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My friend told me the BBC wanted to make a programme called
�Mecca Diary�Eabout an insider�s thoughts on Hajj.
It has to be �insider�Eas no non-Muslims can have access to Mecca or
Madinah! So this prompted me to offer my own experiences and thoughts, for
what they are worth, and share them with our group.
The first thing I found incredible, although I had expected
it, was the range of different languages, colours, people from all over
the world, united by Islam and their love for God, coming to this one
place.
For me, to watch the luggage arrive from far away places
with various labels was so fascinating and remarkable. I talked to ladies
from Senegal or the Ivory Coast, who used French to communicate, with
their colourful costumes and tall proud bearing, often carrying their
belongings in a bundle on their heads in a most confident manner. Some had
self-inflicted �beauty�Escars on their faces. All had bare feet, worn hard
by the sun and miles of walking. Some had no hotel in Madinah, where we
first stayed, and were sleeping in the open air or perhaps sharing cheap
accommodation somewhere. Others I spoke to were at the other end of the
wealth spectrum, from Brunei.
A lady from Australia, of Palestinian origin with
thirteen children, was happy to be on her very first Hajj or
pilgrimage, with her son, aged thirty, and her husband who was in a
wheelchair. It had taken her sixteen hours to get here by �plane�E she
informed me.
A French convert, a rare person to encounter, spoke to me
after I heard her speaking in her language to a black African from a
French-speaking country. Someone like herself could pick up a translation
of the Qur�an to read, as they were provided in the mosque in nearly all
the languages you could imagine.
The Malaysians, Indonesians, Turkish and Iranian groups
were respectively good at sticking carefully together. Not knowing Arabic,
or English in many cases, they must have felt more vulnerable should they
lose each other. Often they wore easily identifiable labels of coloured
material sewn on the backs of their head scarves if women, or red tarbouches or shoulder-bags if men, someone with a small flag of their
country on it, or a name of a specific group clearly printed on it.
The Saudi hosts in Madinah were so welcoming to the Hajjis,
as they called us (although we had not technically done the Hajj yet). We
got the same welcome in Mecca and there is a tolerance and respect for
those on pilgrimage, which could be palpably felt. This is their best
trade season and then it is quite for the rest of the year. Many of the
shopkeepers were, in fact not true Saudi but Yemenis, resident in Madinah
or Indonesians, Sudanese and others I felt a lovely spirit of co-operation
reigned. Someone not having enough money was trusted to return and pay
later. Another Hajji paid the Riyal for someone�s tea as he had run out of
Saudi money. I didn�t feel most people were out to cheat at all; rather
they were just happy to trade at this busy season from after Fajr prayers
to about midnight! All trading stops for prayers though. Every time the
call to prayer is recited over loudspeakers, all stallholders either close
their shops with a metal door like a garage door or simply cover it with a
cloth, knowing no person would dare to steal. Sometimes I saw young
children sitting cross-legged on the floor, �minding the business�E
In Madinah there are different doors for men and women to
the sacred mosque. In the Ka�aba everyone is mixed, sometimes women
praying in front of men and vice versa, whereas, of course, the usual rule
is that men are the ones who pray in front. In the holy mosque at Mecca it
can be side by side, whatever is convenient, and of course we pray in a
circle around the Ka�aba at prayer times.
I was told that by Saudi law a driver has to stop to
let a woman cross the road. I tested it out somewhat nervously! Some
compensation, someone else said, for not letting her drive! Men do give
women respect in Saudi in other ways. Shopping, often a women�s favourite
occupation and more so for Saudi women due to lack of alternative
entertainment, is borne patiently by the accompanying men-folk who stand
aside while time is taken to choose and compare prices.
Special care is made not to jostle women if possible and
men may even leave a lift if women enter it, to leave it to them.
This mixture, this cocktail of nations, come for Hajj, is
unique in that no one is allowed to have pride over the other, but instead
to get to know each other. It was so moving to see a kind of real equality
we rarely get to see in our normal lives. It made me think of the Day of
Judgement where nothing really matters but a person�s piety. It was
inevitable that the Pakistanis from Bolton were glad to meet other people
from Bolton and Cardiff group would stick together but what came through,
apart from individual loyalties and pride of domicile, was a sense of
something bigger than us all, uniting us and inspiring people to even
bring children and babies along on this wonderful pilgrimage to Mecca, all
happy in the realisation of their life-long ambition.
Someone was remarking how he missed his own bed.
Personally, I was just so glad to be here, to be part of this privileged
throng, I could just as happily have slept on the floor anywhere!
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The
Jamarat
We were warned about doing this ourselves if we were women
or weak in any way. Unfortunately, this was borne out when thirty-five
people were reported killed accidentally at this place. Pushing, shoving
and high emotions, symbolically directed against the Devil create an
atmosphere where safety is often disregarded by some.
This is the place seven tiny pebbles, the size of small
beans, are thrown, each at three pillars signifying the Devil and one�s
rejection of him and his way of life.
Mina
Here we stayed in air-conditioned tents and this was not
the tent I had expected, but much more up-market. However, the noise of
the air-conditioning motor takes away from the silence one expects from
living in a tent for three days, communing with God.
Communal living brings to one�s awareness very much like
selfishness or its opposite. This is why, when someone said to Umar (Radia
Allah Ainhu) �EI know this man like my brother.�Ehe said �Have you
travelled with him?�Eand when he said �No�E Umar replied, �Well, you don�t
know him.�EI must say, most people were very generous spirited, buying
things to share out, showing concern for each other and looking after the
weaker ones. There is always a tendency we have to watch out for: of being
concerned with performing our own personal religious rituals and never
mind anyone else. A sort of frustrated attitude of �Hajj would be
wonderful if there weren�t so many people here!�EThen there were those who
went even further and seemed to really despise other people �Edeliberately
setting out to harm people. I even heard some terrible cursing from a
woman at the washing area! �Eb>Religion is
dealing with others�E as we are so often reminded, and you
need a lot of patience to get through a successful Hajj. But living in
close proximity with others, you realise that some people just have that
gift of spreading happiness. It comes; I�m sure, as our prophet said, from
a content heart.
If you�ve never been on a camp before, then you have to
prepare yourself for some kind of shock when faced with communal washing
and toilet facilities. With a bit of care, things could go smoothly, but
there�s always someone willing to act in a thoughtless and selfish manner
without consideration for the next person! When we, the Hajjis, had all
left Mina, it looked a bit like an earthquake had happened. There�s just
so much rubbish to dispose of �Eit�s a nightmare for the authorities, I�m
sure.
When the rain came at Arafat �Ethey hadn�t had rain like
this for seventeen years, we were told, someone asked �Was God angry with
us?�EWas He wondering why we could not achieve more unity, even in such a
large community, but still behave as nothing more than a gathering of
individuals? Or was it, in fact, His mercy and His pleasure at seeing so
many turned out just for His pleasure�E
Hajj is a real test on so many levels for the individual.
If you sit at home these kinds of tests don�t usually come your way. When
at home, you can satisfy your needs as you like, suit yourself, but here
everyone has the same needs at the same time, hunger, thirst, shade,
wanting to worship, follow the rituals and yet we have to show politeness
and not behave as if we are the only ones who matter and our needs
come first. It is indeed difficult to put into one�s mind not just the
consideration of one�s group, one�s own travel companions, but the entire
group of people on Hajj, not just our countrymen, everyone
else, whatever languages they speak and alien cultures they come from. I
didn�t like the American flag of one group, the Turkish of others, etc.,
because, yes, this helps identify them, but it also fosters partisanship,
which is so discouraged in our religion. We are to think now in much
LARGER terms. Here we are all human
beings, sons of Adam, slaves of our dear Creator. If one cannot really
feel this brotherhood and sisterhood in this situation, then there is no
hope for one! This is the overwhelming experience that struck Malcolm X
when he, a confirmed racist before that against all whites whom he had
thought of as devils, feeling suddenly an amazing new experience for him
in the sea of faces of all shades of black and white, shoulder to
shoulder.
There were some touching moments of consideration and this
particular one of chivalry �Ea man, I reckon in his fifties, with some
grey hair, stood through the Friday sermon while everyone sat in order to
hold a cloth bag outstretched over his head at an angle to shade his
seated wife from the sun. He was the only person standing throughout the
�Khutba�Eand kept his position like a solider! I was so impressed.
One could not help noticing individual men who were so
attentive to their partner�s needs. It�s the small things that count. One
man walked around until he found ice cream and other treats to keep his
wife cool and happy and was quite prepared to change it if it wasn�t to
her liking. Hajj made it clear to me, somehow, from being in this huge
�market place�Eof people, that it is the small things, the short
sentences, the smile, the overlooking, the willingness to help, that
matter in whatever language! Relationships can falter or be fostered by
these alone.
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An
Experience at Mina
Walking from Muzdalifah to Mina we saw many beggars lining
the streets and my son often stopped to put a few riyals in their bowls.
It was pointed out to me later that if the men looked otherwise young and
fit, but had hands amputated, they were likely to be ex-thieves who had
received their punishment for repeated crimes of stealing! It just made me
wonder how anyone could want to risk undergoing such a punishment even
once, let alone many times which some of these people had obviously done!
Later in the mosque I saw some money lying on the floor �Eon way was I
even going to focus on it!
There is an amazing thing about the birds, little house
martins, under the archers of the mosque around the Ka�aba. They sing at
night! I never heard of birds singing after dark. Such a beautiful sound,
and so natural, then suddenly it dawns on you, it�s midnight or 2 am �Ehow
come you can hear bird-song?
I sat in the Ka�aba courtyard today watching others do
their �Tawaf�E encircling of it. I get sleepy in the sun and, trying later
to read some Qur�an, find I�m nodding off.
As I mentioned before, it is the one mosque / holy place,
where men and women pray together. The usual way is women behind men. Like
in the situation of Jewish men and women on a bridge. According to their
scripture, it is better for the man to walk in front of the woman out of
politeness. So here in Ka�aba courtyard, under the roof of the mosque, are
rows of people together and absorbed totally in their private worship,
tears often wetting their faces.
I am feeling very tired and have not had enough sleep since
I arrived. I�ve got a virus, it seems, and can�t sleep for coughing
violently every time I lie flat or even semi-flat. The other night I sat
up with my pillows, but every time my head dropped as I fell asleep, I
would cough and wake up again! All around me you can hear the sounds of
coughing coming, not just from our rooms, but the men�s too. Only one
Bangladeshi man, and his wife to some extend, have escaped catching the
Hajj-flu. He told me he had taken the flu jab in Britain prior to
travelling and his other wonder-cure was dried root ginger, which they
both carried around in a small pot and believed in chewing to keep the
chest clear.
When we came back to Heathrow airport, all materialising
into our Western dress again, we were greeted by sounds of �oooeee�E the
Arabic cultural way of expressing delight as some fellow Hajjis were being
received by their relatives or friends. The people from the sub-continent
believed in throwing a kind of gold tinsel necklace over their returning
Hajjis to mark their special status. This was no ordinary reception at
Heathrow�s arrival lounge!
As for our group, �Amoun�E we were all sad at dispersing
after having been through such a life-changing experience together. It had
been an experience in which we, as individuals struggling to practise our
religion and feel pride rather than shame in what we were trying to do in
an upside-down world, were allowed to feel uplifted as part of this sea of
pilgrims. We could feel this wonderful support in being part of this group
worshipping Allah. This is often a rejuvenation for those who can easily
feel depressed or unless when the tide seems against them, as those early
Muslims must have felt.
Just as the Ansar offered to help those from Mecca, people
were generously offering lifts to others and help with bags. If religion
is good behaviour, these people were proving it to be true, even though
tired out them-selves from the long journey home.
So people had now cleared the hall, collected their bags
and their bottles of Zamzam water and soon the lounge showed no sings of
the �lightened�Efaces that had just returned from a life-time�s
experience!
It took till the Egyptian Mothers�EDay for the bunch of
flowers to arrive to Laila and Mousab to thank them, in rather English
style, for looking after us on our pilgrimage.
�Did you enjoy your festival?�EI was asked. �I didn�t know
women were allowed on the pilgrimage?�Esomeone else said.
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