Ground Zero

I think Fajar jamma’h was about to finish when we reached our place in Makkah. I can tell this because there was a mosque (Masjid-e-Hijra) right opposite our hotel. The road this masjid and our hotel was located at, was also called Shahrah-e-Hijra (Hijra Road) as this was the route taken by the Prophet (SAW) while migrating from Makkah to Madinah. We left our bus, collected our baggage, and gathered in hotel reception. There we were to be handed over room-keys, and I was a bit amazed to see that the keys were digital. We were also introduced to a Mufti sb, whom we saw earlier in the bus as well, when we stopped at Muaa’lam‘s office. He worked for the maktab we were registered with. He was a Pakistani guy though. He first gave us a short lecture on the rituals of Umrah, which we were to perform in a while. Yup, after you reach Haram sharif, the first thing we were supposed to do was Umrah, because that is what we did niyyat for, when we are doing Hajj-e-Tammatu’, which most of the hajjis from Pakistan/outside-world do. After performing Umrah, we were to be free from Ihram restrictions.

Khair he explained the details, which we’ll see in a bit, and offered his services to lead us through Umrah if we make it to the same place in 30-35 mins. It was a good offer indeed, as most of us were first-timers, and even after reading the Hajj books, which I hardly read 1 or 2, it was something new, and we wanted to do it right the first time off-course. Being led by a Mufti sb at such a time, was no less than a blessing, I thought. The time he gave us was to freshen up ourselves, and offer Fajar.

Our room was at 15th floor if I remember correctly. It was a small studio room, with 3 single beds, a chest of drawers, a TV, a small fridge, a cooker, a sink, a kitchen shelf, and a washroom. As it was 3 of us, so the room was a good fit bed-  wise, but a bit smaller, size-wise. But we were conent with We took quick showers, and prepared for salah.

After salah, we quickly headed for hotel reception to catch Mufti sb, who was waiting for the group to complete. In a while all of us, 17 to be exact, were there.  Our group was a sub-group of a larger group of 150 people. Rest of the group had already reached there almost 13 days before us. Mufti sb advised us to stay together, which is one of the near-to-impossible things , as we would see later. Our GL sb (group leader), was also with us, and he was telling us different signs on the way to Masjid to remember our way back, as its a common problem for people to get lost in such a big gathering, especially with the elderly. One most important bit was, if you are lost, come back to Masjid-e-Harram. Call somebody from the group organizers, and they will reach you, as it was nearly impossible to track somebody on the road in such a crowd.

Mufti sb also advised us to keep our eyes on the ground after entering Masjid-e-Harram, and dont lookup, untill you reach a place where you can see Khana-e-Kaa’ba clearly. As, he said, when you look at the Kaa’ba for the first time, during that first look, whatever Duaa’ you make, it is accepted. So you should be at a place where you can see Kaa’ba clearly and conviniently, as then you can prolong your first look and make more duaa’s. We were told to make our first Duaa’ as “O Allah! Please accept all of my duaa’s” , so that after that whatever duaa’ you make, it is accepted. I dont doubt the intention of the person who was telling us this, but I thought of it as cheating with Allah   (na’uz billah)

Mufti sb said he would guide us through the corridors of Masjid as we’d be walking with our eyes on ground. So he did. After walking for a couple of minutes, he told us to stop and that Kaa’ba was in our clear sight now and we should look up.

Lo & behold! It was just there, right in front of our eyes. The house for which we have always been saying, “Munh taraf Khana Kaa’ba sharif ke” (facing towards Khana Kaa’ba sharif), was there in front of us. We were at ground zero. It is a life-time moment, believe me. And Kaa’ba has such a mesmerizing effect that, for a moment, we almost forgot where we are. And the moment you get your senses back, you burst into tears. I can’t describe it here, as words cannot do justice to the feeling you get at that time, and everybody has a different experience. But yes you forget to cheat Allah (na’uzbillah )

After duaa, we headed for Tawwaf i.e. making 7 rounds around Kaa’ba. It was a really good time, after Fajar i.e., to do Tawwaf, as it wasn’t hot yet, and there weren’t many people around. Well there was quite a good number of people around, but the definition for “many” changes at that time

We were heading towards the starting point for Tawwaf, in line with Hajar-e-Aswad, and it is marked with a vertical green light on the other end, when I  realized that Mufti sb and rest of our group is nowhere to be seen  It was only 5 of us there, my family, and 2 other aunties from a family we became friends with during our journey from Jeddah to Makkah. So much for staying together. Khair luckily, one of aunties had been for Umrah 2-3 times before this, so she knew most of the details. So she led us into Tawwaf.

You start with Hajar-e-Aswad on your left, and the green light on your right, and start moving anti-clock wise around Kaa’ba. Before starting you are supposed to kiss Hajar-e-Aswad, and say specific words to praise Allah, but as kissing Hajar-e-Aswad is not possible in such a crowd, you can point your hands towards it, and kiss your hands instead. This is called Isti’laam. And you are supposed to do this before starting all the 7 rounds i.e. at the end of every round.

During Tawaaf, the closer you are to Kaa’ba, the lesser distance you have to walk. So ideally you should do Tawwaf as close to Kaa’ba as possible, which you can do in normall days. But there is another factor to this equation; the closer you are to Kaa’ba, the more pushing you get to tolerate, particulary during Hajj days, it can be seriously dangerous, specially for elderly.

… to be continued …

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