Sa'ee

Sa'ee was much easier and less crowded as compared to Tawaf. But the challenge was the distance. The total distance a person had to walk and run at times was around 3.5 km, without stopping. The concept is, there are two mountains, Safa and Marwa. For convenience these mountains are brought down to ground level, with air conditioner, and stunning marble floors.

Tawaf

Tawaf was the next spectacular thing in the list. Hundreds of people going round the Kaba without any chaos. It was just brilliant. It is easier to say though. When I looked at the crowd, I forgot to breathe for a while. Although, the crowd was about to grow many folds, as more flights came from different countries, in the next few days. In the Tawaf ground there was a green light, placed at a higher altitude, so that everyone could see it from distance. It was parallel to "Hajr-e-Aswad". It is the black stone, in one of the corners of Kaba. A part of it can be viewed in the following picture:

Performing the Umrah

As I had mentioned in my earlier posts, Umrah is something that needs to be performed atleast one's to validate  your Hajj. One main aspect of performing an Umrah is being in the state of Ihram. Ihram is a phase where you are not allowed to do few things and need to follow few things. Here are some of the forbidden things in a state of Ihram.


- Hunting the land animal.
- Using perfume.
- For men only: wearing the sewn clothes.
- Applying kohl on the eyes.
- Looking in a mirror.
- For men only: wearing shoes or socks.
- Quarreling with others.
- Killing the insects on one’s body.
- Using cosmetics.
- Applying oil on the body.
- For men only: covering the head.
- For women: covering the face.
- For men: shading themselves from sun or rain.
- Causing blood to come out of one’s body.
- Clipping the nail.

The Kaba

I grew up, seeing this. Hoping some day I would be able to see it as a person. And when I saw it, it was nothing less than magnificent. It was in the evening, all the lights were on. It felt the whole area was glowing with peace. It was one of those feeling which I cannot define, so freaks me out. I continued starring at it, for not sure how long. The entire place, where the people were doing "tawaf", was the most peaceful yet crowded place I have ever seen.

Coming to Tawaf, it is a mandatory custom to make seven rounds across the Kaba. This is a part of Umrah and Hajj. However you can still do Tawaf irrespective of Hajj or Umrah. The first time when I was supposed to do mine. I was literally scared to see the ground of Tawaf. It looked impossible even to set foot.

Masjid Al Haram

Also known as The Grand Mosque, looked to me as a fort when I first saw. It probably was the biggest construction I have seen lately. But it was just the beginning. It was not very flashy from outside. It was more elegant than glamorous. The grey texture of the marbles, that was used, made it look more like a fort. There were many small and big entrance to the mosque. The bigger entrances had two towers in both its side such as:

The exterior did not have a speck of dust. The walls were shining under the lights. It looks more beautiful under lights than at day. At day, it looks huge, as you can see the full extent of the mosque. But again, that was just a part of the mosque.

Road to Masjid al-Haram

Haram is also considered as "The Grand Mosque(of Makkah)". The main reason why this is one of the most important mosques, is because of the "Kaba Sharif". Kaba is not what Muslims worship, its just the direction towards which the Muslims worship.

But before describing The Grand Mosque or Kaba Sharif, let me give a tour of the road to the mosque. Earlier Makkah, was all mountains. These mountains are now converted to hotels, shopping complexes etc. The hotel where I was putting up was on a up hill. But fortunately the lane which we used to take to reach the mosque was plain land. So I could see the entire road from the door step of my hotel.

The first feeling of being a Haji

After many training sessions finally we were ready for departure. Our flight was at 3:20 am. We were to go to Jeddah airport. From there to Makkah via bus. For performing Hajj, we had to perform at least one 'Omrah'. I will cover 'Omrah' in details in my later posts. This is when we had to wear the 'ihram'. Ihram is a phase where a man has to wear two pieces of white un-stitched cloth and nothing more but a belt to carry important docs, money etc. (Note: Sometimes this two piece cloth is also considered as Ihram for convenience of understanding)

During the state of Ihram I cannot brush my teeth, or comb my hair or kill a mosquito/fly etc or use perfume on my body and so on. For performing an 'Omrah' we had to be in a state of Ihram. And before Hajj we needed to perform at least one 'Omrah', which would be meant for Hajj only (Note: 'Omrah' can be performed any time, irrespective of Hajj. I hope to cover it in details in my future posts).

Before leaving for airport we decided to put on our Ihram(2 piece of cloth) and pray two rakat of namaz, which is compulsory for Omrah. Some people do that at airport also. The reason I am telling all this is because, when we reached the airport. People recognized us, as would be Haji's, by our Ihram. That is when I felt, what it is, being a Haji.

The word, 'Sabr'

Like many others I too went to few Hajj training programs before going to Saudi Arabia. In all the sessions, one thing that every organization wanted us to understand is the word 'Sabr'. Its an Urdu word, meaning 'patience'. During the training phase, this word really did not reflect how much important it is. Or rather how much useful it is. But after becoming a Haji, that is the only word that is in my mind.