheik questions at Mina, a desert plain outside the holy city of Mecca. Yesterday, pilgrims spent a third day stoning three walls representing Satan in a rite forsaking sin and temptation.

This year saw controversy over one of the hajj rules amid attempts to prevent deadly stampedes that have marred the rites at Mina in past years.

More than 360 were killed during last year’s hajj in a crush that occurred when some pilgrims tripped over baggage while passing by the three walls to perform the stoning.

Since then, some Islamic clerics have issued fatwas, or religious edicts, declaring that pilgrims do not have to wait until noon to carry out the stoning, as tradition holds. Saudi authorities have supported the fatwas, hoping to spread the massive crowds over the course of the day and prevent lethal jams.

But hard-line clerics stick by tradition.

“No, you can’t do it before noon,” the sheik in the booth said, his pronouncements broadcast by loudspeaker so all pilgrims in the area could hear.

“I know there are fatwas that say otherwise. But we have to adhere to the proper times, or else it all falls apart. We’ll have fatwas saying whatever anybody wants, and then what kind of pilgrimage is it?” he told the man at his window.

The cleric, who refused to give his name, works for the Religious Affairs Ministry — reflecting the resistance even within the government to making changes.

Still, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims performed the stoning before noon, walking below and on top of a gigantic concrete platform that surrounds the three stone walls, known as the Jamarat. They threw seven pebbles at each wall, cursing Satan.

Saudi authorities tore down the old platform after last year’s stampede and built a larger one at a cost of more than $1 billion. They also imposed strict traffic rules, keeping the massive lines of pilgrims moving in one direction across the platform and barring them from carrying large bags.