A Test of Faith

"This year it was an especially crowded Hajj. The day of Arafa, the day before the feast where all Muslims stand on Arafa mountain begging repentance and God's forgiveness, fell on a Friday, the holiest day in Islam. Days before I left Cairo for the Hajj, Saudi Arabia announced that Arafa would be on a Friday. Friends and family called to congratulate me on how lucky and blessed I was. For when the day of "standing" in Arafa falls on a Friday, then the one Hajj is considered as if the Muslims on the Hajj are performing seven pilgrimages. This lucky day happens once every seven years. Though excited, I realized this meant the Hajj would be more crowded than normal. Saudi authorities have a yearly quota of Hajj visas. This year there were supposed to be around 2.5 million pilgrims from all over the world. But the Friday announcement prompted a wave of Saudis and Muslims from neighboring Gulf countries not requiring Hajj visas to make the Hajj and be in Arafa on that blessed day. We were more than 4 million on mount Arafa.

"The Hajj rituals are the ultimate lessons in self discipline, tolerance and patience. If you lose your temper and argue or fight with someone, your Hajj is spoilt. It is an incredible training in self restraint and acceptance. I never thought that I could spend 18 hours in a bus to cover a distance of 5 km and still be smiling. The traffic was like nothing experienced before. Coming from gridlocked Cairo you are used to being immobile for a while, but those 18 hours from Arafa to Mena topped it all. During the Hajj, the Saudi traffic police are in total control. They are continuously blocking routes and opening others and you are completely at their mercy and one has no choice, but to accept.

"You also accept that you walk shoulder to shoulder and chest to back with people you never thought you would be so physically close to. I never saw so many people in my life. When we reached Mena where we would spend three days to pelt Satan with pebbles, the people sleeping on the street, on the pavements and in white tents stretched as far as the eye could see. There was not a single spot on the ground that was free of a human body. In every direction there were crowds of people of every color and age. If they were not sleeping or standing everywhere, thousands and thousands were all moving together in the direction of the three pillars representing Satan to throw their pebbles. The moving sea of people were all chanting one line, "God we are coming to you.''

"It is at that moment that I realized the strength of my faith. We had traveled in luxury from Cairo and had stayed in five stars hotels in Medina and then air conditioned serviced tents in Mena, but I looked around me in every direction for miles and miles and it was one image: old men shuffling along in the sun leaning on walking sticks, able bodied men carrying their sick mothers on their shoulders, young mothers carrying their new born babies, whole families from Asia and Africa carrying all their belongings, bags, blankets and cooking utensils. They were all there on the most important journey of their life. Many of them had spent weeks and even months traveling from far away lands. We encountered a man who had carried his mother on his shoulders and made his way to Mecca sometimes by foot coming all the way from Ethiopia. Every time while we prayed in the Prophet's mosque in Medina or in the Holy Mosque in Mecca, we prayed for men, women and children who had died on that day. Many dream of dying in Islam's holiest places.