eh? isnt it kinda late? i mean hajj was like moonths ago

Yeh, I know...Thats y I wasn't gonna bother postin it, but somebody asked me to, so I did.

Jazakallah khair for the comments and ameen to all the duas.

LOL bro Abdul.

Part 2 tonight, cuz I'm usin my sister's computer, and its on my comp.

ok sis eagerly waiting for part 2 can't to read it inshallah

Oh sis 3washey, I agree, Yemeni's rock.

And bro mst.. I don't think I mentioned anywhere in here who led. Sheikh Sudais led before Hajj. And after Hajj Sheikh Taalib n Sheikh Khayyat led.

For Dhuhr, we left the hotel at like 12:00, and that wasn’t quite the wisest time to leave, we should have left at 11:00, but how were we supposed to know. Anyways, the crowd was really huge outside, so we performed Dhuhr outside, by Makkah Towers. (Our hotel was on the same street as Makkah Towers. *rolls eyes*) After Dhuhr, we decided to wait an hour more for the crowd to come to a somewhat halt, so that we don’t have to deal with the crowd. In the mean time we looked around at stuff in the Makkah Towers…cool place, but is it just me or the stuff in there is the same quality as elsewhere, just the price is more and the stores are “better”? (Sorry, but everybody makes a big deal out of Makkah Towers, and I was like “Uhh..okkayy..”interesting.” Although the architecture and marble and stuff is cool about it.) But then after Makkah Towers, we got side-tracked first by a juice stand, then by an abaya store, and then something else or the other. Loq. We went inside the Haram about hour and half before Asr.

Maybe its just me, but the Masjid al Haram is really more intimidating and magnificent compared to Masjid al Nabawi. You know, Makkah has intensity and vibrancy, and Madeenah has serenity and calmness about it.. Anyways, we kept our heads down and walked towards the Kaabah. (No, not down, down, as in not looking where we were walking, sheesh *coughs* loq…would hurt to walk into one of those pillars though. *ouch*) Anyways, when we got close to the area where the steps are to go down closer to the Kaabah, we looked up, and I swear when you look up and see the Kaabah for the first time its totally incredible. There are really no words to describe it, you really gotta be there to feel it.. We kinda stood there dumbfounded for a like half minute… Oh yeah, then a guard came and was like “Yallah ya haajj!” :P Anyways, we did Tawaf, and uh, wasn’t too good an idea to do it on the first floor. It’s a great feeling to be that close to the Kaabah, but the crowd is in a frenzy, and a lot of the pick-pocketers are there.. Alhamdulillah, we stayed safe though. (Well, actually, my sis almost got pick-pocketed, but then somebody pushed her away, so the other person had to leave her alone and continue on. The only time I think she didn’t mind being pushed. *chuckles*) Anyways, it took us about an 1 ½ hours to complete the tawaf. We finished precisely right before the Asr adhaan went off. Woo: (And for the sake of Arwa’s happiness, Sheikh Saalih Al Talib led. *cough* hehe).

After Asr salaah, we did Sa’iee (7 times between Safa and Marwa) That took like 2 hours, which wasn’t soo bad. After that we waited for Maghrib salaah, no use leaving and coming back, cuz there was only 30 minutes left, and the crowd was coming in the Haram. Then there was this one guy who sitting next to my brother, and during Tawaf somebody tried to pick-pocket him.. And he didn’t have anything on him, and they used a knife, and they ended up cutting his stomach a lil. :o He came for Hajj alone, and he was sad and lonely, so he was talkin to my brother until Maghrib. loq

And after Maghrib, we left and my brother shaved his hair, and then we went to the hotel room to check on our oldest brother.. Wasn’t pleasant.. Anyways, we went back for Isha… And we went to the third floor to perform Isha, cuz its not as badly filled as the first floor. After Isha, we waited for the crowd to lessen before we could leave… Anyways, my brother ended up falling asleep, and we didn’t wanna wake him, cuz a wheelchair had knocked his leg right as we were walking into the Masjid al Haram, and he almost fainted. (Which was pretty bad, cuz he doesn’t faint usually in pain…) He only woke up around 12 tho, loq.

Then we headed back to the hotel. And you’d think cuz I was so tired, I’d get sleep immediately. Well, below the hotel, there was a tape store. And they played Sheikh Sudais’s khatam dua on repeat, LOUD! I mean, loud is an understatement. Loq. Oh well, it wasn’t so bad, his dua was great anyway even if it killed my sleep. The lack of sleep and the loudness gave my sister a headache, and Fajr time Sheikh Sudais led and obviously he was calm compared to the dua when he was crying, and she was like “Ohhhhhh…why on earth don’t they play his calmer times?!” looooq.

Anyways, the rest of the days, went without incident really alhamdulillah. And on Tuesday we left for Mina with our group. Those were the only days we spent with the group, we didn’t even in Makkah, cuz me and my siblings stayed to ourselves, unless we were talking to random people in the Haram. (You know what’s really cool… some Arabs try to talk to you regardless of the fact you don’t know Arabic. They’ll figure out how to get their point across through sign language and stuff…its sweet. ) Oh yeah, we were supposed to leave at 10:30pm, but the Saudi’s had assigned guides to buses and stuff, and our guide didn’t get to us until 12:30ish. And we were cool with that, cuz when you think of the traffic; it’s going to take him a while. Unfortunately the others in the group didn’t think of it that way, and start picking on the Saudi govt for always doing things wrong. (loq, sorry, but sometimes when people complain its hard not to laugh) it took like 2 hours to get to Mina. And when we got there…things weren’t quite what anyone expected.. The Saudi’s gave the (spoilt) American tents those foldable mattresses, blankets, and pillows. That’s cool, I guess.. But its not as though they gave it to every other countries tents, so they shouldn’t have put it for American. (Our group leader didn’t ask for it, my brothers said he was surprised by it.) I’m not picking on them, just you know…

Anyways, our first day in Mina went great overall. :thumbsup: Just a few ladies got on my nerves cuz they were talking non stop a lot of the day, and it sux when you try to talk about Islamic things, and it goes in one ear and out the other. (Not their fault, I suppose nobody told them specifics about the days of Hajj) Finally, my sister after Isha saw I would loose patience, and we took a walk outside. Which was cool, cuz there were mountains like 15 minutes away, and we sorta climbed it (not too high, too scared to, hehe), and sat there for a while and did ibadah.. Alhamdulillah when we got back everyone but one lady was asleep. And thankfully, the lady who was up was sweet. (She was 8 months pregnant, and she couldn’t get sleep, and she started talking to me about Rasulullah (Salallahu Alayhi Wasallam) and stuff. )

On Wednesday was the Day of Arafah, and we made it there without event. And the day went without event. And our group leader was supposed to have somebody talk about the importance of the day, but he didn’t talk. *blinks* But that was okay, we still did whatever we had to do. (Our mother gave us a lecture on that before we left Amrikka anyway. Loq) What was really nice was that were Turkish and British tents close to ours. And the Turks had some really nice dhikr going on, and we wandered by their tents and sat there for a while and listened. The British had some sheikh talking about how the day of qiyamah will take place on the plains of Arafah and basically how Muslims should try to emulate the lifestyles of Rasulullah (Salallahu Alayhi Wasallam) and the Sahabah, because that’s the only thing that’s gonna help us when we come back to Arafah on the day of Qiyamah…

Anyway, our group leader warned everyone that we would leave Arafah for Muzdalifah at around 11 or 12 at night, cuz that’s when we were supposed to leave. We couldn’t leave immediately after Maghrib, cuz the traffic would be jammed, and we wouldn’t get anywhere anyway. Well, around 9:30 pm people started getting impatient, and told the group leader to get us onto a bus ASAP. (two months later, and I still don’t understand the purpose behind the rush..) After 45 minutes minutes, he gave in, and agreed to take the next bus. The group was split in two now, cuz the bus that came next wasn’t big enough. Anyhoo, the bus driver didn’t know what he was doing (or maybe he did *blink*) cuz he was driving us around in circles, and then he didn’t drop of at Muzdalifah. He took us past it and headed straight on to Mina. *double blink* So one of the Afghani and Arab brothers were like “Hey, wait! Stop the bus” and they jumped up. So he let them and some other brothers, including my 2nd brother get off the bus. And then the buses in front him started moving, so he closed the doors and started driving. Anyways for a few of us, our family members had gotten off, so we panicked that the driver would go too far and we’d loose our family. He had to stop thanks for traffic, and the brothers at the front forced him to open the door, and almost everybody got off. There were six people who still didn’t make it off in time.

Anyway, back at the area where my 2nd brother was, him and the others who got off had grabbed the luggage that was on the bus and put it on the sidewalk. Well, the others were tryna figure out what bag was theirs, etc, and our sub-group leader got annoyed and said whoever wanted to pick up luggage will have to head to Muzdalifah on their own without the group. So my brothers and three other brothers were like, well, 6 people’s luggage are here, and we dunno if there anything valuable here, therefore we might as well split from the group and drag the luggage on our own. So that’s what we did… (The sub-group leader was upset, but if he had listened to the main leader about leaving Arafah at the right time, we wouldn’t have been in this mess to begin with. Qadar of Allah SWT, s’all good.

Anyways, after we picked up our pebbles, we walked to the border of Muzadalifah and performed Fajr and went back to the tents. We did the pelting after Asr, when the crowd was less, and calmer.

The next day we went to do our Qurbani, and that place was an hour’s walk away. It was nice anyway. And we got to see the goats too… And the one that I got was a pretttty white one. (I’m serious, it was really pretty. Lol) And amazingly I didn’t even gag by the blood. Woo:

After that we took a taxi to Makkah to do our Tawaf and get out of Ihram. It was after Asr when we left and got to Makkah. Anyway, obviously the crowd was less in Makkah (I’m SO great at stating the obvious! *grin*) and we did Tawaf on the first floor easily alhamdulillah. If we had more time we could’ve touched the Kabah and the Hajar Al Aswad, but we did Tawaf in between Maghrib and Isha, and the Isha adhan went off. And after Isha we tried to get back to Mina immediately. We finally got a taxi, and he was gonna charge us SR 120, but my brother bargained him to SR 80. He was annoyed but agreed. He was charging the most out of most but we had no choice. Anyway, after that he rode around Makkah for about 30 minutes trying to get more passengers.. And he was not successful. Well, finally we were rescued from him, cuz the police were randomly stopping people, and they stopped him and asked him for his legal papers. And he was totally acting dumb as though he didn’t understand them, and after a few minutes of gentle questioning the younger police officer got mad and yelled at him to answer. At that point we freaked, cuz I mean they’re police officers and they’re angry, what will they do with us. Well, the police officer, just calmly opened the door smiled at us and let us out. And then they went back to yellin at the guy. Lool. Anyway, we decided enough with the buses and taxi’s, and we’ll just walk it.

.....

Last part comin later. ;)

Thread MOVED [to provide it wid a BUMP ;)]

Last part comin later

waiting *yaaaaaaaawn*

salam
mashallah great account of hajj sis, may allah accept the hajj
and waiting for the last part too
wasalam

Originally Posted by Labibah

Last part comin later. ;)

What happened to the last part ukhti?

wonderfull thread. I can not stress the value of personal experiences about Hajj have for those of us who have not been able to experience it yet. It is both an inspiration and a verbal trip, in the event some of us never have the opportunity to make it.

OOoh Wow that's great Masha'allah Sis Labibah, I could type out my own Hajj experience for you guys to read but I'm too lazy and besides My hajj was around.........3 years ago? yeah that long ago.......But masha'allah sis for your story!! Where's the next part? We're waiting ;)

I agree, Yemeni's rock

SAY IT LIKE IT IS SIS

Jazakallah khair brother zAk for bumping this. Sheesh! :rant:

Hehehe sis Amirah. ;)

Mawwadah! Type your story up! Pwease?!

I'm glad you'll enjoyed reading it.

Okay, here is the last part...which isn't much. But if you have any questions, feel free to ask.

On the last day in Mina, the group leaders told us we’d all go to Jamarah together after Dhuhr, and then come back to the tent and leave immediately for Makkah. (The other two days everybody went separately in their own time, but since we had to get back to Makkah that day, we all had to go together.) Also it was drizzling on and off, and it was sunny one minute and threatening to rain the next, so we were kinda freaked that something bad may happen. After Dhuhr we all went, and the weather was pretty good alhamdulillah. Well, as we got closer to Jamarah, we lost the group in the crowd and ended up by ourselves. There were loads of people sitting by Jamarah and they had camped outside there for only Allah knows why. And everyone who was trying to get in to pelt was tripping over these people, it was crazy. The police were trying to evacuate them from there, but they were fighting with the police. Nice scene that was, seeing the hujjaj fighting insensibly with the police. (Pardon my sarcasm.) Anyways, we made it through, and the closer we got to the pelting area, the more scary things got. One guy almost tripped me, and my brother caught me in time, and the guy started fighting with my brother for saving me. :blink: My brother almost started arguing right back, but we made him keep quiet. He was a bit riled up the man was arguing with him, and he didn’t realize he could possibly loose life.

After a few more incidents like that within the next few minutes, we gave up and we might as well just stick to going after Asr. We went back to the tent… The rest of the group wasn’t there yet, and when they got back, they were surprised we made it back so early. Anyways, they were packing up and doing some last minute ibadah and stuff, and it was around 3:30 and it started raining.. First it was just the usual drizzle, and then it started pouring. The tents close to ours started flooding and the area where the steps are which lead to the road was flooded knee-high. The water was flowing like a rover, it was scary. We were fortunate though, as our tent was in a perfect area, so we didn’t get flooded much. About 20 minutes or so after Asr, it let up though and went back to drizzling, and the group took a bus to Makkah, and we were left alone. *sniffle* ;) Anyways, it stopped raining fully about 30 minutes before Maghrib. It was totally easy, cuz mostly everyone was gone, including the people who were sitting outside Jamarah outside previously. Although, sadly, we heard at the time a few dozen Hajji’s and several police officers died by Jamarah, cuz of the rain and they were in frenzy not to get drowned. May Allah (Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala) grant them Jannah al Firdaus. Ameen.)

The hujjaj were trying to get out of Mina as it was after Maghrib now. They were desperate to get out, and many were elderly and couldn’t make the long walk. The taxi drivers benefited from this of course. They put their prices up to SR 200 for 4 people. A trip that would be regularly SR 5-10! I understand they want to earn money, but over charging elderly hujjaj is wrong. L We decided to walk to Makkah. Alhamdulillah on our way to Makkah it didn’t rain…

It took 2 ½ hours to get to our hotel. Although that seems long, it was not so bad at all. It was pleasant, and it is a lot better then sitting a car in the middle of traffic and honking horns. At least with walking you’re moving and not restless. The only odd thing was that it was kinda cold. (I mean how weird that is… Makkah being cold?!) hehe. Anyways, it was nice walk. And the way there were Saudi’s who were standing by the street handing out coffee, tea, and ginger in milk. It was so sweet. I think the ginger in milk kinda helped my cough actually. (Seriously, evil twins, I did have a cough.. lol!)

Anyways, we reached the Haram about an hour after Isha.. We were happy to be close to our hotel, our destination to catch up on ressst. Alhamdulillah we made it safely to our hotel. Our parents called to check up on their crazy children to see if we’re okay and made it safely. After that we slept… The cassette store was at it yet again, but I put the pillow over my head after an hour. I mean I like Sheikh Sudais’s dua, but it being on repeat for hours on end was a bit much, even for me! ;) Besides, after that they switched to the Muhammad Nabeeuna nasheed. Arg! How can I get sleep to a child singing?!

We stayed for a week after Hajj. And the rest of the days in Makkah are a total blur to me now. Things happened kinda fast and I got badly sick among other things. We did a bit of shopping All I remember now was making Tawaf and looking at the Kaabah.. (That’s all that matters though, innit). Oh, and Sheikh Taalib did the last khutbah, which was nice mashaAllah.

The trip back home was muccch more pleasant. Came from Jeddah to Germany and from there straight to Amrikka. Didn’t have to wait long in the airports either. It only 20 hours instead of 27.

Although, leaving Makkah and entering the International Terminal to be surrounded by non Muslims through me off guard. You get used to being surrounded by Muslims, people always saying salaam to you, dressing modestly, having a kindness about them, and then you see non Muslims for the first time after a month, you feel like fish out of water. (Ignore the fish part Arwa. ) It was even weirder arriving in California, when the police officers get fussy over tiniest things, while in Saudi Arabia the police officers are a bit relaxed. Okay, maybe too relaxed at times. But yeah, being in California again really made me appreciate Makkah and Madeenah more.

May Allah take everyone of us there. Ameen.

Orite…that’s it really… Ask me whatever you want…I’ll try to answer inshaAllah.

wa alaikum assalam

Excellent masha'Allah.

I want to goooo!

I was going to comment on the fish.. but I won't now. ;)

May Allah accept your hajj and your families hajj and always keep you safe! :brother:

aaaaaaaaaaaaah that was a cool read
and i think i had a *cough* around then too. same same ;)

Masha Allâh, loved that read!