Syed HAQ
Senior Member
{Member Of The month of Muharram 1429 AH, Dhul Hajj 1430 AH & Safar 1431 AH}
Posts: 1,190
|
Post by Syed HAQ on Dec 10, 2009 10:04:56 GMT
Assalamu 'Alaykum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuhu
Subhan'Allah! Subhan'Allah! Subhan'Allah!
Haji sarfarz sahib first and foremost once again Hajj Mubarak! While reading your diary my heart felt that your Hajj and your Prayers were Maqbool. May Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala accept your Hajj and prayers through the Wasila Mubarak of Habeeb-e-paak Hazrath Sayyidna Mohammad Mustafa Salla Allahu 'alayhi wa Sallam and also grant all of us in the forum the honor of performing Hajj in the coming year Inshallah...Allahumma Ameen!
Truely that was a calling for you and your family from Rehmatal lil alameen aqa-e-Do Jahaan Salla Allahu 'alayhi wa Sallam, It happens i.e when ever any Ghulam-e-Mustafa Salla Allahu 'alayhi wa Sallam is in the court of Habeeb-e-paak Hazrath Sayyidna Mohammad Mustafa Salla Allahu 'alayhi wa Sallam people open up automatically no matter how the crowd is and make space for such true lovers.....and by the grace of Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala things will turn as ghulam has wished and willed at that moment.
That was so kind of you for remembering all of us and all our request where ever and whenever possible, May Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala grant you success and peace here as well as in the hereafter.
Looking forward for your remaining Blessed Journey.
Duao me yaad.
|
|
|
Post by farheen on Dec 10, 2009 10:20:34 GMT
Assalamu 'Alaykum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuhu
Subhan'Allah! Subhan'Allah! Subhan'Allah!
Haji sarfarz sahib first and foremost once again Hajj Mubarak! While reading your diary my heart felt that your Hajj and your Prayers were Maqbool. May Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala accept your Hajj and prayers through the Wasila Mubarak of Habeeb-e-paak Hazrath Sayyidna Mohammad Mustafa Salla Allahu 'alayhi wa Sallam and also grant all of us in the forum the honor of performing Hajj in the coming year Inshallah...Allahumma Ameen!
Truely that was a calling for you and your family from Rehmatal lil alameen aqa-e-Do Jahaan Salla Allahu 'alayhi wa Sallam, It happens i.e when ever any Ghulam-e-Mustafa Salla Allahu 'alayhi wa Sallam is in the court of Habeeb-e-paak Hazrath Sayyidna Mohammad Mustafa Salla Allahu 'alayhi wa Sallam people open up automatically no matter how the crowd is and make space for such true lovers.....and by the grace of Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala things will turn as ghulam has wished and willed at that moment.
That was so kind of you for remembering all of us and all our request where ever and whenever possible, May Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala grant you success and peace here as well as in the hereafter.
Looking forward for your remaining Blessed Journey.
Duao me yaad. 'ditto' Aameen to all the duas.
|
|
|
Post by sarfaraz on Dec 10, 2009 16:32:12 GMT
Assalamu 'Alaykum wa Rahmatullahi wa BarakatuhuTruely that was a calling for you and your family from Rehmatal lil alameen aqa-e-Do Jahaan Salla Allahu 'alayhi wa Sallam, It happens i.e when ever any Ghulam-e-Mustafa Salla Allahu 'alayhi wa Sallam is in the court of Habeeb-e-paak Hazrath Sayyidna Mohammad Mustafa Salla Allahu 'alayhi wa Sallam people open up automatically no matter how the crowd is and make space for such true lovers.....and by the grace of Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala things will turn as ghulam has wished and willed at that moment. Without a doubt. One thing I realised in my visit of the magnificant city of Madinah is that it's not the amount of ibadat you do that is taken into account but your love and respect for the greatest of creation Salla Allahu 'alayhi wa Sallam. If it was down to ibadat only I wouldn't be able to set foot in the Masjid as I'm nothing compared to some people.
|
|
|
Post by sarfaraz on Dec 10, 2009 18:52:49 GMT
Day 6, Tuesday Nov 24thHajj Day Minus 1We set off from the hotel at 00:30 and got to the Haram around 01:15. So much for the 2 hour ride! I called my cousin to let him know I was there and woke him up from his sleep, I was upset but he didn't mind. We made it to the Prophet Salla Allahu 'alayhi wa Sallam's house and we asked him to meet us there. While we were waiting my wife was able to touch and kiss the door of the house. I didn't want to as I didn't have wudhu. I know you don't need it but I would have prefered to be in a state of wudhu before placing my hands on the door. Once my cousin came we set off towards the Kaaba. We were guided in by my cousin so we were able to keep our eyes on the floor and not look up. Once we were guided into position my cousin said we can look up now. I looked up and suddenly everything changed. First off I thought to myself, am I looking at the Kaaba? Yes, I AM looking at the Kaaba. It was an amazing experience. Impossible to explain. For a few split seconds it seemed like it was only me and the Kaaba. Nothing else seemed to be there. After a second or two everything kicked back in and I was able to see everyone doing tawaaf and people praying etc. We had to quickly read our duas which looking back was a big mistake. I wanted to be quick in performing tawaaf and then saee as my cousin said it's actually quiet at the moment (it seemed insanely busy to me). We tried joining the ground floor tawaaf but the cleaners were causing problems as was all the shoving and pushing by others so I said to my wife we should go upstairs even if it does take us longer. The tawaaf upstairs was fairly quiet. It took us around an hour to perform the tawaaf, my feet were really starting to hurt but I kept going. Once we did that we prayed on the first floor directly behind the Maqaam-E-Ibrahim and Kaaba. Then we went and drank some Zam Zam. Now it was time for the Saee. I was not prepared for the distance of the saee. While watching it on TV I never quite grasped how much distance it is between Safa and Marwa and once I started walking is when it hit me. The saee took longer than the tawaaf, once it was completed my Umrah was complete. All in all it took around 2 and a half hours for the tawaaf, namaaz, zam zam and saee. My feet were absolutely killing me by the end and I started limping slightly. Not a good sign for the days ahead but something I would have to live with and was prepared to work through the pain barrier. I called my cousin to say we'd finished so we could pick up our bags but he was doing tawaaf and as it was time for Fajr soon we had to wait for around 2 hours before we could pick them up. Not a good sign considering we've only had small pockets of sleep since yesterday 6 AM. My wife was starting to nod off in the street while waiting. It seemed like an age before my cousin had finished but they came and met us and took us up to their room. While there they told us about the beautiful smell from the Prophet Salla Allahu 'alayhi wa Sallam's house. In our rush we didn't notice it so we weren't sure about it but more on this another day We spent some time with them before setting off to my wife parents hotel to get some things for Mina. After resting there we headed off back to our tours hotel in Azeeziyah, at around 7 PM, which is very close to the Jamarat (I didn't know that at the time). The bus to Mina arrived at 11 PM and the driver took around 2 hours to get to the camp as he didn't know the way. I later found out it would take just over an hours walk... Someone who actually walked from our tours hotel did the journey in 2 hours but that was because he didn't know where the camp was.
|
|
|
Post by sarfaraz on Dec 10, 2009 20:34:46 GMT
Day 7, Wednesday Nov 25thHajj Day 1This is the first Hajj day. This day doesn't have anything special that we need to do so it's technically a day of rest, not really likely that we're going to be able to get any rest. Anyway we were the first ones in our camp. The mens and womens sleeping areas were separate which causes problems when trying to get in contact with my wife but something I'd have to live with. I expected to see sheets to sleep on but it was only a carpet on the floor (with sand underneath), not like I expected a luxurious bed or anything but I wasn't expecting this. It's Hajj and hardships are to be dealt with and so I put my bag down and tried to get some rest on the floor with nothing else. The AC was on so I was starting to get really cold so I decided to go and buy a sleeping bag as my wife had seen a shop that sold some. I walked over to the shop with my wife to get two sleeping bags. The shops were almost 10 mins walk away which didn't help my foot at all. When I came back to my camp I found that someone had moved my bag and took my place, typical... I was a little annoyed but then I remembered that we needed patience here As there was plenty of other space I put my bag in a spare spot and decided to get a little sleep. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise, I'll explain later. I woke up around 2 hours later as it was time for Fajr. Prayed Fajr and found out the person next to me was in the same situation as myself, he expected some sort of sleeping provision e.g. sheets but as he didn't have anything either I explained that you can get sleeping bags from the shops down the road. As he didn't appear comfortable being able to find the shops alone I offered to come along with him, wasn't going to help my foot at all but it's better to help the person that not. After I came back I decided to get some more sleep as it's Arafat and Muzdalifah tomorrow and I don't expect to be able to get any sleep there so will need all the rest I can get. I slept on and off till Zohar. Around 9 AM or so I got a call from my cousins asking how to find the U.K. camp area. I was able to explain by having them look at the maps (which are shockingly bad btw). They ended up walking 2 hours from where the bus dropped them off to their camp as my Aunt was with them and she has arthritis and is only able to walk very slowly. The weather was cloudly and I thought it was going to rain. I woke up just before Zohar and quickly did wudhu. While I was doing wudhu there were flashes of light and I heard thunder but no rain at that time. After I prayed Zohar the rain started. The clouds were right on top of us now and it started raining very hard. My parents told me about when it rained when they went on Hajj a few years ago and lots of people died during the flooding. We were concerned because it may have flooded again. There was no sign of it slowing down after Zohar but thankfully by Asr it calmed down. I prayed Asr and decided to read everyones duas while I had time. I felt really bad as while I was reading the paper I noticed that one particular person had requested that I pray his dua when I first set eyes on the Kaaba. As I was in such a rush to get my umrah completed I forgot all about everyone elses duas and this really upset me. I was really down after that. The blessing in disguise, I forgot to explain further. Basically when it started raining some rain got into the tent. When I first got into the tent the space that I had put my bag down at would have meant that when the rain started my stuff would have gotten soaked. Another blessing I've received in this blessed land, my place was taken and I had to choose another spot that had no problems with the rain. Decided to have a very small meal between both myself and my wife. We decided to really cut down on our food and drink intake as we wanted to use the restrooms in Mina, Arafat and Muzdalifah as little as possible. We've heard nothing but bad things about them and that's one thing I can't stand which is dirty restrooms. Decided to get some more sleep to be ready for tomorrow. Didn't get a great nights sleep, kept waking up but had to deal with it.
|
|
|
Post by Sister Nomee on Dec 10, 2009 22:07:41 GMT
ASALATU WASALAMU ALAYKA YA RASULLALLAHJazakAllah for the continuation brother sarfaraz. It seemed you were on the go and in such small spam of time you managed to do so much, indeed setting eyes on the Kaaba shareef for the first time is breath taking and unbelievable. Funny you mention the carpet on the floor in Mina, when I first saw them I too was worried as I suffer from back problem but al hamdulilla I had no problems in fact found the ground very comfortable . Look forward to reading more... Wa'alaykum 'Assalam wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuhu
|
|
|
Post by muskaan chisti on Dec 10, 2009 22:31:02 GMT
a very detailed dairy took me a while reading it hope to read more inshallah beautiful pictures and once again hajj mubarak
|
|
|
Post by sarfaraz on Dec 11, 2009 19:36:55 GMT
Day 8, Thursday Nov 26thHajj Day 2It was the big day today. The day that I was afraid of the most. The day of Arafat and Muzdalifah. I'm as prepared as I can be. I woke up for Fajr to find it hadn't rained which was a welcome sign. I prayed Fajr and then went to buy a water flask to take water in to use at Muzdalifah. I've been told all sorts of horror stories about Muzdalifah and the lack of supplies so thought I'd be prepared incase I needed to do wudhu. The shops were too busy so I hobbled back the 10 mins to the camp in Mina. Foot was still hurting quite bad. I had a banana and some water for breakfast, still keeping the food intake very low. Had a lucozade energy tablet as well for energy. After a small nap I went back to get my flask, this time it wasn't so busy so I bought it. The sun was out which is good news as it meant the open land of Muzdalifah would be drying up. Now it was a simple case of waiting for the bus to Arafat. If my foot wasn't hurting we would have walked to Arafat but I didn't want to walk to Arafat to further damage the foot and then cause problems walking to Jamarat etc. We were called at around 10 AM saying the bus was ready, we all went to wait for the bus only to find it was a false alarm... A little while later the bus finally came. We all got called out again and were herded like sheeps by the gate to the bus. A lot of people were getting very ill tempered. I couldn't really blame them, the lack of organisation is astounding. It only takes a little communication to let people know what's going on but there was none. We were all left to guess what's going on. The sent the ladies first so I was separated from my wife for a while. My wife was scared of going alone as we had heard it's impossible to find people in Arafat and Muzdalifah but we were told we had our own camp in Arafat so we should be ok. Once she had left I waited for around 10 mins in the same spot. There was no movement so I went round the back and outside to see what's going on. The next sight is not something I had expected to see during Hajj... When I got outside I heard a lot of shouting and banging. When I turned to see what was going on I saw 2 Hajis fist fighting next to the bus. One was a Pakistani from our tour group and another was what looked like a Turkish guy. They were quickly separated by the others around but that was very shocking. People had no patience waiting for the bus and were all arguing and shouting. I had had enough so I decided to start walking to Arafat. Before I set off I called my cousins to see what the situation was like over there. They said it was pretty much the same but for me to come and see if I can get a seat with them. I tried looking for their camp but couldn't find it quickly so I started walking to Arafat but first past my camp. As it had been a good 10 mins there was hardly anyone around but then I saw our tour operator on the phone by a bus. I gestured towards him to ask if this was our bus and he pointed meaning yes. I got on to find plenty of spaces to sit down and everyone nice and relaxed. This was welcome relief for my foot as it meant I didn't have to walk the 10 or so miles to Arafat with my foot in this state. I made it to Arafat and better still was able to find my wife quickly. I didn't want to spend the time with our group as they don't really use their time well so me and my wife decided to walk to a part of the mountiain. We thought it was the Jabal-E-Rehmet but we were told by my father when we got back to England that it wasn't I was upset after learning about that but during our time there we were always sure it was the right place, nevermind though there's nothing we can do about that now. It was around 2 PM so we prayed Zohar alone. We read that if you read in Jamaat then you need to read Zohar and Asr together else read them separately, so we read separately. We then started reading some tasbihs from a leaflet my wife had which took us to around Asr time. After praying Asr we spent the rest of the time until Maghrib on our feet doing duas. I also took this opportuntity to say everyones duas on the forums as there's no better time than this. My feet were complaining like mad but I wasn't about to sit down as it's no doubt the only time in my life I'll be here doing duas. I watched the sun set while doing duas and once the sun went down it was time to set off for Muzdalifah. This was the part I was dreading the most. I've heard nothing good about Muzdalifah by anyone and people were saying this will test you the most. We started waiting for the bus, luckly it wasn't as heated as the bus wait for Arafat. The organisation was still shocking but what can you do. We actually thought we were going to be left behind as right when the busses started arriving the Syrian couple asked us for help locating our camp as they didn't have their sleeping bag and think they left it there. So we helped them but they couldn't find their sleeping bag. We then split up and they somehow got to the bus before us and we were outside the "cattle cage" that people wait in for their bus. The shouting and arguing started again so I took a step back and let those people do as they pleased. We managed to get inside the "cattle cage" to get on our bus but again me and my wife were separated. My wife was even more scared now as she didn't want to be alone in Muzdalifah (neither did I really ). I got to Muzdalifah and started looking for my wife. I could find a few people from our group but not my wife. I started walking around looking for her but couldn't find her anyway. This wasn't good so I headed to where the busses dropped everyone off. After a few mins my wife got off the bus. I had set out later than my wife but got there before her. We decided to put our stuff down and pray Maghrib and Isha. I was surprised as to how few people were in Muzdalifah, we were always told you don't have space to walk let alone sleep in Muzdalifah. After praying Isha we started collecting our stones for Jamarat. Once we had finished collecting the stones I looked around and saw that the place was absolutely jam packed with people, yet the busses continued coming. We were lucky to have gotten there so early. We were lying on a small sheet on top of stones, pebbles and sand and I thought to myself there's no way we can get any rest here. We laid our sleeping bags out so we had something to rest on and I noticed something unusual. Firstly the night was not cold or hot in any way. It was absolutely perfect. Another thing is I can't stand crowds, I really can't, I get all flustered and angry really quickly yet I looked around and there were thousands of people but I was still at peace. I knew for sure this night was something special. I did some zikr and then decided to get a little sleep to see if I could. Forget "if I could", it was one of the best rests I had ever had, and on what? Almost nothing, just out in the desert on sand and stones. I was well and truly shocked. I couldn't believe I had such a great rest in this place. It was completely opposite to what people had been telling me, all those horror stories we just didn't encounter in this place. It was the most peaceful time I've ever experienced. I spoke to my wife and she said exactly the same thing. This was a night we would never in our lives see again.
|
|
thc
Senior Member
Posts: 3,270
|
Post by thc on Dec 11, 2009 20:21:01 GMT
assalamu alaikum,
Mashallah i have read some of what you have written (alot of detail!)
is this your first time going to hajj/umrah?
|
|
|
Post by sarfaraz on Dec 11, 2009 20:27:00 GMT
Wa'alaykum 'Assalam wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuhuassalamu alaikum, Mashallah i have read some of what you have written (alot of detail!) is this your first time going to hajj/umrah? Yes, this was my first Hajj. I've also never done Umrah before. I intend on this being my only Hajj during my lifetime but I can't guarantee that.
|
|
|
Post by Sister Nomee on Dec 11, 2009 21:38:38 GMT
Assalamu 'Alaykum wa Rahmatullahi wa BarakatuhuSubhanAllah I also found these hajj days very spiritually uplifting I agree sleeping under the sky in Muzalifa is very special we went in December and it was bitter cold but there was something in the air that you felt comfortable and at peace. During these days Haji's and Hajans lose thier cool and the coaches are a nightmare we avoided them and walked from mina to Mecca shareef and got back to camp before our group members who had used the coaches . Brother sarfaraz you and your wife have truly used the time wisely and considering your poor foot you did extremely well MashAllah. Look forward to reading more this is proving to be a great read. JazakAllah Wa'alaykum 'Assalam wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuhu
|
|
|
Post by sarfaraz on Dec 12, 2009 8:56:15 GMT
Day 9, Friday Nov 27th
Hajj Day 3
I woke up a few times during the night and even after 1 AM the busses still kept coming. I looked around and there was absolutely no space that I could see. We woke up around 5 AM, just before Fajr and my wife did wudhu. We heard bad things about the restrooms in Muzdalifah but when she came back she said they were actually cleaner than the ones we were using in Mina.
They started herding people like cattle into the busses again. I wasn't going to use the bus back from Muzdalifah to Mina as we hadn't walked from Mina to Arafat or Arafat to Muzdalifah so we thought we should at least walk from Muzdalifah back to Mina to follow in the footsteps of the Prohpet Salla Allahu 'alayhi wa Sallam. I checked the GPS on my phone and it said it was only 2.8 KM to walk to our camp in Mina as we were quite close, that makes it about 25 min or so walk which wasn't going to be too bad.
My foot didn't feel too bad so I hoped that after the walk it wouldn't get worse. I was wrong, after the walk it was starting to hurt again. We got back to camp and I decided to try and get some sleep as there was a fair bit more to do today. Before I actually managed to get any sleep I got a call from my wifes father saying we had to throw the stones at Jamarat before Zohar. This was the first I heard about that as I was told it can be done before Maghrib.
As lots of people were going now (9:45 AM) I decided to call my wife and tell her we need to go now. Well, women don't need to go early men do but my wife didn't want me to go alone, heck, I didn't want to go alone. We were advised to use the higher levels as they were less busy but on our 1 hour walk to the jamarat we couldn't find the right path and when we got close to the jamarat all the other sides were blocked off so we could only use the ground floor.
The ground floor was absolutely packed and I couldn't stand it so I quickly left without throwing the stones. I walked the 1 hour back to camp which again meant my foot was seriously hurting. As I hadn't heard about needing to throw the stones before Zohar I decided to go back after Asr. We got back to camp around 1:45 PM. My feet are absolutely killing me but I know I need to make the same journey at least 3 more times...
Set off again for jamarat after Asr. I was hobbling along quite slowly now and slowing my wife down. The strange thing is I was walking faster than most people who were walking normally. There were no crowds and it was quite peaceful to walk. This time we managed to find the way to the 3rd floor (which is actually the 4th level, only 5 levels currently). It was very quiet. We were able to walk right to the front and infact when we threw the stones we could actually 'hear' them strike, it was that quiet. I later found out from my father than I did indeed need to throw the stones before ZOhar... Not a lot I can do about that now.
My wifes father had called earlier in the day to say our Qurbani has been completed so now that we had thrown the stones we were able to take off the Ihram. When I hobbled the whole way back to camp I had a look at the toilet/showers and couldn't stand the fact I had to shower in there. They were so dirty, how could I clean myself knowing splashes of water could hit the dirt and bounce onto me or my clean clothes that I would have in there...
I decided not to change out of Ihram for today and wear it another day. Ihram was surprisingly more comfortable than I first thought. I thought I was going to have major problems wearing and respecting Ihram but it was easier than I thought. What wasn't easy was stopping myself scratching! It's just so difficult, everytime I start I remember I'm in Ihram and I shouldn't be scratching.
Didn't really do much else as I wanted to rest my foot, there's still plenty that needs to be done and if my foot stays like this it'll really cause problems. We got some vaseline for my foot to see if that helped at all but it didn't seem to.
Today is when my GPS on my phone really came in handy. Without that it would have been 100 times harder to find the camp in Mina as the signs and maps are so bad it's almost worthless. The sauds have so much money yet they don't know a thing about organisation. The camps should be colour coded as they are on the maps. E.g. red coloured camps in the red zone so you know which direction to travel. We heard so many stories of people walking 9 hours+ to try and find their camp because they didn't know which way to go and the cards that the tour operators give are of no help whatsoever.
|
|
thc
Senior Member
Posts: 3,270
|
Post by thc on Dec 12, 2009 9:28:12 GMT
Assalamu alikum, masha allah that must have been an experience. Wa'alaykum 'Assalam wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuhuassalamu alaikum, Mashallah i have read some of what you have written (alot of detail!) is this your first time going to hajj/umrah? Yes, this was my first Hajj. I've also never done Umrah before. I intend on this being my only Hajj during my lifetime but I can't guarantee that.
|
|
|
Post by sarfaraz on Dec 12, 2009 10:51:54 GMT
Day 10, Saturday Nov 28thHajj Day 4I decided to get my hair cut today as I went venturing into another camp where the shower/toilet combos seemed to be a lot cleaner. Went off in search for a barber. Well, more like a person stood in the street with a razor. My wife was with me and made sure the barber changed the blade, I had forgotten to ask so good job she remembered. Now, I know my hair was quite long but while shaving my head it felt like the barber was punishing me for keeping it so long. Now with my shaved head and a laughing wife ;D I went off back to the shower that I had found. It turned out it wasn't as good as it looked from a distance but it was still miles better than our camp so I quickly showered and changed out of Ihram (a day late). Felt really nice to have finally showered after 6 days of Ihram. I thought I'd be glad to be out of Ihram but I actually miss it somewhat. It's a different mentality when you're in Ihram and now things seemed to be different for some reason. Today there was no restriction to when we could stone the Jamarats. Today we had to stone all three, not just the big one. So we set off again after Asr. My foot wasn't too bad considering I had rested a fair bit so we made it there in just under an hour. We went to the 3rd floor again which wasn't quite as quiet as yesterday but we were still able to go right to the front and stone in peace rather than all the pushing, shoving and crushing on the ground and 1st floors. After Asr really is the best time to stone the Jamarats as you can stone in peace. Everyone seems to want to rush and be the first to stone so if you have patience you can perform your rights with ease. My wife was with me as well. We didn't split up much except for when we're at the camp as we have to be in separate camps. After the stoning we went to Makkah to do the Tawaaf-E-Ziyarat and Saee. By the time we got to Makkah and did Wudhu it was time for Isha so we first prayed Isha and then started the Tawaaf. We did the Tawaaf on the 1st floor as the ground floor was packed and there were too many wheelchair users on the second floor. Took us almost exactly an hour. I slowed down a bit today as I knew how tough Saee was after doing it last time! This time we decided to take a bit of a rest between Tawaaf and Saee due to my feet, they were holding up quite well at the moment. We went outside to get our slippers so we could get some food. We got to the shoe rack where we had put our shoes and guess what... someone had stolen my slippers. Now I know people may be reading this and thinking "it happens in Makkah, it's a mistake and not really stealing", well, my slippers were placed in a bag with my wifes slippers and we tied a knot and placed it quite high up. So... the person who took my slippers had specifically taken our bag, opened the bag, checked out the slippers, thought to themselves "I'll take those" and took my slippers and left my wifes. Now, if I had placed them on the floor with all the other slippers and not tied them in a bag I wouldn't have been as annoyed as then it could be classed as a genuine mistake but this was stealing plain and simple. Anyway it's Hajj so I lived with it and I walked barefoot down the streets to get another set of slippers. I got a cheap set as I wasn't sure if these were going to make it either They seemed ok but I wasn't too fussed as they were cheap. We found a shop that does chicken and chips but man is it busy outside the Haram. We sat on the floor and ate, they don't show this side of Makkah in any of the photos and on TV. Man it was dirty and packed, there are barely any provisions. Admitedly there are loads of people but if they invested in the infrastructure a lot of this could be avoided. People say the tickets etc. are expensive for Hajj because they provide so much for you... I didn't see any of that during my time there but maybe it was just me. Once we had finished eating we went back inside to do Saee. We decided to do Saee in the basement, the reason we chose the basement is because you can't do tawaaf in the basement so to do Saee there you would have to specifically go there which means less people! Boy was that a mistake. The aircon was barely working and once we'd done a round we began to feel the heat. I said to my wife that when she wanted water we'll go and drink some Zam Zam. It then occured to me as to why we even do Saee, because there was no water! How could we then drink water midway through Saee when it's so much easier for us to do. I told my wife that and we both agreed, no water until we're finished. There was one good thing about the basement. At the Safa end parts of the mountain still remained and we could even touch it. I was disgusted by looking at it as people had thrown their rubbish there and even wrote messages on the moutain. These were some of the most sacred places in Islam that have been defiled people that aren't even worthy of walking on the same soil (myself included) but they have the audacity to disgrace these places. These things really get to me. Like the people who sleep in the Haram with their feet pointing to the Kaaba, I just can't understand it. Once we finished the Saee, exhausted by the heat we first offered duas then drank plenty of Zam Zam. The Tawaaf and Saee both took around an hour each and it was now around 11:30 PM maybe a little more. On our way out of the Haram we went by the Prophets Salla Allahu 'alayhi wa Sallam house. There was no-one by the door so I quickly went towards it and touched it. There were people taking photos but I wasn't going to wait for them to finish. Any other place I would have but they had their backs to the door acting as if it's a tourist attraction... My wife also touched the door and once we had left she said did you smell the smell. Argh!!! I forgot what my cousins had told me. I didn't notice the smell but my wife said to smell her hands. They had a beautiful smell, it was amazing. Simply by touching the door did my wifes hands smell so nice. Imagine what it would have been like during the time of the Prophet Salla Allahu 'alayhi wa Sallam. If there's any of you thinking the smell might be my wifes perfume, she 'never' uses perfume and besides we were in a state of wudhu so didn't have any perfumes etc. on. We now set off back to Mina and walked to the area where you can get taxis. Our problem was telling them exactly where to drop us off. As we didn't know arabic we couldn't tell them exactly where and seen as we'd heard of people paying 100 riyals (almost £20) only to have to walk a further hour to get to their camp we decided to walk the whole way there. It took an absolute age to get there. We went through the pedestrian underground tunnel towards jamarat first then past the jamarat towards Mina. I contemplated picking up some slippers lying on the floor to slap the devil with on our way past but decided against it ;D All in all the walking took around 2 and half hours and we reached back to camp at around 2:30 AM. I forgot to mention about my new slippers. I was previously annoyed at someone stealing my other slippers but this was another blessing in disguise. I've received many of these during my trip. While I was walking in my new slippers they had a massage like effect and infact the more I walked the better my foot got. This was great news as I was able to start walking properly half way back to Mina and I felt great. As they say, whatever happens, happens for a reason. I now wasn't upset that someone took my slippers and infact was quite glad as it meant I had gotten better slippers.
|
|
|
Post by sarfaraz on Dec 12, 2009 10:53:13 GMT
Wa'alaykum 'Assalam wa Rahmatullahi wa BarakatuhuAssalamu alikum, masha allah that must have been an experience. It was simply amazing. I've tried to put it all into words in my diary but they simply don't do it justice. It's an experience that one will never forget.
|
|
Ayesha
Senior Member
Posts: 529
|
Post by Ayesha on Dec 12, 2009 13:08:45 GMT
Assalamu 'Alaykum wa Rahmatullahi wa BarakatuhuMashallah Hajj Mubarak brother to you and your dear wife. thank you for remembering us all in your duas. May Allah Azzawajalaccept all your duas thru the wasila of Hazrat Muhammed Mustafa Salla Allahu 'alayhi wa Sallam.ameen thanx for sharing your detail diary
|
|
|
Post by Sister Nomee on Dec 12, 2009 21:27:37 GMT
Assalamu 'Alaykum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuhu
ASALATU WASALAMU ALAYKA YA RASULLALLAH Salla Allahu 'alayhi wa Sallam MashAllah a great indeed brother sarfaraz excellent writing skills. It really has bought back memories for me I loved the Hajj days, mina, Arafat, muzalifah and stoning the jamraah and not forgetting the journey by foot to Mecca shareef. The state of the shower rooms in mina were shocking we also avoided them! Glad the new slippers were a blessing in disguise JazakAllah khayrun Wa'alaykum 'Assalam wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuhu
|
|
|
Post by sarfaraz on Dec 13, 2009 9:55:09 GMT
I think this is the longest entry and they start to get shorter now, I'm sure you're all breathing a sigh of relief Day 11, Sunday Nov 29thHajj Day 5Today was the last day of Hajj. Fajr was around 5 AM so I barely got 2 hours sleep. Oh and the cheek of it, when I got back to camp some guy had decided to take my place and even use my sleeping bag! I wasn't having that so I woke him up to get my sleeping bag back. There was another space so I used that, the person muttered something about his sleeping bag but I didn't understand. After Fajr I tried to get a little more sleep but an hour or so later my wifes father called me. About 30 or so mins after that a tour organiser came in shouting that our bus is ready to take our luggage to our tours hotel. Great, the bus was meant to come after 11. I packed my sleeping bag up and sent it along with my backpack to the bus. Now there's too much commotion and without my sleeping bag I wasn't going to be able to get any sleep. I thought my cousins would be in the same situation so I called them saying I'm coming over to visit. Had some time to kill before stoning jamarat. Little did I know that I walk past their camp everyday but didn't realise they were there. It's impossible to find anyone or anything in Mina but that's a story in itself. When I got to my cousins camp I was shocked! They had free tea, free cereal, everyone in their camp had mattresses, blankets. It was so different to what we had. I lied down on one of their matresses for a bit and you know what? It was actually more comfortable on the floor. Spent a few hours with my cousins and my Aunt needed to go to the medical centre for her leg. She had real problems walking but Masha'Allah she did all her tawaafs, Saees etc. walking. I decided to go along to get my foot looked at even though it was much much better than previously. I explained to the doctor that my muscle was hurting and he took a quick look then wrote out a prescription. I went to collect it and he had written out Ibuprofen for my muscle... err... ok? It was time to set out for Jamarat. Well it wasn't really but my cousins said we should all go together and that at this time of day (around 11) it was quite quiet on the 3rd floor. I reluctantly agreed, I had always planned on going after Asr once the rush of "I want to be first" people had left. It must have taken over an hour to walk what we normally walk in 45 or so mins, There was an insane amount of people all walking in the same direction and the same speed, but you always get the handful of people who for some reason can't walk at the same speed and need to push and shove everyone to get to the front. I was really have second thoughts on going as if this was the amount of people walking how many would be stoning. It's impossible to turn around as it's just a constant wave of people and they block off the other routes so everyones walking the same way. We were walking military style A line of 4 men at the back, the women in the middle line with 2 more men either sideof my Aunt at the front. We had to walk at my Aunts speed but there was almost no way we could have walked any faster due to the amount of people. Infact my Aunt was probably walking slower than she could have. We moved to the side where you can go to the third floor and right as we got to the pathway to the entrance they blocked it off. We pleaded with the security guards to open it to let our Aunt through so she could use the escalators but they were having none of it. They kept using excuses like the third floor is closed or the escalators aren't working but we could see people still going to the third floor and going up the escalators. We said she was really tired and needed to use the escalators but the cheeky gits replied "why don't you put her on your shoulders instead". After a long while as my Aunt was barely able to stand we decided to try and quickly walk up the ramp to the first floor instead and stone from there. I was now dreading this as I didn't want to go to the first floor as it brought back memories of the first day. It was even the only floor that they had left open for some reason. It's the final day of Hajj when everyone wants to stone and leave and what do the Sauds do? Open a single floor for everyone. Amazing organisation and logic. My cousins knew I had problems with the crowds so said they'd help me but when we got up to the place where we stoned I couldn't take it again so I left with my wife without stoning. Before that we gave our 50 extra stones we got from Muzdalifah as they had lost their bag on the first day so didn't have any stones from Muzdalifah. We sat outside the jamarat on the path back to the 3rd floor from another angle. We decided to wait a while to let the crowds quiet down. After 15-20 mins my cousins called me to say they'd finished and asked if I needed help to go through again. I didn't, I said I'd wait a while and go after Asr if needs be. We decided to walk closer to the 3rd floor entrace. We walked up a tall hill and saw people entering. It was very quiet and surprise surprise it was open... Those guards seriously annoyed me but what can do you. Anyway we stoned the 3 devils in ease again and then walked the 20 mins to our tours hotel in Azeeziyah to pick up our luggage. It was around 3:30 PM and we decided to jump in a bus to the Haram, the roads were absolutely jam packed. A word of advice. On the final day of Hajj, if you need to get to the Haram do NOT use transport. We must have gone at the most 1 mile out of a 5 mile trip and after the bus hadn't moved for over half an hour we decided to get off. At this point in my diary I was about to write something bad about the bus driver but my pen ran out of ink. I took it as a sign and decided not to write it as it wouldn't have been anything good and no doubt classed as back biting. We got off the bus and started walking towards the Haram. It took us about and hour and my foot was holding up really well but I had a really heavy back pack on which was slowing us down, not to mention the lack of sleep starting to kick in. Once we got to the Haram we had to go to Rusaifah which was a further 4-5 miles. All the taxis and busses were shouting Jeddah or Madinah and the route out of the Haram was also jam packed so we decided to walk again. We walked a good hour, maybe more before we started to see open roads. As we were exhausted we tried flagging down passing cars while still walking, after a while a car stopped and said he'd drive us the rest of the way which would probably have been a 15 min walk that took 2 mins by car but we were so happy to have gotten the lift (well not sure it's classed as a lift as we had to pay for it ). We finally got to the hotel where my wifes parents were staying and would you believe it we were no longer tired and didn't feel sleepy at all so spent some time with them.
|
|
|
Post by Sister Nomee on Dec 13, 2009 16:33:00 GMT
Assalamu 'Alaykum wa Rahmatullahi wa BarakatuhuGreat continuation brother Sarfaraz. I enjoyed your last day of Hajj encounter, majority of incidents do happen on the last day of Hajj at the jamraahs as everyone is eager to finish quickly and return back to the hotels in Mecca Shareef. Its amazing with all the hectic timetable and activities Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala blesses everyone with immense energy and will power Subhanallah. The walk back from Mina to Mecca is so motivating so see all ages in groups from all over the Muslim Globe and showing unity and togertherness, so longing to do Hajj again JazakAllah look forward to further installments inshAllah. Wa'alaykum 'Assalam wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuhu
|
|
|
Post by sarfaraz on Dec 13, 2009 17:58:45 GMT
Day 12, Monday Nov 30th
Hajj Day Plus 1
The day of rest.
As we had done so much walking, very little sleeping and pretty much no eating we decided we would rest today and not do anything extra. So there's very little to write about today. We spent most of the day in the hotel, well it wasn't really a hotel it was a darul-ul-loom (not sure I've spelt that right) so there were 6+ beds per room. We were lucky to get our own room so we didn't share with anyone.
When we were in Madinah we met a relative from India and he mentioned something about a museum in Makkah that was built by the Turks that has some things worth checking out but he wasn't sure where it was. One of my wifes relatives who lives in Riyadh also came to visit today so we asked him about it and he says it's actually quite close to our hotel but also wasn't sure exactly where it was.
|
|