Makkah : Day 03
We reached Makkah at around 330am. After completing the Fajr prayer, we stepped into the mataf (where the Tawaf around Ka’aba is performed). We began the rounds slow and steady. With prayers for soul and body. For cure and remedy. From all pains bloody. From Satan the greedy.
After we ended the Seventh round, we performed the short prayer. And then asked Allah like we asked Him never before. Like we would ask him never again. All the requests from my friends and others came rushing into my mind. For knowledge and wisdom. For health and wealth. For protection from hell and conviction in heaven. What would one not ask, when we the Lord is waiting to grant! As if HE was waiting all this while for you to seek. When language becomes insufficient and your heart utters its wishes.
It was then time to have the sweet drink of Zamzam. The well which has fed billions and billions of pilgrims since the time of Abraham. Neither it has lost its sweetness, nor has it showed any sign of drying. It was the applause of earth for the selfless sacrifice of Abraham and his family. Their faith in Allah was unblemished and pure and is the drink. They trusted the Creator without any sign of hope around in the ruthless heat of the desert. And this drink has withstood the forces of time inspired by their trust in HIM.
Later, we began the Sa’ee. Walking to and fro between the side of Mount Safa and Marwa, praising and glorifying the Ultimate Reality. And the procession ends with the Seventh round.
In the end, it was time for the hair cut to relieve from the state of Ihram. While it is recommended to shave the head, most prefer to cut a few hairs. As we helped one another to cut the hair, a crowd of fellow pilgrims approached us for the rite. The scissor was in my hands and it was a fun moment to help them one by one.
Who said Islam is merely a set of logical conclusions? One could ask what is there that fit the ‘common sense’ in going around a Black Structure or drinking water from an ancient well or walking between two mountains and finally cutting one’s own hair?
Faith is simply and purely an unknown and unfelt phenomenon. It is farther than deaf and blind. Because even the deaf and blind can sense some stimuli. Faith is primarily and ultimately a case of total submission to the Unknown Reality. Submission of not just desires and temptations, but one’s own logic too. That Islam is a religion of human understanding is a Mercy of Allah.
Islam admires and reveres the sentiments of humanity. And a woman too is a part of it. Hajra ran between the two Mounts, across sands and rocks, in tear and fear, for her child crying of thirst. And since then, Allah has ordained all the believers to imitate and emulate Ismail’s Mother as an act of worship.
By then the Sun had risen well and light spread to every corner. We moved for breakfast and later for Juma’ prayer.
At night, I accompanied my mother on the first floor of the Masjid. The sight of Ka’aba penetrated her eyes. She was enjoying the sea of humanity flowing around the House of Lord. ‘They all have the same eyes, nose and lips. Yet not one looks like the other’, she exclaimed.
It is not courteous to prolong the tale of such moments. I now leave my pen and paper aside. For, I wish to share with the Soul of Ka’ba a little of the fire I brought with me from the land of His Beloved.
