My Hajj Reflections – Hajj 2019

Alhamdulillah, I am back from Hajj. When I packed for Hajj, I had left all the love of the world behind and was set to meet my Lord. I was prepared to go back to Him, but Allah gave me more life. All thanks and praise to Him. He returned me sound and safe. I am so filled with gratitude to Allah SWT for calling me to Hajj.

Hajj is an ibadah. It is a physical ibadah and an ibadah through wealth. It is a journey of love, seeking the pleasure of Allah SWT, and it embodies true love. In the romantic world, a lover says to his love that he can do anything for him/her. Allah tests His lover and sees if he smiles at the difficulties he faces and still thanks Him.

Allah is Supreme. Allah is Wadud. He is so mighty, yet He loves His slaves. The nine-day journey of my Hajj was the best part of my life. I can’t stop closing my eyes again and again and embracing the beautiful feelings.

The tears of repentance, pleading for forgiveness, the lips doing continuous dhikr, longing for qubuliyah, and the aura of the blessed place were altogether an out-of-the-world experience. What I will never forget is the day of Arafat. Arafat is not called Hajj for no reason. Arafat made me feel that I was standing before my Lord, humbled.

I felt like a naughty child who is being taken to account and crying hard – “Please forgive me – I won’t do it again.” We were drenched in rain, and we didn’t know if it was the rainwater falling continuously from our eyelashes or our tears. Everyone of us was standing with our hands raised in dua, and every one of us was glorifying Allah and calling takbir.

I have been living in Saudi Arabia for 6 years, and I have never seen such heavy rain and, in fact, such sudden rain. It was as if Allah was showering His mercy on us, and we felt very special. After the rain, the weather was like the weather you normally feel in the hill station, and it gave us the opportunity to sit outside our tents and make dua.

I remember that it was a hot sunny day on the day of pelting Jamarat. As soon as we reached Jamarat, the weather again changed all of a sudden, and with our first pelting, it began to rain hard. It was such heavy rain that we were all drenched, and the cool wind made us feel cold. It seemed that the rain would never stop; everybody marched in the rain from one Jamarat to the other.

The crowd was huge, and it took us some time to pelt all the 3 Jamarat. When we were done, the rain also stopped. We had to walk from Jamarat to Mina, and it was another of my best moments. Who doesn’t like a walk in the rain with the one you love? I was also able to see Mina in great detail. Please don’t ask me about pictures. I didn’t take any. Each and every moment is so well-saved in my mind that I won’t ever need a picture.

Attaching herewith a picture sourced from google-

There are certain things that I realized during my Hajj-

1. Smile is the best Sadaqa
2. Helping others is one of the greatest form of ibadah after the fardh Ibadahs.
3. Sadaqa never decreases Wealth.
4. If you have nothing to give , even serving water ,giving tissues ,carrying someone’s luggage etc are of great rewards.
5. Purify your intentions again and again.
6. When you make dua for Others, the Angels make dua for you.So keep your tongue moist with dhikr and dua.
7. My husband carried a spray bottle and he used to spray mist over me and other Pilgrims when we had to stand in the sun, wait for the train in queues etc .It was a great relief and I envied how much greater reward he must be earning because of his small deed .
8. Take the dua from the elderly.Help them in any ways you can .I will never forget the 2 elderly Pilgrims I met in this journey .
9. Ditch the 100’s of packing instruction people give .The more you have the more concerned you are about your belongings . Carry the minimum and take things that you normally use .
10. Have all your documents backed up in your drive.
11. Send your elderly parents with a small diary in which you write all their details and some emergency contact number .
12. Use GPS. Mark all your locations and use gps instead of blindly trusting the police .Most of them are temporary volunteers who are there to manage the crowd and it is not granted that they can assist you with location at all times .
13. Many Pilgrims get lost. I found an app-“Mina locator ” quite helpful in finding out the camps of some pilgrims.
14. Hajj teaches humanity. It teaches brotherhood . Always be ready to compromise.Always be ready to help-during Hajj and Post-Hajj.
15. We didn’t waste a single moment during Hajj realizing the fact that Hajj would end in few days . Let us never waste any moment of our life keeping in mind that our life is uncertain.It can end any moment.

Have you done your Hajj ? Feel free to share your feelings and experiences .