A PILGRIM’S PROGRESS

LabbaiK Allahumma LabbaiK! LabbaiKa la sharika laKa labbaiK! Innal hamda wan ni’mata laKa wal mulk! La sharika laK! (“Here I am at Thy service O Lord, here I am. Here I am at Thy service and Thou hast no partners. Thine alone is All Praise and All Bounty, and Thine alone is The Sovereignty. Thou […]

LabbaiK Allahumma LabbaiK! LabbaiKa la sharika laKa labbaiK! Innal hamda wan ni’mata laKa wal mulk! La sharika laK! (“Here I am at Thy service O Lord, here I am. Here I am at Thy service and Thou hast no partners. Thine alone is All Praise and All Bounty, and Thine alone is The Sovereignty. Thou hast no partners, here I am…”).
MEN AROUND THE PROPHET
During his mission, Prophet Muhammad, upon whom be peace, used to be surrounded by such humble and poor companions such as Bilal and Abu Zar, may Allah be pleased with them. Today in Medina however, the Mosque of the Prophet which encloses his house wherein he is buried with his two closest companions Abubakar and Umar, is surrounded by the Hiltons, the Movenpicks, the Meridiens, the Four Seasons and the Intercontinentals. Include also a certain be-moustached Colonel selling Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Not begrudging those who can afford five-star luxury, but I would rather have other names adorning those hotels. A Hilton near the Prophet is so full of irony considering the station of Bilal and Abu Zar. And how unhappy would the Prophet be; that the poor are today farthest from him. No matter: as I passed by the Prophet’s resting place the other day, I passed on to him your greetings all. Sallal Lahu ala Muhammad!
GREATEST ASSEMBLY OF MANKIND
By far, the Hajj is the greatest assembly of mankind. Over three million pilgrims stood on Mount Arafat this Monday, to the Glory of Allah, may His Name be exalted. Were there opportunity, or space at the Holy Sites, ten times that number would want to perform Hajj every year. Of the 1.6 billion Muslims in the world, only a fraction is privileged. Alhamdu lillah that one would be one of them.
MECCA METRO!
Last year on this same page, I had reported: “Saudi Arabia has signed a contract with China to build a new railway system linking the main sites of the Hajj.” The good news is that the promise has been fulfilled. The newly established Mashair Railway (the Mecca Metro) which links Mina, Arafat and Muzdalifa with Mecca, has commenced operation during this Hajj season. The flip side is that it has been used this year only to transport domestic Saudi and neighbouring Gulf Cooperation Countries (GCC) pilgrims. (Compare this with Nigeria’s Lagos to Kano Chinese dual-carriageway railway project initiated by former President Obasanjo but cancelled by late President Yar’adua because, it is said, “there was no due process”. We are today all the worse for its cancellation).
“I AM FROM IGABI”
Nigeria is the only country not represented as a nation during the Hajj. Each pilgrim goes as a ‘citizen’ of his state, if not his local government. I saw an apparently lost Nigerian female pilgrim searching for her tent, asking an Askar (the uniformed police). He had asked her ‘Fein’, meaning from where she was. She at least understood the question for she replied, in Hausa: “Daga Igabi na ke” (I am from Igabi). She could well have been from Jada, or Wushishi, as far as the Askar was concerned. She was looking for an Igabi tent, not Kaduna, let alone Nigeria. Were I not there, this Pilgrim’s Progress to Igabi would have ended in Giwa.
The Sultan, as permanent Amirul Hajj, has to put Nigeria, not Igabi or Alimosho, in the minds of all Nigerian pilgrims. And then when everyone was holding a colourful banner of their country and group on the way to the Jamarat, a Nigerian group was holding aloft, as their banner, a tree branch adorned with a polythene bag! Another Nigerian group held up as banner a large, empty bottle of Sprite, impaled on a piece of stick. At least the bottle was green. Green white green.
ON SANDALS AND FLIP FLOPS
On our overnight sojourn in Muzdalifa, the plains between Arafat and Muna where pilgrims are required to spend a night, someone exchanged my sandals with his, for in the morning I found a pair which only covered up to only half my feet. As there was a trek of about five kilometres to the Jamarat (venue of stoning the devil), I was in for a tough time. And a tough walk it turned out to be.
There was nowhere I could buy replacement sandals, so I trudged along, the pain in my under-feet painfully unbearable, but I had to grin and bear it. Along the Tariq Mushat, or Pedestrians’ Pass, I found a lone right foot flip flop, big enough for One-At-A-Time. I threw away my right leg ill-fitting sandal and put on the floppy and progressed. You should have seen your correspondent. Pitiable state! Ill-fitting nation!
THE DEVIL IS STILL AT IT
The World Assembly of Ayes (called VIPs) lived in Tent No. 1/1, right near the Devil. While most pilgrims had to trek for several hours to be able to stone the Devils be-Devilling their societies, these VIPs only had to trek a few metres to stone the Devil. Makes you wonder, are they related, Ayes and Dev? Well, as I progressed, I found a bigger left-foot sandal, and threw away the other.
GREY HAIR, ME?
As I shaved after the last Tawaf on Sallah Day, I noticed quite a few grey hairs falling off from my head, in association with the majority black. I asked the Bengali barber wherefrom the grey. With a guffaw of laughter, he said “From your head Ya Hajj!” Me? Kai! It has happened! My children used to report seeing some grey hairs seeking accommodation on my otherwise black head, and I always belied them. La! Well, I progressed to Tawaf with a sandal on one foot, a flip flop on the other. A flopped nation!
THE GREATEST CHALLENGE IN THE WORLD
At least to me, and most men, our greatest challenge was the management of the two-piece clothing, the Ihram, allowed male pilgrims during the stay in Muna, Arafat and Muzdalifa. No undergarments are allowed, so there was always a danger of Wawan Zama (how does one translate this? Unintended Exposure?). The Ihram clothing is intended to make everyone appear the same, as in the eyes of Allah there is no difference between a prince and a pauper when everyone is dressed equally. And I again found a better left foot sandal.
TIRING, THANKFUL
All in all, this year’s Hajj has been fulfilling, tiring, entertaining. May Allah make it possible for all readers to come next year. And my editor, too. (Editor’s note: Ameen!)
FLIP FLOPPED
And yes, I finally got new size One-At-A-Time sandals and threw away my ill-fitting brown left sandal and red right flip flop. Wish I could do the same with my ill-fitting nation!