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:

The Tawaf is to be started from that point. But since, it cannot be visible by all due to the crowd, so the green light represents its location. The green light denotes the starting point of Tawaf and also helps is identifying when a circle is complete. Hajr-e-Aswad is among the most important elements. People can literally risk their lives to kiss it. The reason being, our Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him) had kissed it while he was going round the Kaba.

Coming back to my experience. First seeing the crowd, I felt it was impossible to do 7 circles. But as I started, things started looking much easier. But soon, there was pushing from all sides, people walked over my toe, I got hit by elbows and so on. I lost my patient and wanted to shout on them. But I could not, as I didn't know who the person was. Moreover there was always someone to calm me down. Soon I found myself doing the same.

There were Chinese, Nigerian, Arabic, Pakistanis, Bangladeshi's and of course Indians. There were groups of people who held each others hand, in the fear of getting lost. When such group passed me, it was the most irritating of all. I had to give way to 7-8 people in a row, and had to continue my own Tawaf. But later I realized their point of view as well. Just because I had a cell phone, doesn't means every one else has. It is not about me or everyone else. It is about me with everyone else. 'Sabr' was the key.

Most of the people was in Ihram. So it was absolutely impossible to differentiate people by their social status. They were just Muslims from all over the world. That was the only identity we all had.

Since it was my my first Tawaf, I was completely exhausted after it was over. I needed to quench my thirst. What better to drink other than Zam Zam. It was absolutely chilled. I never tasted water so sweat. I felt all those exhaustion was worth it. After the Tawaf, I had to do Saee, to complete my Umrah. Inshallah, this I will be covering in my next post.