A LETTER FROM MECCA
From Mecca with Barka da Sallah to all readers, and alhamdu lillah, thanks be to Allah, for those of us who were privileged to have been on this year’s Hajj. May Allah have accepted our devotions, and may He make it possible for others to undertake this spiritually-rejuvenating journey next year, amin. We left Medina […]
From Mecca with Barka da Sallah to all readers, and alhamdu lillah, thanks be to Allah, for those of us who were privileged to have been on this year’s Hajj. May Allah have accepted our devotions, and may He make it possible for others to undertake this spiritually-rejuvenating journey next year, amin.
We left Medina Tuesday for Mecca, the City of the Great Ka’abah. Mecca and the surrounding areas of Muna, Arafat and Muzdalifa are the centres of all the Hajj rites.
First act to perform was the tawaf, the seven-fold circumambulation of the Great House. It is at the tawaf that the term ‘stepping on toes’ takes a literal, physical meaning. Because of the size of the crowd in such a slow-moving tide, one’s toes do get stepped on thousands of times by other worshippers: and one can’t complain. La Jidal (No Trouble) is an essential requirement for an accepted Hajj. My toes are still raw from being stepped on and on, but one must return for more as the three main tawafs are unavoidable: qudum (Intro); ifadha (on Sallah Day); and wada (Farewell).
The tawaf could be any length from a kilometre long to several, depending on how close or how far away you are from the Ka’abah within the Great Mosque. Count another four kilometres for the sa’ay, the seven-times to-ing-and-fro-ing marathon trek between the hills of Safa and Marwa, now enhoused near the Ka’abah. The sa’ay, now possible on three floors, is still one of the most difficult of rites. Imagine three million people trying to squeeze into space more fit for a quarter of a million! But all survive, alhamdu lillah.
Do you, like me, sometimes (or most times) skip exercising? If so, you are in for it during Hajj. It is exercising way beyond the normal jog or walk. By the time you are done walking, you are in a fit and proper pitiable, wretched, sorry state!
Then off to Muna, the tent city on the outskirts of Mecca, where you spend several nights. We came here on Wednesday. On the morning after, it is to Arafat we went. The Prophet had said: “Alhajju Arafat.” (Meaning: Arafat is the Hajj). Whoever participates in Arafat has perfomed Hajj. So on this Arafat day, Thursday, even the ill and the infirm in hospital are ambulanced to the plains of Arafat, for them to have participated. You spend the whole day and leave after sunset. Should you prefer to walk it from Arafat to Muzdalifa (rather than spend eight hours on board a bus held up in a traffic jam), count another seven kilometres. All in all, you really get a total workout.
‘Made in China!’ The Chinese may not believe in God, but they sure know He can provide! Almost all apparels on Mecca streets are ‘Made in China’. Start with the Ihram (Hausa: harami), the two-piece toga-like apparel all male pilgrims are required to don for the duration of the exercise. Almost all varieties are Made in China. So are the prayer carpets (darduma; sallaya); even the prayer beads (carbi; tasbaha)! Capitalism and Chinese Communism may be Godless, but both ideologies really make a killing for the scarce Riyals of those who do believe in Him. Other Made in China products include slippers, toys, clothing. One hopes the Chinese do not start exporting devil-stoning pebbles to Mecca: the devils! Gog and Magog (Yajuj and Majuj!)
And the day after Arafat is Sallah Day. And so to stone the Devil! (Whoever gave the Devil a capital D? He Doesn’t Deserve it, Does He! He Deserves Decapitation and Capital Punishment! Let me at him!). This Sallah Day, Friday, we stoned The Great Devil seven times at the Jamarat, now several floors high. The Stoning of the Devil used to be the most dangerous of the Hajj Rites, with many casualties every year. Not any more.
What Devil do you stone? We are reliably informed that when Iranians throw their stones, they are also symbolically stoning their enemies: first the United States, then Israel, then many other enemies besides. Not be left out, I also symbolically stoned the Seven Devilish ills beDevilling Nigeria. As I threw the first pebble with a cry of Allahu Akbar!, I stoned first the Devil of Corruption; the second throw, Allahu Akbar, the Devil of PHCN-induced Darkness; the third, the Devil of Insecurity; the fourth…(let readers fill in their four other Devils, as this is an interactive letter). May the Lord perish them Devils, symbolic and real!
Toilet queue! May the Good Lord save you from the toilet queue in the Tent City of Mina! It is sometimes twenty-deep! What a wonder to ponder the basic human fallibility that comes to play when one has to queue to ease suffering! Suffice it to say that the wise ones avoid eating anything carbohydrate (food that is so gravity-friendly) and prefer light proteins which tend to stay longer in the stomach before ‘expulsion’. Toilet Queue, I stone thee too!
To beat Mecca traffic, acaba (motorcycle taxi, okada) has arrived! But the operators are as crazy as ours back home are. I think it is the motorcycle that is jinxed, and the jinx transfers onto the rider. Devils! As the Devils meander through the Mecca hold-up, many of them appear stoned! I stone you too!
And now for some of the anecdotes from years past. Most probably many may not have read them, perchance they may go a long way to relieve the tensions of Nigeria, and the associated toilet-queue palavers for those who over-indulge in Sallah meat.
ONE – TORCHLIGHT: It is said that a certain elderly intending pilgrim, upon alighting at King Abdul Aziz, asked whether it was night or day. When told it was indeed night, he immediately asked that a torchlight be bought for him since, as he claimed, he could not ‘see’. When it was explained to him that he was in fact awash in light, he insisted that since at home he used a torchlight for every movement in the night, he had to have one. Every explanation for him ‘to see the light’ fell on his darkness-deadened deaf ears. He had been so psychologically-devastated by darkness. They finally had to buy him his torchlight, which he used to go to the toilet. A true story, wallahi.
TWO – CHICKEN: “Wallahi na gaji da cin kaza!” (‘I swear by Allah I am tired of eating chicken’!), blurted one Nigerian pilgrim when asked by the food-seller whether to serve him chicken or beef. So fed up with chicken (both meanings) was this poor/rich Alhaji, that he could not stand the sight of it! Chicken? Nigerian? Here, and in many other countries, chicken is the food of the masses. So poor they only eat chicken! Unbelievable? Incredible? But credible!
THREE – TOOTHBRUSH: Then there was this group of ten pilgrims accommodated, as is usual, in a large dormitory-type room. Only one of the ten was a City Pilgrim (CP); the other nine were all Village Pilgrims (VP). One day, in the course of conversation, one VP commented to the CP: “Kai! Magogin bakinka ya cika tauri (‘Oi! Your toothbrush is too hard on my teeth!’). Another VP quickly added: “So it was not me alone who feels that the brush is too hard!” Then a third VP provided the killer-punch: “But his sponge (soso) is quite soft to wash with”. All the room’s pilgrims had been using the one toothbrush and the one sponge generously ‘provided’ by CP! Would the teeth of CV have fallen out! It is said CP couldn’t eat for two days, so distrustful was he of his teeth. He has since seen a dentist to negotiate extractions.
All in all, this year’s Hajj has been fulfilling, tiring, entertaining, ma sha Allah. May Allah make it possible for all readers to come next and subsequent years. And may our editors be with them. And once again, Barka da Sallah.