Day 8 (15/10/2013 - First Day of Eid)
It will be Fajr soon and it has been a long night. Slept for about 3 hours before the rest came back (from Muzdalifah). That gave me a second wind, alhamdulillah.
People are tired but we will be going for jamrat (stoning) after fajr. May Allah make it easy for all of us.
Ya Allah, today is the day of Eid. Just got a "message" from God (as the sister who delivered it said - which is creepy by the way!) that I need to listen more.
After Dzuhur - Alhamdulillah, finished the jamrat, tawaf ifadah and sa'i. Am out of ihram. Unfortunately, things are not so smooth. We are stuck here (at the Haram) until Asr. Dirty, tired, smelly in clothes which are three days old, I can't bring myself to actually do much du'a at all. Too exhausted to think.
(note that the entry below is written retrospectively the day after because this day was just madness!)
Woke up at 1 am, insha Allah, an hour before we are going to do the second jamrat. I am definitely exhausted and not feeling well. Likely flu. Trying to fight it.
Ya Allah, I don't know how complete my tawaf and sa'i were yesterday. I don't really think I did much supplication, mostly dzikr. But I had a moment; I was trying to negotiate with Allah on whether He could send me an invitation for hajj or umrah again. At this time, I am leaning towards umrah. Anyway, it is definitely a human trait not to be satisfied with just an invitation.
Yesterday was a tough day. One of the most challenging in my life, I think. First, it started with the jamrat Aqabah (the first jamrat) where we were pushed and shoved by the crowd. The poor old lady who Shahidah had been helping in our camp was quite overwhelmed by it. Alhamdulillah, later we found out she made it all the way to the Haram and did at least 1.5 tawaf rounds on her own two feet.
Anyway, we (Mehmoona, her family and I) got separated from the main group and tried to get back together...alhamdulillah, we managed. The jamrat itself was fine, alhamdulillah. Sorry, I fell asleep while writing this down.
We then walked to the Haram in a sea of people with Sis Yusria before (literally) battling the crowd during tawaf. At one point I was swept off my feet (and if not for my hold on Shahidah I would have gone under). There was no way to really concentrate or take pleasure in the tawaf because of the crowd. Pushing and shoving are only 2 of the unpleasant things that occur there. In fact it was so bad that Shahidah had a panic attack and felt faint. Let's just say, I had a mini sa'i (like Hajar a.s.) trying to find zamzam for her. I was worried for her because I have never seen her so overwhelmed and not in a good way. We managed to finally settle her on the first floor at Safa while waiting for her to recover. Started our sa'i after dzuhur and finished by 2 pm but we weren't able to find Sis Yusria and so we stayed until Asr before giving up.
Alhamdulillah that we did because we would have missed the bus to take us to Mina from the apartments in Aziziyah. (I would suggest that no one ever stays at the Aziziyah during Hajj - it is a nightmare to find a taxi to go there and we paid SAR100 each for the trip) But the trip from Aziziyah to Mina was another adventure in itself. The bus dropped us at the start of Mina. We had to walk a distance before having to cross the highway with cars/buses travelling 70 miles/hr or more. I lost my cool a little (probably a lot) at that time because the brothers didn't know/weren't sure the way to the camp and they weren't consulting the map. Alhamdulillah for the maps all over Mina. Managed to work out where we needed to go and I just proceeded on. (I left the brothers to their wrangling and walked on.) Not a team player certainly and I still need to work on my patience. Ya Allah, truly this Hajj is a test on my patience.
Came back to camp and found Sis Yusria already back. Alhamdulillah, I was worried that she waited for us and we left her. Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah, truly it was the most challenging day but I managed to achieve what I set out to do and I am no longer in ihram.
It will be Fajr soon and it has been a long night. Slept for about 3 hours before the rest came back (from Muzdalifah). That gave me a second wind, alhamdulillah.
People are tired but we will be going for jamrat (stoning) after fajr. May Allah make it easy for all of us.
Ya Allah, today is the day of Eid. Just got a "message" from God (as the sister who delivered it said - which is creepy by the way!) that I need to listen more.
After Dzuhur - Alhamdulillah, finished the jamrat, tawaf ifadah and sa'i. Am out of ihram. Unfortunately, things are not so smooth. We are stuck here (at the Haram) until Asr. Dirty, tired, smelly in clothes which are three days old, I can't bring myself to actually do much du'a at all. Too exhausted to think.
(note that the entry below is written retrospectively the day after because this day was just madness!)
Woke up at 1 am, insha Allah, an hour before we are going to do the second jamrat. I am definitely exhausted and not feeling well. Likely flu. Trying to fight it.
Ya Allah, I don't know how complete my tawaf and sa'i were yesterday. I don't really think I did much supplication, mostly dzikr. But I had a moment; I was trying to negotiate with Allah on whether He could send me an invitation for hajj or umrah again. At this time, I am leaning towards umrah. Anyway, it is definitely a human trait not to be satisfied with just an invitation.
Yesterday was a tough day. One of the most challenging in my life, I think. First, it started with the jamrat Aqabah (the first jamrat) where we were pushed and shoved by the crowd. The poor old lady who Shahidah had been helping in our camp was quite overwhelmed by it. Alhamdulillah, later we found out she made it all the way to the Haram and did at least 1.5 tawaf rounds on her own two feet.
Anyway, we (Mehmoona, her family and I) got separated from the main group and tried to get back together...alhamdulillah, we managed. The jamrat itself was fine, alhamdulillah. Sorry, I fell asleep while writing this down.
We then walked to the Haram in a sea of people with Sis Yusria before (literally) battling the crowd during tawaf. At one point I was swept off my feet (and if not for my hold on Shahidah I would have gone under). There was no way to really concentrate or take pleasure in the tawaf because of the crowd. Pushing and shoving are only 2 of the unpleasant things that occur there. In fact it was so bad that Shahidah had a panic attack and felt faint. Let's just say, I had a mini sa'i (like Hajar a.s.) trying to find zamzam for her. I was worried for her because I have never seen her so overwhelmed and not in a good way. We managed to finally settle her on the first floor at Safa while waiting for her to recover. Started our sa'i after dzuhur and finished by 2 pm but we weren't able to find Sis Yusria and so we stayed until Asr before giving up.
Alhamdulillah that we did because we would have missed the bus to take us to Mina from the apartments in Aziziyah. (I would suggest that no one ever stays at the Aziziyah during Hajj - it is a nightmare to find a taxi to go there and we paid SAR100 each for the trip) But the trip from Aziziyah to Mina was another adventure in itself. The bus dropped us at the start of Mina. We had to walk a distance before having to cross the highway with cars/buses travelling 70 miles/hr or more. I lost my cool a little (probably a lot) at that time because the brothers didn't know/weren't sure the way to the camp and they weren't consulting the map. Alhamdulillah for the maps all over Mina. Managed to work out where we needed to go and I just proceeded on. (I left the brothers to their wrangling and walked on.) Not a team player certainly and I still need to work on my patience. Ya Allah, truly this Hajj is a test on my patience.
Came back to camp and found Sis Yusria already back. Alhamdulillah, I was worried that she waited for us and we left her. Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah, truly it was the most challenging day but I managed to achieve what I set out to do and I am no longer in ihram.
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