4. Makkah We got there at night, so initial reactions of the city was delayed. One thing of interest that did happen just before we reached the hotel, though: our bus driver, may Allah [swt] bless his soul, wanted to get us as close to the entrance as possible. To do this, he started reversing the bus on a one way street. 55 seater coach bus. In reverse. On a one way street. Oh, and it was basically Isha time, so there was a huge jam building up behind us. Then, to get out of the situation, he tried doing a three point turn...
a three point turn.
In a coach bus. On a one way street. At Isha time. In Makkah. With horns blaring non stop behind us.
Welcome to Saudi Arabia. :)
We basically ate dinner in the Dallah Ayjadh, had a quick intro session to the Shabab group that had organized the trip, and then headed out for the Umrah.
4a. The Umrah On the outside, the Haram is like a white palace that stands out like an oasis in contrast to its surroundings.
As beautiful as the outside is, its naturally nothing compared to the awesomeness that is housed just inside...
Bayt al 'AtiqBefore I left, I was told that seeing the Ka'ba for the first time is a very... touching experience. In fact, you're almost left senseless the first time you lay eyes on it in real life. This is actually very true...I wouldnt trade those feelings for anything else in the world. There's also a saying (cant find the exact source) that any dua that you make during this time is granted. So ask for whatever you want, and it will be granted
bi idhnillah.
Some wise people of the past would make the dua to have all their future duas (in the Haram) accepted. Which is kind of sneaky, but it works. But sometimes, you dont have the will-power to think about what you want to say... it just comes out. So yeah.
The umrah rites can actually be done in as little as 20 minutes (or so I'm told), but the average time is closer to 3 hours. If memory serves correct, you make tawaaf seven times, then pray 2 rakats of nawafil (preferably behind the Station of Ibrahim, but good luck with that), drink as much ZamZam as you possibly can, and then walk/ run between Safa-Marwa 7 times. At each mountain, you're supposed to try and face the Ka'ba, raise your hands and make du'a. Then when you're done this, you go out and get you hair trimmed/ shaved. Better to get it shaved, unless your mom wants it only trimmed. Like mine did. :/
When we were performing the Umrah, it was easily past 12 midnight. But the Haram was packed, mashaAllah. Later, I asked someone, and I was told that we had basically entered the peak time for Umrah (Rajab / Shaban/ Ramadan), which is why it was actually busier than normal.
In terms of carrying valuables around, its best not to leave them in the hotel, even when you're in a state of ihram. You're in the holiest city in the world, but unfortunately not all the people there appreciate that fact. Hotel workers easily have access to your rooms, and there have been incidents of valuables being stolen. Alhamdulillah, none of that happened in either of the hotels we stayed in.
Similarly, when you're making tawaaf and you're very close the the Ka'ba, there's alot of pushing and shoving that goes around. And alot of thieving as well, apparently. The best way (for guys, anyway) to store all their valuables is to take an ihram belt with pockets. Not only does it hold up the lower half of the ihram garments aka izaar (alhamdulillah), it also allows you to keep your more valuable stuff (money, passports, etc) on your person at all times. Though to be extra careful, guys should fold the upper part of their izaar over the belt, so as to cover the belt itself from public view.
Why bother, you ask?
Because sometimes, even the belts can get nicked when you're jostling around near the Ka'ba. When we (another brother - lets call him Umer - and myself) were making tawaf, we tried to get near the Ka'aba, and I saw 2-3 guys running away from the Ka'ba, with gleeful looks on their faces that clearly gave the impressio they had done something wrong. The last of the three guys had a necklace enclosed in his fists (no, it wasnt a tasbeeh). It looked like a cheap, child's necklace, so I was even more surprised as to why he would bother taking it. But I basically got his attention and gave him a few words that let him know I saw what he did. He tried to give me this blank, innocent look but there was guilt written all across his face. So I kind of went on in disgust, and tried to catch up with Umer.
I had heard alot of stories before coming about theives, but this was the only incident I ever experienced myself. On the whole, I think there's a bit of hype attached to the issue; your valuables should be safe as long as they're with you.
Generally.
4b) Getting around teh System For newbies like us, getting as close to the Ka'ba as you possibly can - and staying there - is probably one of the major themes of a visit to the Haram. It took a few days for me to learn that you cant just sit down next to the Ka'ba and casually offer 2 rak'ats. Even if you were to somehow manage to get a space to stand still, dont expect anyone to respect your prayer space. Because you're so close, you're basically praying inside the tawaaf circle of all the pilgrims. And pilgrims - actually, the vast majority of worshippers you'll meet in the Haramain - dont really care about stepping in front of your prayer, or jostling you from side to side.
So even if you manage to get some space, dont expect to have too much khushoo in your prayer, because people will be passing you on all sides. Besides, you'll actually be an obstacle to the other pilgrims making tawaaf, so its actually best to pray outside the circle altogether (the Hatim, of course, is a different case), and content yourself to pray from a distance, and just set your gaze on the Ka'ba in between nawafil prayers.
(Besides, if you're too close, the religious police will keep on your case and try to move you further and further back to make room for the tawaaf crowd.) Depending on the time of day, you may be able to pray closer to the Ka'ba then normal. At times, the tawaaf circle will be so big that it only leaves 6-7 rows to pray. At other times, like around Dhuhr and the midday sun, you can actually pray quite close.But - brothers - if you want to pray close to the Ka'ba during the fardh prayers and then easily pray your sunnah prayers in the Hatim (the semi-circle area; pray inside it and you're basically praying inside the boundaries of the original Ka'ba) this is what you do:
1. Make sure you've finished doing your regular tawaaf (the tahiyyatul Haram) approximately 5-1o minutes before the adhaan goes. You need this extra time to position yourself close to the Hatim.
2. Then, as soon as the Adhaan starts, you'll see pilgrims directed away from the tawaaf area and back into the regular rows away from the Ka'ba for prayer. Ignore them, and head directly to the area thats to the right of the Hatim. You should be able to make it to ATLEAST within 2-3 rows away from the actual Ka'ba itself. *
swoon*
3. Dont bother reading any nawafil prayers at this time. You'll have to spend enough energy trying to keep your spot, and there will also be pilgrims who are still making their rounds of tawaaf... so the khushu might be minimal. Content yourself with staring at the Ka'ba.
4. Pray the fardh in congregation.
5. Once the fardh prayers are over, you'll have about 5 seconds to make it to the Ka'ba (if thats what you want), or to line up to pray inside the Hatim. (They close the Hatim during the fardh prayers). Because you're basically near the Hatim already, and only a few rows away from the Ka'ba, you'll have no trouble getting in once they remove the barriers.
6. Obviously, you probably want to pray close to the Ka'ba as possibe, and you may be tempted to do so since the tawaaf circle is outside the Hatim, so you have no pilgrims to deal with. However, if you have the choice, I think its better to pray a bit further away; towards the back of the Hatim. This is because there will be other people fighting to get near the Ka'ba, and they can easily be a distraction for your prayer. However, its up to you.
This method will easily work atleast 90% of the time. The only two times it didnt work for me was a) when it was after 'Asr, and you're not supposed to pray anything in between 'Asr and Maghrib anyway, and b) once, the guards refused to open the barrier (some people were getting too pushy, I guess). But that time, we were actually blessed with a light drizzle. Which was awesome, because you had all these factors that multiplied the chances of a du'a being accepted. So yeah.
4c) Personalities The Shabab Centre had some pretty amazing hookups, alhamdulillah. We had quite a few personalities meet with us while in Makkah. For example, in Madinah we had the opportunity to meet with Sh. Salman al-Oudah, as well Sh. Hudhaifee, the Imam of Masjid an-Nabawai. Sh. Thubaity (another Imam of an-Nabawi) also requested to have a meeting with our group, but unfortunately we couldnt make it.
But on our second full day in Makkah (Saturday, August 19th) there was a reception for us in the musallah of the Hilton just across the street from the Haram, in which Sh. Sa'ud ash-Shuraym (the Imam of the Haram) paid a visit. Rumour has it that a few Saudi princes also dropped by. I cant confirm these rumours myself, because I actually skipped the reception... : (I was kind of miffed at having to pray Maghrib in the musalla when the Haram was in full view, so I snuck out a while before Isha in case the reception extended that long). So I missed out on that.
Then, a few days later, there's a gentleman (cant remember his name) who oversees all the administrative affairs of the Haramain - in both Makkah and Madinah. Anyways, he requested to have an audience with the brothers in his office, which happened to be just down the street from our hotel and the Haram itself. Anyways, we expected to be given some insights in the policies that were implemented in the Haramain, but we were instead treated to a talk that outlined Saudi Arabia's domestic policy, and its zeal to implement these policies based on Islamic teachings. Which is all well and good, but ... during the Q&A session, the first question was asked by a very passionate brother - lets call him 'Gengiz', for simplicity's sake - in regards to Saudi's foreign policy...
... something about questioning where the Islam went when the same government was standing idly by watching its brothers and sisters in Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon, Afghanistan, etc. getting slaughtered, and even tacitly helping the oppressing nations in the process.
It was a very good question. But it was the wrong man to ask, and it kind of put him in a difficult position. (I'm told that there are two factions of the ruling group in Saudi..one which is religious, and one which is secular/ materialist... the religious faction has the say in domestic affairs, whereas the secular one rules foreign policy... and Allah [swt] knows best). Anyways, so much for that session. :)
4d. Mount 'ArafatWhile at Makkah, we took the buses around to visit some of the areas that are used for Hajj, like Muzdalifa, Mina, the Jamraat, and 'Arafat. The Jaraat was under construction, and we just passed by Muzdalifa and Mina. But we stopped for a bit at 'Arafat, to climb the mountain and (if you were adventurous enough) to roam around on the plains.
The place has history, and a future which will probably be enough to humble anyone.
1. Unconfirmed reports say that when Adam and Hawwa (AS) were sent down from Heaven, they landed in seperate areas of the Earth. 'Arafat is where they finally met each other after wandering the lands. ('Arafat is supposed to be derived from *ta 'arafah* --> "they saw each other" ... or something like that.)
2. Fast forward several thousand years, and you'll see that this is the mountain where the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) gave his famous Khutbah when he performed his Hajj in 9 A.H.
Link to the Sermon:
http://www.islamonline.net/English/In_Depth/mohamed/1424/kharitah/article02.shtml***
Depressingly (?) enough, they have bazaars and stalls everywhere. I wanted to buy a sword (they were real cheap!), but then had second thoughts on it. The logistics of bringing it back through customs and NYC with a ton of other Muslims after 9/11 and stuff kind of made me pause. :(
4e. Ta'if Did you know they have monkeys roaming the mountains of Ta'if? They even had some at the Cave of Hira, and I'm assuming they were pretty aggressive. Heard stories about them stealing pop bottles from your very hands. And stuff. Anyways, we made a big fuss about seeing a family of mountain monkeys climbing up a distant hill. We were the ones behind a fence this time (heh), and so we tried to attract their attention by yelling and throwing things (the guys did, anyway). But, alas.
Some of us paused for a group picture. The brother in the top left is probably still trying to get the attention of the monkeys. :)Anyhow, for some reason the bus drivers were stopping at random places and letting us off. On one such stop, we got off just to admire the mountainous view. Since there was nothing in between us and the mountains, I decided to go mountain climbing, under the assumption that we'd be there for quite a bit. A few other guys also wanted to come along, and we even saw on one of the nearby mountains a bedouin tent. A real. live. bedouin tent. We didnt see anyone, but I think there was laundry drying outside. We wanted to pay a visit to see what the bedouin hospitality was all about, but we couldnt go far because:
a) I was only wearing chappals
b) Some people in the other bus werent feeling too well, so we had to hurry along and get to our final destination.
Along the way, we came to a masjid that is probably the third most awesomest masjid I've ever seen, after the Haramain. It was so peaceful and set in such an idyllic setting, you feel like staying there all day. I asked other people in the group, and no one seemed to know its name. The group amir laughed me off though; he said it was a below average masjid by Saudi standards. Whatever. That place made Nugget Mosque and ISNA Canada mosques (in Toronto) look ghetto, even though these custom-built mosques have the fancy wudu areas, class rooms, and skylights.
We finally got to where we were going, which was basically a private picnic area to chill for the day. Brothers got to bond, etc. Its hard to describe, but the brothers had two enclosed picnic areas for themselves, right next to each other. Even though they were walled and had seperate entrances, there was a common wall about 3 meters high, over which you could hear what was happening in the adjacent area (which was basically a meeting place). Some people tried to speed the bonding process by fomenting a mini-war between the two sub groups, by throwing shoes, food and stuff over to the other side. But we couldnt really do too much, since one of the groups was loaded with shaykhs and we had to give them respect.
Towards the end of the day, when we were getting ready to leave, some locals came over on their own and offered tea and snacks to the whole group - mashaAllah at their adab and hospitality; I think Muslims living in the West can learn tons from the simple respect and manners that those living in much poorer and simpler communities treat strangers with.
Then we all (tried to) have a sing-along, in which we sang random nasheeds together into the desert night, like Tala'al Badru and Ghurabaa.
Sh. Yaser Fazaga and some brothers entertaining the rest of us.Then we got ready to go back, and on the way back, we were supposed to do Umrah again (take advantage of the opportunity and whatnot), but I promptly threw up just outside the bus and wasnt really feeling well enough to do the rites again. Stupid hummus.
Luckily enough, the vomit provided me an excuse to stay in Makkah the next day, whereas the rest of the group was dragged off to some conference in Jeddah. Suckers. :)
