Hajj 2012 - 5

MAKKAH/MINA: Day 4 of our journey/11^thof Dhul-Hajj month of the Islamic calendar:

On this day, and the following day, the aim of the pilgrim is to –

  a) continue praying as much as possible

  b) visit Jamarat after the afternoon salah (namaaz) and throw stones not just at the large devil, but also at the other two devils; in fact, one starts from the “little devil” and progresses from there towards the large devil.

 c) one has to go to the Holy Mosque and do a Tawaaf-al-Vida (a Farewell ritual) on the last day before one leaves Makkah.

 d) One has to go to Mina after Maghrib to stay there for part of the night, as we did on day 3.

In fact, because of the relatively free mornings, we could get proper sleep. As before, we ate little food and drank even less milk so as to avoid the need to visit the loo often. I did manage to eat some food, though, and especially relished fried chicken with rice, the way Arabs eat chicken. As the food was purchased from a neighbouring eatery, it was fresh when hauled to my room, and I shared it with a few of the other room-mates. After the Dhuhr prayers, we went to the Jamarat to stone the three devils; Each devil had to be stoned seven times … which means we would need exactly 21 stones to do the deed on three devils; I carried the requisite amount of stones in my belt pouch, and marveled when I discovered that I had, in fact, brought the right number of stones, and had not lost any on the way! The walk to Jamarat and the walk back to our room took up more than a few hours, and the crowds were much larger today. In fact, when we reached the 2^nd floor of the Jamarat building, we had to wait for about half an hour while the police arranged everything for the rites to be performed. The adhaan (call to prayers) occurred while we waited, and it was about 15 minutes after this that the barricades were opened and the pilgrims surged inside to reach the row of devils that they (i.e., we) were to stone today. After this was done, we returned to our rooms to pray the Asr’ and the Maghrib and Ishaa prayers. At about 9:00 p.m., we set off for Mina to spend the next several hours there. This time, Faisal brought his entire family – i.e. his wife Dr. Naheed, their two children, and Dr. Naheed’s mother, who was also with us. I had purchased a foldable mat (S.R. 10/=), which I now used to lie down for the evening/night when we had selected a spot. Dr. Sadia, one of the residents who is at Al Muwayh hospital was also with us, and hence we were a fairly large group.

Tonight, though, the crowds were huge, and we had to really hunt for a good place in which to relax. Our successful location of a nice spot turned out to be a not-so-nice one after all as a police van landed within 15 minutes and started blowing all the on-board horns and sirens. In tandem with them, foot-soldiers began to ask everyone to get up and take themselves elsewhere. We got up, moved a little way off, and waited for the police car and the troops to move before returning to the spot where we had lain a few minutes earlier. This kind of ritual was repeated once, but we managed to remain at the same spot for a few more sessions of prayer. In between, a Saudi guy came and handed over a pizza pack to Dr. Naheed. We all partook some of the pizza and found it hot and fresh. I also visited the Al Baik outlet (to buy some chicken) , but returned as the queues were very, very long.

At about half past two, we left Mina and returned to our hotel in Makkah.

MAKKAH/MINA: Day 5 of our journey/12^thof Dhul-Hajj month of the Islamic calendar:

Today was to be the last day of our stay in Makkah, and hence, a visit to the Holy Mosque to perform the final farewell circumambulations was compulsory. Late in the morning, I left with some of my friends to the Jamarat to stone the devils for the last time. Readers will re-collect that I had collected 49 stones from Muzdalifah on the second night; I had already used 7 on the 10^th of the month to stone the big devil, and another 21 to stone all the three devils on the 4^th afternoon, i.e. yesterday. I now had exactly 21 stones to throw, 7 at each of the three devils. The ritual took less time than it had taken on the previous day, but it was basically a repeat of the experience we had already had.

In the evening, I went back to the Holy Mosque to perform the final circumambulation of the Kaaba. This time, the crowds were really HUGE, so I decided to do the circuit from the 2^nd floor of the surrounding mosque structure; this, in fact, is the terrace of the structure, and it was a pleasant experience to walk around. From the top, one can look down upon the crowds going around the Kaaba. The walk is much longer than the one that one can take from the ground floor, but as the crowds are less, one can perform the circuit much faster. One has to be careful here, though, as all those who use wheel-chairs or are brought on wheel-chairs (the old, the infirm and the challenged) use this terrace area for their circumambulation.

After this ritual, we left, met each other outside, and walked to where our bus was waiting to take us back to our village.. On the way, we had tea/snacks at some of the stalls that were lined up. Here, we met Dr. Gofran, one of the residents I work with at the hospital. He was with his wife and his two children, both of whom were really cute, Presently, after a walk of over 2 km, we reached the place where our bus was parked. We finally left at about eight thirty p.m. The return journey was not as slow as the arrival journey had been.

It was at about half past one in the morning that we finally touched Al Muwayh, and another half hour before I reached my home and went to sleep, almost immediately.

Officially, I was now Haji Taher Yunus Kagalwala.

Tuesday, 9th October, 2012: Gave my MRCPCH Part 1 exams

Due to a busy month, I skipped publishing this post at the right time.

As the title says, I gave my Part 1 A and B papers for MRCPCH (Membership of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health today, at the King Abdulaziz University's examination center (building No. 29, next to the Football stadium), located within it. The experience was humbling. As expected, the question papers only looked simple. Each part had 75 questions, and lasted 2.5 hours. 

I answered as best as I could, and was also able to stick to the correct time schedule. I allowed myself at least ten minutes at the end for revision of my answers. In the end, the format for the exam was simple. In between the two papers, we got a lunch reprieve of about 45 minutes. The organisers gave us a chicken burger each and supplied us with tea twice and unlimited bottles of water.

I had the chance of meeting three of my friends from the Facebook study group that I was a part of. These three, Drs. Alaa Mahmoud (from Khartoum, Sudan), Shreen Ahmed (an Egyptian) and Shaima Lofty (also from Egypt) are working in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as doctors. It was a happy meeting indeed. We exchanged good lucks etc. before the exam, but did not get any more occasions to meet up.

After both the exams were over, I got a surprise when a car stopped near me to give me a lift back into town ... the driver was none other than the supervisor for both the papers in my room! He was gracious enough to take me into the town center, from where I managed to go to my cousin Juzer's place for the night.

The next morning, I would go back to Ta'if to pick up my passport in preparation for my journey to India.

Hajj 2012 - 4

MINA: Day 3 of our journey/10^thof Dhul-Hajj month of the Islamic Calendar:

In reality, we returned to our hotel room in Makkah and snatched a little sleep before dawn. After the Fajr prayers, we proceeded to go to Mina, which is about 2 km away. Just ahead of Mina is the “Jamarat” or the place where the three “devils” are located. Before I describe this, let me say that stoning of the three devils is a ritual more to remember and praise Allah than to actually denounce the devils.

The route to Jamarat goes through a tunnel that is over a kilometer long. This tunnel was full of devotees right in the morning; only police and emergency vehicles are allowed to pass (and some motorcycles, which had one Saudi and one pilgrim … a private arrangement where the Saudi earns some quick bucks). We also saw several guys with wheel-chairs for hire; they ferried the willing pilgrims to Mina for 50 Saudi Riyals. However, theirs is an illegal enterprise, and we frequently saw the police blocking them and asking the pilgrims to “disembark”. However, the thing I wish to say is … the road to Mina, and beyond, to the Jamarat, is easily traversed as you are walking with hundreds of others. We went past the tunnel, and via a busy but narrow road, we finally reached Mina. 

A view of Mina with cloth tents in the distance

This is a town that sports thousands of tents, where Hajj pilgrims must stay for at least two nights, the 11^th and the 12^th of Dhul-Hajj month (more on this later). Past the bustling town of Mina, one reaches a huge building complex that has the huge stone columns that represent the three devils. 

The pilgrims proceeding towards the Jamarat

The four-storey complex is reached from different directions, and all the upper floors are centrally air-conditioned. The “devils” are tall columns of stone that start at the ground floor and are identical in shape and size through all the upper floors. You pass the “small” devil first, then the middle one and finally the “large” one. Today, the ritual required one to just stone the large devil. Hence, we went past the first two columns and launched seven stones, one after the other, reciting “Allah-o-Akbar” with each throw of a stone, at the stone column before us.

Throwing stones at the "large" devil

This ritual hardly took five minutes. Thereafter, if one can, one must “sacrifice” an animal. I had pre-arranged for the sacrifice to be done in Mumbai through my family, so there was nothing to be done here. However, some of my colleagues went to designated counters and paid a pre-set amount of Riyals (450 per person, I think) to register their sacrifice. Thus, the pilgrim himself/herself does not actually knife the animal. It is done by the Saudi governmental agency, and the meat is distributed among the needy people in several countries where deprived people stay (usually among Muslims).

After the sacrifice, the males among us went to shave our heads, but found the salons full. Eventually, we returned to the hotel, prayed the afternoon salah, and went to the barber nearby and got tonsured by about 4:00 p.m.

Leaving the Jamarat and proceeding towards the Holy Mosque

Once this is done, you may remove the special two-piece garment that you had to compulsorily wear for the previous two and a half days (the ehram). This done (I changed into a tee-shirt and a pair of loose trousers), I went to the Holy Mosque to perform the second set of seven circumambulations … this is the Tawaaf-e-ziyarat, and it is mandatory to perform this.

This done, I then proceeded with some of my colleagues, to go back to Mina to spend the night. This ritual is also one of the mandatory ones. Spending the night at Mina and praying through it is a requirement that must be fulfilled or a sacrifice has to be done in lieu of it. My partner for this venture was Dr. Naheed’s husband, Mr. Faisal. We reached Mina at a little later than 10 p.m. The roads were full of several illegal pilgrims like us who had brought with them cheap plastic floor-spreads and various other types of material on which to sit or sleep. As we had none of these things, we picked up some old water-bottle cartons, opened them up to make a “mat” for ourselves, and found a place on the road where we would stay for as long as possible.

It wasn’t easy, as the police came again and again and forced the people to get up and leave. A police jeep with the worst possible sirens would arrive, and the man within would use a loud-speaker to ask people to get up. Along with this jeep, there would descend on the crowd several young and brash policemen (probably in their late teens or early twenties) and they would wake up sleeping pilgrims or stir those already awake and ask them to leave. I decided to argue with one of these with rationality: where do they expect the thousands of us to go. When he replied that there were tents where we could go, I reminded him that the tents were for those who had come legally, and in any case, there was no place in Mina to set up tents for so many others! Also, I questioned their basic step of trying to clear a road that, in any case, was out of bounds for all vehicles! He seemed to understand my broken Arabic, and after a few more futile attempts, the police left.

Faisal and I stayed until about 1:00 a.m., then we left to return to our hotel back in Makkah. Soon, I went to sleep till about half past one. After this, we got up, dusted ourselves, and walked back to the hotel to await the morning of the 11^th day of Dhul Hajj.