Its that time of year, and most of us get the 5 second shot of people dressed in white circling the Kaba on the news, where some nuts sit in front of the TV squinting their eyes - peering at the miniscule heads trying despite the odds to see if we can catch a glimpse of our close friends and relatives
Lately i’ve been trying to read A Thousand Roads to Mecca, the key word is trying, I think i’m on page 5. And that got me wondering about all the guppies out there, how many of you have been on hajj? What do you remember about your experience? How did it make you feel? Did it strengthen your faith? Did the experience change you and if so how? Did you see things differently? Any stories?
A Thousand Roads to Mecca is a good book. Since it is divided into stories from different eras, you might find it more interesting if you read the last stories first.
Actually I was born in Jeddah, and lived there for 17 years, so had the pleasure to go with my parents almost every year. I can remember a lot of things, different experiences every year, but here are a few that stood out:
Before the 90s, muzdallifa was not developed at all. So the whole night was spent collecting pebbles. No places for food and water there.
Also, Arafat got extremely hot in the summers and, before the government installed the sprinklers, almost unbearable. Now it comes in winter and thus a lot better.
The traffic went at snails pace and a lot of time was spent on the roof of buses in hot nights and walking long distances.
The stonning of the shayateen was the worst part as the crowd was uncontrolled which led to many deaths, specially amongst the elderly hajjis.
Qurbani was also extremely hard as we had to walk over carcases and people in a mad rush — My uncle said this was hell on earth. Blood and chaos.
Well, i guess i explained more of the situation. Religiously, i was young and i dunno if it had an effect on my outlook.
Well like Wadi I am a local produce as well ..spent about 17/18 years in Makkah .. very eventful place .. specially during Haj .. been blessed with opportunity to do haj around dozen times.. it’s a very rewarding experience .. multi-nationals with multiple Islamic beliefs … Muslims who make the journey has more meaning to it in terms of spirituality and value .. the locals are immune or sort of used to it .. in terms of Haj facilities and infrastructure it has been developed tremendously over the years .. Politically .. I have seen the unsuccessful coup happening right after the Haj (When some fanatics took over the haram) .. I was living just couple of blocks from Haram .. I have witnessed the Irani-Saudi clash as well of which the last one turned real deadly . .then there were tragedies every year .. major one being the Tunnel accident where couple thousand Hajis died.. There are high and low points apart from the spiritual experience .. at the end of the day it’s a classic example of how Human can gather under the banner of faith and purpose and at the same time they can not separate themselves from the differences