Kaimisuki

Day 21 of my hajj. I have completed my hajj and am spending my last day in Makkah now as I’ll be travelling to Madinah tomorrow. Since it’s the time of the month for me, I can’t go into the mosque, so I’m sitting in the hotel a lot the last three days.

What an experience! I am so thankful so grateful to be alive to experience every single walk every single word every single trial, challenge, people met, activities did, indescribable feelings of awe and amazingness and love and sadness and peace and wonder. Originally I didn’t like the Ustad, but at Shisha, Ustad Musa was very helpful and guide us and taught us and made us do the prayers and zikir and he was amazing I might have fallen in love with him if I’m not married. But he said do not follow him, follow Allah and consistently ask Allah for guidance. Wukuf at Arafah, bermalam at Muzdalifah, bermalam at Mina and the stoning of the three pillars, these are the main activities of hajj.

Our first apartment is at Shisha where we are separated the men and women as we do prayers and zikir while waiting for 9 Zulhajjah to wukuf at Arafah. The wukuf at Arafah was mostly in the tents and we were quite safe from the weather, we only went out in the last few hours of wukuf when the sun is low and the angels are at the lowest point in the sky to receive our prayers. I wish I had stood there and repeated my prayers a thousand times until the sun set.

Bernalam at Muzdalifah was also a bit of challenge as it’s a waiting game where we wait and sleep wherever we can till we are given the queue to go cos every group in every country are given lots to pull for queue numbers for their turn. Ustad Musa was very good at finding empty spots for us to rest, always looking out for groups who left earlier and quickly taking their spots whenever we can.

Bermalam at Mina was an interesting experience too, as I have always seen the tents from the outside and never went in. Going in for the first time with the waiting and when we entered we were in a maze of tents turning left right left right finding the right tent when all the tents look exactly the same. But inside the Mina tent the aircon was very cooling.

For the stoning of the three pillars the challenge was the distance to walk. Walking at night was ok but morning oh wow. They set up cooling sprays for the people there but sometimes the water sprayed evaporated so quickly I don’t know if I felt any better. After all those activities, on day 12 is our turn to pack our bags and move to Makkah, where we can do the tawaf and sai haji, and thus our haji is completed. May our haji be accepted and may we get Haji mabrur. Once it’s completed, men and women no longer need to be separated. We are currently staying at Hilton Suite, a very good hotel, where it’s so very cold. Even Masjidil Haram, the floors are oh so cold.

I can’t speak of the trials we went through cos it really was very challenging, but with all the quarrels we had with the people we love plus the weather, it’s still the people we love whom we turn to in the end, and they make the experience a good one, with help from Allah. Shisha was one set of challenge, Makkah is another. I’ll be heading to Madinah tomorrow and may Allah ease our journeys at Madinah.