My School Hajj Blog - Alistair Manclark

Preparation

11th October 2013 (6th Dhul Hijjah)

---The preparation for the most important days of my life was hard. We've only just finished now, and we've been trying to obtain visas, plane tickets, etc for over a year! That shows how big this event is. And now, we've just finished! :-D  It was definitely hard, but we got through, my son and I. I get pins and needles whenever I think about Hajj, it's going to be great. We got promoted up to a better style of plane because there weren't any seats left on the Thomson plane that we originally booked seats on. Lucky :-) But it doesn't matter how we get there, as long as we get to Saudi Arabia it's fine. It's just even better that we get there in more comfort. But, for all I care, I'd get an old boat and row across the channel and then walk to Mecca. But it's better for my son, he's not been on a plane before so it's probably better that he gets the long flight in something more comfortable. Anyway, moving on, we've not packed anything other than our 2 ihrams (white sheets that we wear on Hajj to be equal to everyone else) each, small pouches to carry the stones for Jamrah and also sleeping bags and floor mats for the tents at Mina, because that's all we need, simplicity is everything on Hajj. And we're bringing some eczema cream for Samir (my son), as his condition flares up in the heat and it's slightly unfair to leave a 10 year old boy in itching fits and pain ;-)

13th October 2013 (8th Dhul Hijjah)

---Waiting in the airport as I type this up :-O Yes, I'm tired. Had to get a flight early in the morning to be there at a good time so it's 3 am as I'm typing this. But, I'd go to any extremes to get to Hajj. If you're wondering how I'm still typing this, my local Mosque said I could take my Kindle for notation purposes and pictures only, because that would still count as a pure Hajj (because I'm typing up and taking pictures to remind me of my amazing Hajj for years to come). I've got one of those packs you put batteries in to charge the Kindle, and I've brought loads of batteries! :-) The plane is a little bit late for boarding because of the large amount of aircraft taking people around the world here (mainly to Saudi Arabia for Hajj). But, it's just a case of wait for it. Anticipation is the best part of a treat.

---This is quite nice, actually! A new Boeing 787 Dreamliner (which hopefully won't encounter the same problems as the ones in Asia) with air conditioning, in flight Wi-Fi (that's how I'm typing this now) and comfortable seats. I'm starting to feel bad now. One of the points of Hajj is to be equal and I'm breaking it already. But, it's not my fault, I booked seats on a normal plane and got this. At least my boy is comfortable    ;-) It's a long flight for him, so I'm glad that he's ok. Then we put our ihrams on in the plane's bathroom. We did the usual 'wudu' before, which is the ritual of washing and cleansing before confronting god, so you are pure. Everyone on Hajj is going to be confronting god solely for days on end, so this is probably the most important wudu of a Muslim's life.

---I'm in Saudi Arabia now at Jeddah and I've discovered that Sam doesn't get air sickness - or jet lag - or any other flight related sicknesses. He's as chirpy as he was back in England (which would be 'very' :-D). But, that's not too bad. I'm the one who's suffered with jet lag :-( Not very pleasant, as you probably know. Now it's for the coach journey, which shouldn't take too long, as we're only 45 miles away. But there are multiple stops for passports and there will be tons of congestion, so I'm not entirely sure how long it will take, actually.

Tawaf

---Just so you know, it took four hours to get to Mecca :-O But, now I'm thinking back on it, time flew past. We got to our room in Mecca, had an hour's nap and then headed off to the Haram Mosque. It was amazing. It's made out of this beautiful marble, and was bigger and more elegant than any other Mosque I've ever been in. Whilst waiting to go inside to perform Tawaf (the circling of the Kaa'ba) we all waited in the massive crowds around it, performing the prayers at each time. It's amazing seeing all of the commotion stop, hear everyone go quiet and everything go silent, and then everyone prays at the same time, towards the Kaa'ba, which is merely 200 metres away from them, instead of 2000 kilometres, or more :'-) It's amazing! I'm still thinking of it now, huddled up in my tent at Mina, about how amazing it was. It was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen, especially since it it the centre-point of my life. Just seeing it in person instead of in pictures was enough to drive me to tears :"-) There were people of every race, every colour and every other variable. That shows how powerful Muhammad's (Peace Be Upon Him) word was, it spread around the world with each lonely traveller at his time. When we finally got inside it was the best sight I've ever seen. The most holy object on the planet was right in front of my eyes, I was breath taken. To perform Tawaf, we had to go around the Kaa'ba 7 times (because 7 is a mystical number, the number of days it took Allah to create the world) anti-clockwise, and at the end of each of those laps we had to point at the Black Stone (or touch/kiss it) and shout the Takbir prayer (Allāhu Akbar - meaning "Allah is Greater"). Us men had to do the first 3 laps at a hurried pace, and then the following 4 at a 'more gentle pace'. I offered to slow down a bit so Sam wouldn't have to run too fast, but he had more energy than me! :-) It was hard to keep up with him and his pace for that amount of time! Either he is extremely enthusiastic or I need to look at some endurance exercises at the gym :-P (I hope it's him being enthusiastic...) We didn't try to go near the Black Stone, because it would have been extremely hard and dangerous to get near it. I didn't want to risk Sam's well-being. Instead we did the equivalent, like I explained earlier, pointing and shouting the prayer. The stone is only about 20 cm across, so you can imagine the trouble caused by people trying to get near it or touch it. After we'd finished, we went out of the Haram Mosque and started the next rite of Hajj, Sa'i.

Sa'i

This definitely wore me out, but because of the importance of this occasion I couldn't care any less about my tiredness. We had to run between the two mountains Al-Safa and Al-Marwah - 7 times, like Ibrahim's (PBUH) wife Hajar did whilst looking for water. Ibrahim left Hajar and their infant son Ismael (Peace Be Upon Them) in the desert between those hills with only basic provisions to test their faith. Eventually, they ran out of water and food, so Hajar ran between the hills 7 times. But, when she went back to the Ismael, he kicked the sand whilst crying and the Zam-Zam well broke forth. It was a reward from god to Hajar for her patience. The crowds today were massive! But that's only what to expect. The good thing about that was that I had to keep a steady pace, not too fast but not too slow. But the bad thing was that I couldn't slow down a bit if I wanted to, I was stuck at the one pace. Anyway, it didn't matter because like I said, the importance of Hajj overrides everything. Hajj is the most amazing thing that will ever happen in my life, so no wants or thoughts will stop me. Back on subject, the total trip would be roughly 3.15km, so it wasn't too far but with the euphoria added it was overwhelming. And if it was like that for me, I'm thinking what Sam felt like! He still had lots of energy afterwards, so he could cope with the physical side, but with all of the excitement today emotionally he is probably almost exploding! We got some water from the Zam-Zam well, it tasted like normal water but had a slightly different taste than it, it was a bit creamy. We bottled some up and took it with us.

After Sa'i we got our stuff from the rooms, got back on the coach and headed for the tents at Mina, where I am now. We're spending the night here. It's all so overwhelming, I am practically fulfilling my religious life, doing the most sacred thing I could ever do in my entire life. Non-religious people or people of other faiths would just think of coming to Mecca as a holiday, but for us Muslims, it's the pilgrimage, the most important journey of our lives. It will only happen once, and that makes it all the more amazing. So, I must do everything as enthusiastically as I can (but I would anyway, there's no reason I wouldn't on this once in a lifetime trip) and bring back the memories as vividly as possible. I think I've done all right so far!


14th October 2013 (9th Dhul Hijjah)

Day of Prayer at Arafat

---Woken up early so I could type this up  to tell you what's ahead. (Actually, I only slept a few hours and I couldn't get back to sleep after I woke up :-P I'm too excited :-D) Today is the day of prayer at Arafat, and it's definitely going to be a whole day of intense prayer. Including the part of the day when we go to Mount Arafat and ask for forgiveness from Allah, that the is the most important bit of the day. Otherwise, we stay in our tents praying for forgiveness and reciting the Qur'an. The reason why we pray on Mount Arafat is because it was where Muhammad (PBUH) gave his Farewell Sermon in the final year of his life. It is the most important day of Hajj, as it is the day we can really prove our devotion to doing what Allah wants us to do. It proves everything about us, and it really tests our limits to our religion. The most devoted Muslims will continue with their intense prayer no matter what, and will never get distracted from their prayer. I think I'm almost one of those Muslims, but today will prove whether I am or not. Anyway, it's going to be an amazing experience in any circumstance, so I'm just going to pray my hardest for Allah's forgiveness! (Just a note - if I say we in the next few days it's because the people in my tent are sticking together, so if anyone gets hurt we can help and also so no-one gets lost. Knowing me it will be me getting lost, not Sam! :-P)

---Today was hard and tiring  but overall it was plainly amazing. We sat in our tent at Arafat for hours on end, praying and reciting the Qur'an. It was difficult, but I would push through anything to meet Allah's desires. My son has a longer attention span than I imagined, he sat through the whole day reciting the Qur'an and praying, and never stopped apart from to get sips of water. It's important to keep yourself hydrated in the arid, dry climate around here. It was roughly the same with me, I never stopped unless I needed to drink. I had my entire focus on Allah and prayer, nothing would have stopped me on the most important day of my life. When we were on Mount Arafat, we didn't try to get to the top (for the same reason we didn't touch the black stone whilst doing Tawaf), but we did get quite high up. My son didn't seem to believe it, that we were on Mount Arafat where the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) made his final Sermon! He was just overwhelmed. So was I in a way. But, we put that aside and asked Allah for forgiveness, asked that he would wash us clean of or sins, begged that he would burn all of the sins and burdens we carry. And, what happened next was amazing. It started to get warmer, I felt myself heating up, and my face started burning up, like I had a fever. Then after a few seconds I felt refreshed and cool, like I had just jumped into a cold swimming pool on a hot day. That proved it to me that Allah had forgiven me, had washed away my sins, had burned all burdens that I carried. I was so amazed it drove me to tears! :"-) It was so amazing, feeling Allah at work, feeling him personally cleanse me... It was just so - well, I've ran out of words to describe it, other than absolutely phenomenal! Sam felt it too, he said that he felt the same. How amazing is that? Anyhow, we went back to the tents and prayed some more (which was quite hard over all of the overflowing emotions from when we were on Mount Arafat) and when it was the evening and the sun was close to setting, we walked over to Muzdalifah (which wasn't too far - only 2.5 miles) with our sleeping bags and ground mats. It took us about 45 minutes. When we were there, not many people had arrived yet, so we got the good flat places to sleep, and there were many pebbles around to collect for the next day. We had to collect seven pebbles for each of the pillars (there are 3) each, for 3 days but we collected some spares just in case we lose some. I've got about 55, slightly more than enough for the stoning tomorrow (only the largest Jamrah); the day after tomorrow (all of them) and the day after that (also all of them). We set up our sleeping bags and ground mats. That's where I am now, unable to get to sleep. I should do soon, so I'll update you tomorrow!

15th October 2013 (10th Dhul Hijjah)

Jamrah - Stoning the Devil

---Ok, today is probably the most dangerous day of Hajj. So, we just have to take the proper precautions. Stay out of the biggest crowds, try not to stand too close to the walls and if we see anyone with massive pebbles, stay away from them when they're throwing them :-P We've got our pebbles ready, so we might go over there early when there aren't too many people. The sun's only just rising now, so there won't be anybody there, or barely anyone. We'll head off in a minute. We've also got the animal sacrifice and the haircutting today. So, it's very busy! And we have to do another Tawaf, called the Tawaf-Al-Ifadah, in the Haram Mosque. I don't see how we're going to fit it in the day, so we'll have to get up now.

---Just finished doing Jamrah. The reason why we do this is because Ibrahim and his family (PBUT) had to refuse the temptations from the Devil. The first wall (the largest one) represents the Devil's temptation he gave Ibrahim against sacrificing his son Ismael (the request from Allah); the second represents the Devil's temptation he gave Hajar to persuade her to stop Ibrahim from sacrificing Ismael and the third represents the Devil's temptation he gave to Ishmael to avoid being sacrificed. He was refused each time, and the throwing of the stones symbolizes those refuses. Also, throwing the stones symbolises our defiance to the Devil, and how we will always be on Allah's side, and will never heel over to temptation. None of us got hurt today, we all threw our seven stones at the walls and moved on. We got their earlier than a lot of people, so there was less of a risk of being hit by pebbles or being trampled over in the crowds. We've still got a lot of time left to do the other things we need to do today, so we need to move on!

Sacrifice

---This was slightly gruesome. We had to sacrifice an animal to represent when Ibrahim was going to sacrifice his son. But when Ibrahim was trying to cut Ismael's throat it wouldn't cut, and Ismael was unharmed. Then a dead ram appeared, already slaughtered. It was a sign from Allah to show that Ibrahim had passed the test, as he had complete willingness to carry out Allah's commands. Instead of sacrificing a sheep each, some of the people from my tent (including myself and Sam) sacrificed a camel. Sacrificing a camel counts as sacrifice for 7 people, but a sheep counts as one person's sacrifice. We didn't do the sacrificing, we put our names to the animal and the butcher sacrificed it for us. It was quite gory, I'm not the type of person for blood. Sam was fascinated though. I couldn't see why ;-) At least the meat goes to charity and helps the poor and needy. It's good that the beautiful animal just doesn't go to waste. Anyway, off to the haircutting!

Haircutting

---On Hajj, we cut our hair, as you can tell by the title of this paragraph. We completely shave our heads, so there is no hair left at all. We are completely bald after we do this. It doesn't make you look too bad, but I'm not sure if it suits me :-) Ah well, it's part of Hajj and I would do anything if I had to. Absolutely anything. We shave our heads because by shaving off your hair, it demonstrates your sincerity and meekness to Allah without caring for your appearance, so you don't care about how you look physically as long as you are prepared mentally. We are going to do the next Tawaf today, as we still have time and so we have lots of time tomorrow to relax and perform the other rites. So, to the Haram Mosque we go!

Tawaf-Al-Ifadah

---This is another Tawaf we have to perform. It symbolises being in a hurry to respond to Allah and show love for Him, and we do exactly the same as we did for the first Tawaf. It was still amazing, being that close to the Kaa'ba will always be overwhelming. There's not really anything to explain about this, because it was exactly the same as the first one. However, it was still as amazing.After this, we went back to the tents at Mina, which is where I am now.

16th October 2013 (11th Dhul Hijjah)

---We've got hours of relaxing time today, as we have no other things to do. We have to wait until the afternoon to do the next stoning of the Devil, but this time we are stoning all of them. I haven't lost any pebbles yet (I think) thanks to my pouch. It's the little things that come in the handiest. So we're going to relax and maybe recite some of the Qur'an until 11 when we can head off to the Walls so we get a good place.

---The relaxing was nice. It's very refreshing to have a sit down for even a few hours when all of this commotion has been going on for the previous few days. It pays off, I'm fully recharged (like my Kindle :-D Corny joke) and I'm ready for the next days. Off to the Walls we go!

---Someone got hurt today... Eek... It wasn't too bad, but there was a lot of blood. One of the men in my tent (because we're sticking as a group) got elbowed in the face when someone else went to get pebbles from their pouch at the same time he knelt down to pick up a pebble he dropped on the floor. There was a lot of blood, but one of the men in our tent was a doctor and he assured us it was just a nosebleed. No broken noses for us today! :-) The stoning the Devil had the same meaning today as it did yesterday. To show our defiance of the Devil. There was nothing different, apart from the drama with the nose. The atmosphere in there was phenomenal though. There were thousands of people shouting about their defiance of the Devil and how they follow Allah, it was amazing. Full stop. We head back to our tent, and got ready for tomorrow, which was basically the same as today but with an extra bit on the end.

17th October 2013 (12th Dhul Hijjah)

---Woken up, another relaxing time today! But only until 11, when, like yesterday, we'll be heading off to stone the walls. 

---It was really the same as yesterday, like I said earlier, apart from no-one got injured, luckily. :-) I was glad. After stoning the Devil, we got back on the coaches and went to Mecca. Everyone on our coach got there before sunset, so we could set off. We then performed the final Tawaf, the Tawaf al-Wida, which means the farewell Tawaf.

Tawaf al-Wida

---As I said, this is the final rite of Hajj. It will be the final time I ever look at the Kaa'ba in person, probably even the last time in my life. So it will be emotional. I'll try not to get overwhelmed, but the emotions might be hard to control. It is the most beautiful thing in the world, the Kaa'ba, it is amazing, it gives the place this sort of completely positive aura, it makes you forget everything about your life, makes you forget all of your stresses and troubles and just makes everything feel like it doesn't matter, the only thing that matters is the Kaa'ba. I wonder if I'll be able to control my emotions?

---I couldn't. The Tawaf was the same as the other times, but this one just seemed special, it was the last time I'd ever be that close to the Kaa'ba. It was awe-inspiring, everyone seemed to get so emotional when leaving, the euphoria was that powerful. So, that's another amazing part of my life that will never happen again, gone. I can't believe how fast it went! Sam seems to be recovering from the atmosphere, from all of the excitement of the past five days, and we've all definitely had enough excitement to last us a lifetime. At least we'll still be able to see the Kaa'ba for the next day through our room window, because the plane doesn't leave until the 19th, because of the people who couldn't leave Mina by sunset today. They have to do the stoning again tomorrow.

18th October 2013 (13th Dhul Hijjah)

---Nothing to do today, just relaxing in our rooms all day. The plane leaves tomorrow at 1 in the afternoon, so we're leaving by coach at 6 in the morning so we can get to the airport early. Better safe than sorry! There's nothing to do but talk with each other, so I might as well do that.

19th October 2013 (14th Dhul Hijjah)

---At the airport, we've got an hour until our plane leaves. Can't believe it! The past week has flown past, it's just amazing how fast time flies when you're having fun! We're going to board the plane now, they're letting us board, it's better than waiting around in this cramped airport.

---Again, luxurious! 787, exactly the same as before. It seems like everything is repeating itself! I might have a bad case of Deja Vu. But I don't care. If it's Deja Vu it means I'm going to do Hajj again! Nothing's bad about that! I loved it. Best thing that's ever happened in my life. End of.

---I'm back at home now, and I cannot believe how fast it's gone. It's like if I blinked I would have missed it. I just can't believe it. At all. If I had to use one word to sum up what Hajj was like, it would be phenomenal. And one phrase - The journey of my life. And it's as simple as that. It's the pilgrimage. Full stop.