The Haj As I See It

One of the tenets of Islam and the complete Muslim is once in a life time, the Haj has to be performed in the month of Z.ulhijjah. The journey begins with getting ready all the essential clothing for the Haj proper and these amongst others include the two specially made toweled cloths for the "ihram" for men, whilst the ladies can just have their normal prayer garbs or "kain sembahyang" with socks and possibly hand gloves. As for board and lodging, these are provided for by the travel agency concerned. All in all, every convenience of sorts will be provided by the travel agency although the ultimate comforts to be enjoyed much depends on the type of package you are willing to pay. The most established of these Haj agencies is none other than the government Tabung Haji which is very experienced, well-connected and established in both Medina and Mecca. In fact if you go with the Tabung Haji package you can be assured of least problems at Medina and Mecca whilst the cost too is a lot less than the commercial agencies.

For the both of us, the journey for the Haj began in 1984 when Ainul decided to accompany her parents, the late Haji Mohd Rejab and Hajjah Che Bee Hashim in August of that year. It was to be a forty day package which saw their return home in early November 1984. Thus Ainul completed her Haj earlier than me. It was not until April 1994 - ten years later - that both of us, Farah and my sister Sarra, made our way to Mecca for the Haj. It was a big step for me because from the stories of those who had been there the thoughts of performing the Haj seemed somewhat frightening especially when I imagined the presence of over two million people from all over the world meeting and congregating on the somewhat small areas of the two mosques at Medina and Mecca. and the things that could happen with the presence of these people of different cultures and habits.

Indeed when you talk about the holy place being supposedly free from crimes such as robberies rapes and murders, it is just the contrary over there. Happenings of these things are just like at any other cities of the world which proves that human beings are always the same wherever they are when it comes to habits . As they say , "habits die hard" ! The only difference at these two cities, the punishment for such crimes are meted out very fast and very severely by the Arab authorities. For stealing, it is amputations of the hands or even feet. For rapes and murders, it will be a beheading at the public squares just as for selling illicit drugs such as heroin and the likes, it will also be public beheading at the special public square for the purpose. If a motorist caused an acidental fatal injury to a person, the motorist will be held liable for the life maintenance of the injured or deceased person's family. However, despite these apparent deterrent punishments, both Medina and Mecca are not free from crimes, which to the minds of us who are about to perform our Haj at these houses of Allah, it is rather strange that crimes should persist at these holy places. We of course forget that this is the way of Allah the Almighty, who never fails to remind his subjects that the human traits remain exclusive to all mankind for all time and places. Hence it is shown to us that even Rasullallah our Prophet Mohammed was a mere mortal like all of us. He suffered cold, pain, sickness and even got injured in battles.

With these thoughts in mind, I prepared myself mentally and physically for my first Haj - I say first Haj because who knows, with the Grace of Allah I might make it again there one day. They say, you can plan and wish to do your Haj but at the end of the day, it will be Allah who decides if you are welcome to visit His place. I have a friend - indeed friends - who were about to fly to Mecca but decided to postpone it due to urgent business matters and ended doing the Haj only years later ! Whilst for others, because they pray very hard to wish to perform the Haj despite not having enough money to do so or the Haj package for the year is no longer tenable, they somehow manage to make the trip. For those who have no money, somehow things happen when people know that they desire to go to Mecca, contributions start to flow in . We ourselves experienced this "miracle".

The decision to Haj was a last minute one when all the agencies packages were already closed. Our initial inquiry at the Tabung Haji itself proved negative and worst still for the three of us, my sister Sarra , Farah and I were newly enrolled members of the Tabung Haji and hence our needs could not be considered a priority. It was no better for Ainul because she had already had her chance and her application also could not be a priority. In desperation we prayed hard to Allah to open the way for us to go to Haj. By the Grace of Allah, as we were traveling along the old Tabung Haji outlet at Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman KL, we happened to glance at the big crowd of people at the place. We decided to stop and look see. Sure enough, these were new applicants for the year's Haj. By luck, the Saudi Government had allowed an additional allocation for the Malaysian pilgrimage. In this case, it was the unused Indonesian Pilgrimage quota that was now given to Malaysia.

Let me just briefly explain just how the Saudi Government controls and monitors the presence of Muslims to perform the Haj each year. Based on the population of the countries that apply to go to Mecca, a flat one percent allocation of the country's population is applied and given to the country concerned. Malaysia had eighteen million population in 1994 and hence we were entitled to only 18,000 aspiring pilgrims. Indonesia had two hundred million people, and hence it was allocated 200,000. It was this unused quota that was given to our country then. Thus our great chance to apply and we did it successfully at long last ! Again because Tabung Haji itself could not handle us, we were passed to a commercial agency called SMAS. We paid our dues to SMAS and on the appointed date and time saw us at the MAS terminal for our flight to Mecca. Together in our group of forty were Sabri and Nuruaini, our brother in law Hartoyo and Azizah and Har's father as well as other friends of ours amongst whom were prominent doctors and senior government servants and business directors and government retirees.

Interesting to note here, unlike the norm when all intended pilgrims would have to meet and congregate at the Jaya Klana Tabung Haji accommodation preflight centres and later on ushered to the airport in military fashion, ours was like taking a flight for a normal overseas trip. There was no big fuss about big family send off etc. it was just us by ourselves ! But of course our SMAS guides were there in attendance to our needs throughout the journey and up to the completion of the Haj, which in our case we decided to take the short term trip of only nine days just like an Umrah trip. After all, the Haj itself consists of only four days rituals to complete. Hence our first landing was at Jeddah and thence by bus to Medina for three nights. After that we came down by bus again to Mecca to perform the initial Umrah and later on with the Haj rituals proper all fully guided and assisted by our travel agents representatives there . Whilst at Mecca, the men and ladies were accommodated separately for religious convenience. Thus I was supposed to be with two others in a room at the hotel that we put up. Initially I went along with the procedure and placed my things in the designated room. When I entered it, I noticed that I was bedded in between the other two. Not wanting to know who they were, I immediately abandoned the place and moved in to Ainul's room which was shared with Sarra, my sister. Poor Sarra she was so understanding and gave her bed portion to me whilst she slept on the floor besides our bed. The room was not too bad though and fully air-conditioned. Later on my "roommates" spotted me and they had a good time teasing me for my retreat from their room. We became very good friends in the process ! Anyway almost everything went on smoothly for the first three days until the very last day when we were leaving Arafah after the Isya prayers for Mecca that an unexpected event took place - something that I shall relate to you later on in this article..

Suffices it to mention that my younger sister Jauza went for the Haj at the same time as ours then but she was with Tabung Haji. Although there were thousands of people there and all hotels and private accommodations either permanent or make shift were full, we were still able to look up anyone we knew provided their whereabouts were known. Hence we had no problem locating Jauza, my sister.

As I mentioned earlier, the Haj proper involved only four days. The first day was a familiarization tour of the place we would spend a quiet time in Minaa, a town just outside Mecca where tents were pitched for the pilgrims to spend their time in meditation for one night. At Minaa we remained there up to midnight and then returned to Mecca. On the way home we had to collect a minimum of 27 pieces of pebbles and kept these in a special pouch. The next evening just after Magrib prayers we again walked to Minaa and this time we were guided to throw nine pebbles at each of the three wells which symbolized the presence of the devils who tried to deter the pilgrims from performing the Haj. With the big crowd at each of these wells, it was marvelous that we could manage to throw the pebbles properly into the three wells. Once done, we returned to Mecca to await for the final ritual which would complete our Haj.

This took place the very next day after dawn or the suboh prayers, when we were taken by bus to the desert of Arafah, a place nine kilometers away from Mecca. Arafah was a site to be seen to belief. All over the wide open flat plain where there were hardly any trees then ( but these days the place is teeming with trees and almost no longer a desert ) we could see nothing else but white tents of equal type and size. At a glance it was impossible to know where we would stay or even find our own way back to our tent without being lost in the process. Of course our own tent was marked by a special flag just as others were too. If one could not remember how the flag looked like, it was best not to venture anywhere. Anyway, we were not supposed to do that. It is said that it is at Arafah that one may see mankind as he truly is, without distinction, the multitudes of men, women and children, the plainest of clothing, huddled together making their "doas" or pleadings to Allah and crying for His Pardon, compassion and Mercy. In short we were there specifically to just spend the day until Isya to do nothing else but meditate, recites or read the Quran or simply chanting the names or the beauty of Allah the Almighty. The scorching sand and sun which at that time of our Haj bore a temperature that could make a hard-boiled egg if it was left on the road surface. The hordes of people crowded into tents, the jostling for prayer space on the hard rocky ground, the inadequate and crude toilet arrangements, all made up what one could not expect of a Holy ground for congregational prayers and meditation. But that was what Arafah was then.

Of course we were provided with food and drinks and even basic toilet facilities of sorts - something that had always dreaded me . For years past after my knee ligament operation, the knee was never the same again. I felt severe pain each time I had to bend down on my knees. The toilets at Arafah were not the seat type. It was the squatting type. You could imagine the pain I had to endure when at one time I had no choice but to response to the call of Nature. To lessen the need to completely bend down towards the receptacle toilet hole, I devised a method whereby I grabbed hold of two plastic buckets to makeshift as seats. That way, my pain was lessen. It was at the midst of my toilet presence when I heard someone shouting for missing buckets ! I had to do mine hurriedly and admitted shamefully to the person concerned about my use of the bucket. Well, at Arafah everyone was supposed to be very patient and accepted whatever hardship or mishaps that could happen to one as being Allah's test on one's Faith. Hence, my bucket searcher did not say anything and instead thanked me for it. Such is the expected decorum of one's behavior whilst doing the Haj. You tend to overlook all those minor inconveniences, because as you perform your obligations towards fulfilling the Haj, you find yourself elevated to an attitude of "ta'abbudiyyah" or submitting in total to Allah. This is when your "iman" or Faith is strengthened, your tolerance and endurance levels reached higher levels subconsciously. You became not what you were. You felt reborn ! It is said that Arafah will be the final place when we shall meet Allah in the Hereafter. The experiences that we went through whilst there could well be considered as the rehearsal of what it would be like when Allah calls on His subjects to meet up with Him for the Final Judgment Day !

The day at Arafah went well as I mentioned earlier. The trauma for all of us took place that time when we were about to go back on our buses for the ride back to Mecca. Just as were all in single file to board our bus, were told by our guides that our bus was no longer available. Indeed our bus could not be located. The same could not reach our place or worst still the Turk's driver must have lost his way ! So we were told to board an alternative bus but this happened to be a mini bus that could carry only at the very most within and at its roof only forty passengers ! There was no saying the ladies in our group could be with us. Hence Ainul, Farah and Sarra and Sabri's wife Nuruaini were herded to another bus. Both Sabri and I felt greatly upset and concerned for the safely of our ladies, not minding the fact that we ourselves could be in a precarious situation too. Anyway, there we were Sabri and I in this mini bus, packed like sardines. We consoled ourselves with the unexpected inconvenience and placing Faith above all else for this event.

All the buses started moving out of Arafah at snail's speed. What with the heat that built up and the thirst that ensued. It was the ultimate test of patience and endurance indeed. The worst was yet to happen to me then. As we trudged along, our bus being the smallest in comparison to the giant ones all around us, we could not help but felt that we were hemmed in all along the way. The fumes that ensued from the nearest buses on both sides of ours began to merge and fill the interior of our bus. I started to inhale and cough to the point of feeling nausiatic and the need to vomit, not to mention the headache that started to build up too in my head. I was beginning to be sick. It must have been hours later when we made a short stop for drinks that came to our place that I got out of the bus and vomited by the wayside. Mecca was just nine kilometers away but our journey took almost twelve hours to reach it ! Leaving after the Isya prayers we reached Mecca at half past ten in the morning ! Everyone was exhausted and sick. The rest of the day was spent recuperating in our hotel rooms. Our ladies were fortunate enough to arrive hours earlier and so was my sister Jauza who had no trouble whatsoever with her bus schedule and journey. Such contrast and comfort were all God given and we believed it to be so.

From amongst our fourty people , there were those who paid fifteen thousand ringgit for the best of everything and yet these were the people who had to be on the roof top of our bus ! Our family members paid ten thousand ringgit , which was the going rate for the commercial agency. My sister Jauza paid only seven thousand ringgit to be with the Tabung Haji group and throughout her stay in Mecca she felt very comfortable and had easy time for all the rituals that she had to go through. Such was Allah's way for the chosen individuals !

Anyway, we had had a great experience at this Haj. Something we shall, always remember with humility in our hearts. It just shows everyone is equal in the eyes of Allah. No amount of money could assure you of your desired comforts. For me, the fumes I endured made me reflect on the discomfort , pain and even death that I must have caused to all those innocent "beings" whenever I applied the mosquito and cockroaches spray indiscriminately at dawn or at nights in my efforts to rid us of these insects. Hence when I returned home, I lessened this activity and only do it when necessary, but even then I cannot escape the remarks by Ainul that I am killing her potted plants and the plants in our house garden

Mecca was a life time experience indeed. Everyone who goes there will experience his "share " of the place. To see is to belief and to experience remains a life time memory.