mirage
November 22, 2011, 12:45pm
93
Re: My thoughts on a recent trip to KSA…
Hareem, I just kept one thing in mind that as foreign the experience is for me, its equally unique for Saudis also. Every single year, 75% of the people are first time haajis so Saudis are dealing with new set of people. That creates a new set of problem. I like to give them a little credit as it is not easy to manage a crowd of 3-4 million people.
Another thing I like to share about Saudis. No muslim nation in the world has money that Saudis have, and I thanked God that he put Haram and Masjid Nabawi in a country of that much of wealth. Saudis went out of their way to make Haram and Nabawi as comfortable as possible for the people, all the way from giant fold out umbrellas in the courtyard of Masjid Nabawi to the water lined cooled marble floors in Haram. Not to mention that they put a pipeline of Zum Zum water from Makkah to Madina (450 KM) so you can drink filtered zum zum inside masjid-e-nabawi.
When you walk on the streets of Makkah, all of a sudden you see someone pops up from somewhere started distributing water bottles, food boxes, juice boxes, fruits and more. These are just normal residents of Makkah who do that. Its our duty that when we look at the bad stuff, we dont forget the good stuff that Saudi nation offers for the haajis.
one more thing. When we were traveling from Madina to Makkah and from Makkah to Jeddah, at every check post, govt volunteers would enter our buses and would load us with boxes of water, snacks, dates and what not. I mean they were doing things that they were not required to do. I salute them for that.
such a lovely entry ma sha Allah and Jazaa’k Allah. more so because you just validated my point and expressed it even better. im happy that someone pointed out the positives that are out of the way too. Jazaa’k Allah once again.