The Path of Light part 2

Hello again to all Muslims around the world. Its been one month now since I've been back from Saudi Arabia. The things I've learnt there and put up to, I don't think I would've done anywhere else. I ended my last post at Aziziya, Makkah before we headed to the Mina camps. Each tent in our section of the camp held approximately 25-30 people. My family and I travelled with a travel agency so we knew the people we had to stay with and we quickly learnt about each other. The tent we had to stay in was a completely different story. Side by side, we had thick mattresses that had a width of approximately 45cm! Yes, 45cm! There was just enough space to fit your body, and that's it! There was a buffet for lunch, dinner and breakfast with a variety of different food! I spent accurately 2 nights in mina with brief stops to Aziziya. As we patiently waited for our journey the next day, to the blessed land of Arafat.

We woke the next day, quite early actually and left the tents for our bus to leave for Arafat. At Arafat, we were each given a bag of stones for the stoning and a small pack of necessities that included soap, shampoo packets, toothbrush and toothpaste etc. which were all unscented. At about 3pm, it started. Drop by drop, they fell faster and faster as the rain kept increasing. The morning started off by feeling like a heatwave, but by sunset, the ground was cool, and the heat had vanished. We completed our prayers and duas in peace as the raindrops fell upon us one by one. By the time the rain stopped, we were drenched from head to toe. With no news of rain approaching, I have to say that it was purely a miracle. The time of the sun ended swiftly as we packed up and made our way to the religious land of Muzdalifah.

With our heavy sleeping bags and very little energy, we went on to find a place to stay the night. In Muzdalifah, it is required for every pilgrim to stay under the light of the night sky as a ritual. And so we did. Spreading out our sleeping bags and trying to pile them just so that we couldn't feel the stones underneath. The ground was rather cool because of the recent rain, so that wasn't a problem. Hundreds of pilgrims had collected on one land! What a sight! We prayed our Isha prayers, and I for one dozed off. You can't imagine how much you can bare unless you have an aim to do so. We got an early wake-up call (like every day), and I went on to pray my fajr prayers. We were heading straight to the stoning of the devil from there, so I had to. I had to do what I most dreaded doing. With the little will power I had, I slowly made my way to..........the washroom. If we were going to be out for much longer than anticipated, I had to go to the toilet. And that's when I saw the unbelievable. Mounds and mounds of plastic lying anywhere and everywhere. At this point, it wasn't just plastic. It was straight-up trash. I took these pictures by myself. Have a look!

It was mostly empty bottles of water, biscuit packaging and juice cartons. But it was worth looking. I must say, I have never seen this much trash in my life. There isn't much to say about the washrooms because...what? I didn't really expect a proper toilet, but it was still...... I've learnt to bare it. Somewhat:)

We then slowly made our way to the stoning (also known as Jamarat or stoning of the devil). It was a fantastic experience. With stones we had collected from Muzdalifah along with the pouches they gave us in Arafat, we had enough stones to complete all the stonings. There weren't many crowds, so it went really smooth and peaceful. I had watched it happen on tv and seen a million pictures, but I still couldn't picture it the right way. I didn't know what to expect. But once I saw the jamarat with my own eyes, my curiosity dwindled away. There were three big pillars (the devils) and lots of people standing in front of them with the anger in their hands as they propelled their stones onto the devils. My family and I walked to the jamarat and got out our 7 stones as we threw them one by one. I watched my stones slowly descend to the bottom before disappearing into the darkness. After the stoning, we had to make our way to azizya so we could get our selves ready for eid! Yes, it was eid day!

There was a short walk through the alleys, but when we didn't know when we were going to reach, it felt long. After we arrived at Aziziya, we waited for our cow to be sacrificed(which is necessary to exit the state of ihram) just before we cleaned ourselves up, and headed out for tawaf-e-ziyarah.

From all the tawafs I had done, this was by far the hardest. The rest of my family was done by 1am, but my mom, dad and I still had a long way to go. We finished our tawaf without much hassle but at 4:30am! That's right!! With the entire day filled with things we had to do, we were so drenched of energy. My eyes couldn't stay open, and my legs could barely take a step. There was lots of traffic, but, we managed to hop on a taxi and make our way to Mina. It is advisable to stay at least 3 nights in Mina so with our intentions clear, we hopped onto the taxi to make our way to Mina.

Okay okay. What is it with taxis in Saudi Arabia not leaving you to your destination. They'll probably leave you like a kilometre away. So obviously yes. Between the Mina camps and main road, there was an awfully long uphill tunnel. You could either get a bus from the bus stops by the main road or walk the entire route yourself. My family and I patiently waited for a bus, but each and every single minute we stood there, our legs grew more tired and our eyelids, heavier. 5am in the morning, we were standing at the Mina bus stop with no mode of transportation. After a good 40 mins of bus searching,(okay so there were a million buses that came and went, but all of them went to the kabah.) my dad grew quite fed up and halted a taxi as we all got in to make our way back to our rooms in Aziziya. No joke, Aziziya felt like home. At that point, I would've rather stayed in Aziziya than at a 5-star hotel.

After praying our Fajr prayers, we quickly dozed off to sleep to get ready for the busy and "wet" day ahead. We woke up the next morning, prepared to head to the 2nd stoning. 1 pair of our clothes were left in Mina and some of our belongings so to get them back, we had to go to Mina, so my mom suggested we go straight from jamarat(the stoning) to Mina and stay the night there, and we were all okay with the idea. Our stoning went exceptionally smoothly. There weren't massive crowds, and we could quickly complete it. But things took a turn for the worse after we left. We left from Aziziya with an intention in our hearts to stay in Mina that night after the stoning. But the way this was meant to be was completely different.

With the heat striking, we finished our stoning, but as soon as we left Jamarat Bridge, grey clouds started to collect. Minutes later, a slight drizzle started. My family and I expected nothing more. We were grateful with just that. But as the minutes passed, the clouds grew more grey, and the raindrops become bigger and bigger. Before we knew it, we were amidst a rainstorm, slowly making our way to the Mina camps. There were a couple of small stalls for sims, and they were handing out umbrellas, but at this point, umbrellas would do no good either. The wind was too strong.

The water had flooded all the streets, and the trash came floating up. In between, we had to cross a street. You couldn't see the road at all but just garbage floating on top. Since ther was no time to look, my dad pulled me and my sisters across and we felt the tiny stones and pieces of trash collect in our shoes as they got all moist and wet. We entered one of the other campsites to avoid the storm. With all our clothes drenched and backpacks wet, we slowly walked towards our campsite.

When we reached our tent, we quickly came to the realization that sleeping there that night wouldn't be easy. The mattresses were all wet because the tent had let in lots of water. All the blankets were muddy being left on the now spongy, wet carpets. After a long debate on whether we were going to stay the night, we came to the decision that we were going to stay there(I didn't want to stay much, but my mom's decision was final). Everyone in the tent tried their best to cover up the wetness of the mattresses using the sheets, but there was only enough we could do. We changed our wet clothes and tried our best to sleep. We spent the night in sacrifice, no matter how uncomfortable we were.

We woke that morning and headed off to our last jamarat. We gave our Mina tents one last look before we set off for the stoning. There was a short walk from Mina to the stoning. The crowds that day were a bit larger as we had decided to do it from the ground floor. After successfully completing our jamarat, we left the building. In the crowds that followed, we walked down to Aziziya. It was a longggggg walk, a 3km long walk. It might not sound like a lot but with all the crowds and blistering heat... it felt like a lengthy 20km. I'm going to say that it was probably one of the longest walks I've ever taken.

Once we had arrived at Aziziya, we had to pack up for our 3-day trip to Madinah. The next day, just a while before sunset, my cousin suggested we head out for one last stoning. At first, my sisters and I denied, but after a little persuasion, we headed off for our final jamarat. There weren't any crowds at all, and it went very well. Since we had a little while before sunset, there wasn't much heat. We had walked to and fro jamarat, but it didn't seem long anymore.we peacefully camels know to aziziya and continued our packing.

We left for Madinah the next day, and everyone was excited. Once we had reached, everyone went to pray in the glorious masjid-al-nabawi. On our 2nd day, we got a tour of Madinah and all its historical sites. It included masjids, graves and other places where incidents in Islam took place. At night my dad, sister and I couldn't hold ourselves back from the market places. We splurged on prayer mats, keychains and personalized jewellery for everyone back at home! (including some for ourselves too!)

On the 3rd day, it was finally time. Our long 22-day trip had halted to an end, and it was devastating. Our flight wasn't that early. But we had to reach the airport with the rest of our group. I didn't realize how much I would miss it. The flight was good, but the feeling of reaching home was just peaceful.

And that's it. Our 22day trip, 2 part blog post comes to an end. I can't believe that I've finally finished hajj and what I've learnt from it, I think a keyboard is really far off from explaining.it not only changed my perspective of Islam but my way of life and it taught me and proved to me that there if I have a goal towards completion, no obstacle in between can stop it. The hardships I have I've been through in 22 days are not only accomplishments but recognition in my heart of Islam and what it taught me to be and go through. Truly I have been settled back to the path of light. and with that, I have not only finished the 22-day goal but the in entirety, the goal of life. Thank you for reading!