Saturday, 28th July, 2012: Invitation accepted

I was today invited for the iftaari at the home of a close friend of mine, Mr. Salman Otaibe, who works in the hospital's pharmacy. The invitation came out of the blue, in the sense that I had never expected such a great gesture from a Saudi person. This is not because I do not consider them nice; in fact, they are very helpful people in many ways. I have quite often received bounties from them that I never thought I would. For example, many a times, Saudi gentlemen and even adolescents stop their cars to give me a lift when I am on my way to the hospital. Another example I can give is my home's landlord, who has accommodated me without any fuss after my friend Dr. Shahid left for India last month. 


Thus, it was with a touch of humility and a sense of being accepted among the Saudis that I accepted the invitation. To be honest, I first thought Salman was pulling my leg. I asked him whether his parents or others at home had been informed and whether my presence would be welcome. He assured me it would be, and also informed me that he was inviting his own colleague Mr. Mohamed, and the physiotherapist at our hospital, Mr. Ahmed Obety (whom I also consider as a friend) ... along with me. I was worried about whether I was expected to honour them with a particular attire or something like that, and he laughed and said any dress would do. 

The sitting room with a large chandelier

The large sufraa laid out with varied fare

He came to pick me up at half past six in the evening. Taking me to his house which is located in a more distant part of Al Muwayh which is known as the "Mukhattat", he chatted with me about his family and other similar stuff. Entering his house's compound, I was led to the main house, where I was taken first into the sitting room or the Majlis. After a little while, Salman took me inside to the dining hall, where a sufraa (a large plastic sheet) was already laid out with a large variety of snacks, bowls of dates, and a large tray with jars of water, sweet-lime juice and other drinks. Here are some pictures of the setting I was welcomed into. Gradually, his family members began to trickle in. The first of these was his younger brother; then, two more of his younger brothers walked in, followed by his other guests Mr. Mohamed and Mr. Ahmed. About five minutes before the actual time of the Maghrib azaan, which is also the time to break the fast, the elders came in, including his father, his uncle and his eldest brother. 

Mr Salman Otaibe with the iftaar items ready for consumption

When the sound of the azaan in the adjoining mosque broke the small talk that was taking place, the gathering took helpings of the fresh dates and broke their fasts. Salman's father was effusive in his manner and exhorted me repeatedly to eat, and to eat well. I was touched. The entire group was then busy eating snacks like samosas, "bhajias", "pizza-like slices", 

The ornate ceiling of the dining room

fruit, chicken pattice, and so on. Salman himself was the serving host, and he busied himself filling glasses of water and juice for each of the nine other persons sitting in our gathering. 


Presently, it was time to end the eating and go for the namaaz. We all got up, and walked to the adjoining mosque where we all joined the gathering for the Maghrib prayers.


This accomplished, we returned to Salman's house for the next course of food, viz. a formal dinner. The previous fare was not removed, but we were served bread, shorba (soup), baked vegetables, and a brinjal curry, along with generous and repetitive helpings of black tea.

From L->R, Salman, his uncle, his elder brother and his father

Salman, the serving host for all

Two of Salman's brothers

L->R, Salman's father, Salman's fourth brother, Mr. Ahmed and Mr. Mohamed

The entire experience was, for me, unique in more ways than one; it was, at the same time, an honour to be invited into a Saudi's home, and, an opportunity to see the culture of Saudis in relation to the customs of Ramadan and iftaar. I am attaching a few more pictures of the evening with the entire gathering assembled around the sufraa.


Do comment on this entry and oblige.


Thanks.

Thursday, 26th and Friday, 27th July, 2012: Madinah

It was time to eat some food for the next day’s fast, but I first made my way to the area where there were budget hotels in the company of my new Dubai-based friend. He had made some prior arrangements, and I thought it might be prudent to go with him since he would probably help me get accommodation too at this unearthly hour. It turned out to be a good decision. He and I got separate rooms in the same hotel (Hotel Qasr-e-Gurbani, or the Gurbani Palace Hotel). I took the room for two nights, at SR 200/= per night. It was a 5-bed room on the second floor, and was much like the rooms I have stayed in at Mecca on my previous trips. Thankfully, though, the room was fairly clean and decently appointed. I took a bath, did my ablutions, and then went down to a Bengali restaurant to eat something for the next day’s fast. 

After this, I proceeded to the Haram of the Masjid-e-Nabawi. My first look at this magnificent mosque humbled me no end. It really was a great structure, befitting the great Prophet of our times. Over the next one and a half days, I saw more and more of this and as I write this, I am overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of this mosque.

I first joined in the morning prayers (the Fajr’), and then awaited the opening of the door that would take me for the first look at the tomb (the resting place) of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). There were huge crowds and a lot of pushing and jostling, and it was some time before they actually opened the doors, so that I was being gradually crushed by the pious and eager men around me, all here to pay their respects and pray before the Holy place. The policemen had a tough time controlling the crowd, but, at about 5.55 a.m., they finally stepped aside as we all rushed in to file past the grave of the Prophet and his Most Favoured Followers, Hazrat Umar and Hazrat Abu Baker.

We got seconds to gaze at the tombs with reverence and then, the policemen urged us to move forward. Past the exit, I was guided next to the main entrances of the ancient grave yard where the family members and others of past ages are buried, viz. the Jannat-ul-Baqi.

As I ascended a ramp to reach the main gate of the graveyard, I had mixed feelings: what, after all, could a visit to the graveyard achieve? And yet, I moved on. My first glimpse of the graveyard was of a level piece of ground with small mounds of soil topped with pieces of stone at one end. The area covered by this looked so small. There was a huge board here with messages to the faithful in several languages. The gist of these messages was to ponder about Death and about the Holy people who had gone to Allah before us. It (the message) implored us NOT to kiss or fall at the feet of the graves, and exhorted us to simply send our “salaams” to the Dead Ones. It taught us not to pray through dead people as they had no power to grant us our wishes. It told us that Allah alone had such powers.

I moved to where a spiritual teacher was addressing a crowd of men in chaste Bengali. I could not understand him and moved on. Just a few feet ahead, and as I climbed a little, the panorama changed from this being a small graveyard to being a HUGE one with more than 25000 graves all spread out over an area of more than 5 sq. km.  According to Wikipedia, the graveyard was annotated as such by the Prophet himself, and continued to expand as the years went by. Several of his family members including sons, grandchildren, wives and others, and his companions are all buried within the graveyard. Before 1925, there were several mausoleums here, but they were demolished by the ruling King of Saudi Arabia in accordance with the tenets of Islam as it is practised here.

I suddenly, and inexplicably, had a moment of epiphany, and before I knew it, I was mourning the Dead along with the other faithful devotees. I cried for a while, then moved out, and walked back through the Mosque to reach my room, where I went to sleep for the next several hours, only to wake up after noon.

 

The rest of the afternoon I spent visiting the mosque once again, and praying the other salahs. At about half past four, I hired a taxi (for SR 100) to take me to all the places to visit in Madinah. The taxi driver, a kindly Saudi soul, was very co-operative, and took me to see the Jabal-Uhud, the Jabal Reemah, the Masjid Quba, the Masjids of the Trench (six of them in one spot, including the Masjid Dhul Fatah), the Mosque of the “New Qiblah” (Qiblah-tain), and the Masjid of Hazrat Hamza. My tour of these places took up about 2 hours. It was interesting. The first two were adjacent hills where battles had been fought against the Qurayshi warriors. There was a holy ground here where about 70 warriors laid down their lives for the Prophet. There are no graves, but the area is cordoned off and surrounded by a steel and iron enclosure. I had a prayer book with me which assisted me in praying special prayers at some of the mosques I have listed above.

We returned to the Masjid-e-Nabawi half an hour before Maghrib. I saw something here that I will remember always: the immense preparations for the breaking of the fast of thousands of devotees. People sat on huge plastic sheets, and were served by people with water, food, fruit, drink and dates. The devotees sat patiently, and the servers came one by one, bringing with them packets of the various afore-mentioned items. When the Azaancame on the air, thousands of us broke the fast, and partook of the food and water etc. served to us. In about ten odd minutes, the entire congregation was through with the “iftaar”, and all moved towards the mosque interiors or other areas to line up for the Maghrib prayers.

After this, I went out, back to my room to relax, and returned for the Ishaa prayers after an hour and a half. I skipped dinner as I had already eaten my fill at iftaar. I roamed around the mosque, and finally returned to my room by half past ten to go to sleep early in order to get up in the morning for the next day.

The next morning saw me go again to the Mosque for the Fajr’. After this, I entered the Rowdah area of the tomb of the Prophet (PBUH) and did my prayers in accordance with my prayer book. This was accomplished by joining, once again, the hundreds of devotees clamouring to go in to do the same as I. Prayers accomplished, I moved out and visited the Jannat-ul-Baqi once again. This time, I lingered on for a longer time, taking photos and doing prayers for the Dead.

It was nine o’clock when I returned to my room, and after this, I changed into my street clothes and checked out of the hotel. I walked the short distance to the local bus stand, but, upon being invited by a taxi owner who was looking for one passenger to go to Jeddah, I accepted his request and boarded his cab. My co-passengers were a Nigerian family of husband, wife and their two children, who all sat in the back seat of the SUV. We reached Jeddah uneventfully at around 1.40 p.m. 

The purpose of my diversion to Jeddah was to pick up a small parcel sent by Nishrin through a lady passenger who had arrived in Jeddah from Mumbai the same afternoon. I got off their taxi near Juzer’s residence, but on the opposite side, and I called him to share with him my arrival. Next, I called up the number given to me by Nishrin of the person I was supposed to collect the parcel from. Imagine my horror when the recorded voice told me that the number I was trying to reach was out of service.

I called Nishrin, and after some frantic calls by her, I was given the information that the number I had been given was wrong. A fresh number was given to me, and I then called up one Mr. Uzair. He asked me to take a cab and guided the driver to his place. We picked up the package, and with this, I then asked the driver to take me to the Saptco Bus stand at Corniche. 

I got into a bus at 4.00 p.m. After a long and tortuous journey of nearly eight hours (instead of the printed 5 hours and twenty minutes), I finally reached Al Muwayh just before midnight. The reason for the delay: the driver took us all to a restaurant on the OPPOSITE side of the road for iftaar. After having the food, etc. he drove us BACK towards Jeddah … almost a hundred km, before finding the bridge that would allow him to execute a U-turn to go back towards T’aif!  

Thus ended my three day pilgrimage.

Wednesday, 25th July, 2012: Trip to Mecca and then Madinah - I

The idea of a trip to perform the Umrah came to me when Ramadan started; the intention to do it for the sawab of my father occurred to me a few days after my dad was re-admitted to the hospital for infection secondary to the central line that he had in his veins for the haemodialysis. I conferred with a few knowledgeable people who informed me that such an Umrah was indeed possible provided it would not be MY first Umrah. As it was a distinct possibility, I decided to go ahead. I took a day’s leave from the hospital. I realized that this was also a good opportunity for me to go to Madinah as the next two days were also off for me, and hence, I packed my bag with a few extra things like an additional pair of clothes etc.

Ordinarily, I would have tried to hitch a ride with a truck driver from outside one of the hotels that are located behind the house on the main highway (and I have done this before), but the situation was different this time: it being Ramadan, the hotels would be closed for the day, and no truck driver would actually stop here. Hence, I decided to wait for an ambulance to take some patient to T’aif. Imagine my good fortune, therefore, that a patient was about to be sent to T’aif at just about the same time as I reached the hospital!

Thus, I went in the hospital’s ambulance, reaching T’aif at about half past twelve. I got off at the point where the ambulance turns right to go to the King Abdul Aziz Speciality Hospital (KAASH, in short). From here, I took a taxi to go to the taxi stand near the Gazzaz Mall. Here, I got a cab for Mecca for SR 30. It was a fairly comfortable ride, and my first halt was at the miqaat, where I went in to change into the ehram. We left the miqaat after about half an hour, and then, in the same cab, I arrived in Mecca at about half past three.

Mecca was the same, but the mosque and the area around the Haram was too crowded to be comfortable with. I trudged onward, past the teeming multitudes of people from all over the world, and reached the area opposite the King Abdul Aziz Gate in another half an hour. I located the lockers, and deposited my bag for SR 10 for 5 hours. Thus unburdened, I went in after completing the compulsory ablutions, and was inside the main structure in a few minutes.

Proceeding to the central courtyard, I began the Umrah in earnest, reciting the necessary prayers at each juncture. I had already taken the niyyah (Intent to Pray) in dad’s name, and my Umrah continued with no problems at all. As the crowds were dense, it was sometimes impossible to circumnavigate the House of Allah (Baitullah) with impunity. I took nearly 45 minutes to complete the seven rounds. At about five minutes to six, I completed the rounds and then proceeded to the Safa area to begin the second part of the Umrah, the obligatory seven trips between Safa and Marwah. It was after about 3 perambulations that it became the time to pray the Maghrib, and I had to pause the prayers and break my fast with about 30-40 thousand additional devotees. There were literally hundreds of volunteers who stepped forward to serve dates, water, juices, and the ubiquitous Arab hot drink, the kahwa.

Shortly, the prayers began, and everyone was ready in a few minutes to join in. As soon as the prayers ended, a team of well-trained and extensively co-ordinated cleaners descended on the floor of the Safa-Marwah corridor and, cordoning off the crowds, began an exquisite ballad of mopping, drying and sweeping the entire corridor. These were uniformed employees, supervised by a team of aggressive, shouting seniors. They literally glided across the floor, sweeping the trash ahead of them on long brushes. As soon as the trash was shifted to the side, electrical cars with bottom-mounted brushes came in and cleaned the floor and dried it, all in the same liquid motion. Within 5 minutes, the entire corridor was scrubbed clean, and the pilgrims began their perambulations again. I completed the seven trips by half past eight. After this, I went outside the Haram. I visited a barber’s shop to get a tonsure, and then, at a snack stall, I purchased a dish of rice and chicken cubes. I had this on the pavement, sitting atop a small box-like structure. I also drank a can of Pepsi, and then, left the area to walk down to the main road from where I would catch a taxi to go to Madinah.

My initial plan had been to stay overnight in Mecca, but I decided to alter this plan because I had already completed my Umrah and there was no further reason to halt here. It was quite fortuitous, therefore, that I espied a bespectacled young taxi driver with a beard who saw me at almost the same time as I saw him. He asked me across the road if I was looking to travel to Madinah. I hailed back in the affirmative, and he beckoned to me to join him. I went across to his cab. He quoted a charge of SR 75 and asked me to sit in the back as the front seat had been already taken. I put my bag inside the trunk and went into the cab to occupy my seat. In the meantime, he also took in two other adults with two children to sit with me in the rear. I got to keep my one seat, while the two men sat next to me, one child with each one. They were Pakistanis, and they were travelling to Madinah to join their families which had already gone ahead in a bus. The man next to me was in his early forties, and while the daughter was his (and she was really cute), the boy with him was his sister’s son. The  old man next to him was the younger man’s father in law. They were really nice people, and I had a good time travelling with them.

The man in the front seat turned out to be an Indian from Dubai. He is the general manager of a hotel property in Dubai, and the driver was involved in a deep conversation with his front seat co-passenger as he was interested in securing a job for himself in the Emirates. Thus, while the two men in the front seat kept up a banter between them, the five of us in the back seat remained aloof as the discussion in the front had become a little lurid and sex-oriented. Engrossed with his passenger, the driver drove at a less than break-neck speed, if 120 km/hr may be referred to as a sedate pace.

We stopped at a road side hotel for snacks, tea and so on, and then went ahead towards our destination, napping off and on. It was a little past 3.00 a.m. when we finally reached Madinah.

More about this and the next few days in the next post.