ArRihla

ArRihla

bismiLlahir Rahmanir Rahim

What is a Hajj Mabrur (accepted, completed)? What does it mean to 'travel to the House of Allah'? What journey takes one's heart 'Come ye, willingly or unwillingly' Qur'an...

Coming over the hill into Mina, a sea of white ihrams, with a flood of hair: black, brown, blond, red... dotting the ocean of people, a milling mass of muhrims, no: Hajjis... we pulled up through the road, and walked 50 metres through people sleeping and eating on the road, some of the ~800 000 (some estimates say 1 million) Hajjis without official sanction, and thus not provided the state-mandated tents, showers, and water/food facilities more fortunate (or just wealthier?) Hajjis had... (public washrooms & fast-food outlets would have to do, along with what worldly goods can be carried on one's back)

Hajj is deceptively simple in ritual - you can show up on the 8th day of Dhul'Hijja, while others have been in Macca making Tawaf (circumambulation of the Ka'aba) and Umra (7 rotations and the ritual running between mounts Safa and Marwa, celebrating the desperate search of Hadhrat Hajar - Umm Ismail, radhi Allahu anhum - as she sought water for her infant child, in complete tawakkul that the Lord who had instructed Ibrahim to leave her in this desolate spot between igneous [lava-created] rock and a blistering Sun...

It is being done with the knowledge that one joins one's muslim community in following the instructions of Allah in the Qur'an and the Observations and Practices [ Sunnah ] of His Beloved Messenger, Sal Allahu alayhi wa Salaam, that this ritual gains life. One's sense of community grows, and the intimacy that comes from sharing water, food, a simple life (and indeed microbes! ;) with one's fellow Muslims that reminds one what the ritual means...

This is incomplete, there is more to tell... and Madina, and it's history and destruction ;( will, insha Allah, follow.