Thankful Slave: Hajj steps 5: in Mina

Mina - 8th Zul Hijjah.

8th Zul Hijja:
On the 8th of Zul Hijja, it is time to move to Mina. After having a shower, you will pray 2 rakaat and make your niyya for the Hajj and start your Talbiyah. You are now entering the Hajj ritual, the ritual which took you all the way from your home country to this place, you are answering the call that Allah (SWT) asked Ibrahim (AS) to make, thousands of years ago, from these same places.
What could strike you is the great number of people gathered in a relatively small area, millions would be there for the same reason as you, to accomplish the 5th pillar of Islam. One must certainly not forget to thank Allah to have made it that far already, and ask Allah to make all the rituals easy for the upcoming days, as you will need all the Help of Allah to perform your hajj.

Mina - Civil defense close to Masjid al khif

Many people just preferred to walk to Mina, about 1hr trip on foot.

Mina camps and Jamarat complex

Inside Mina tents:
Don't expect high class hotels in Mina (although you may have VIP rooms, but we will not talk about these here). Your group would have booked a series of tent within Mina and you will be allocated one for yourself in the camp.

Take the minimum in a small bag, you will need to know what minimum is (it is really "minimum"), there are very little space for you to put a bag inside the tent as could be seen in the following pictures, so just plan onto taking the strict minimum, yet without forgetting essential items behind.

Inside Mina tents- Women side. It's more tidy than the men's side.

Inside Mina tents- barely any extra space to stretch your feet.

Inside Mina tents - Take a very small bag or you will struggle with place to put it.

Few tips:
There are no plug extensions inside the tents, you should plan onto taking a plug extension + adapters for your mobile phone. This is also easy hassanates to contribute helping others, as many pilgrims would not have thought of this.

Type of adapter to be used inside Mina tents.

If you are sensitive to AC, then be among the first ones to enter the tent, and chose the spots that are NOT facing the A/C ducts. You will see that it will be impossible to content the whole crowd inside the tent and you better chose a spot which will not be affected by the cold air blowing from the A/C. There will always be "someone" waking up at night to switch it on and you would wake up half frozen due to the low temperature it could reach...of course you are in a state of Ihram and you cannot argue much, so just select the right spot to start with and it should be fine. If you cannot find the spot, try to swap with someone else who likes the cold air. Bad goes to worse, head outside and sleep outside the tent, you will not be the only one doing it, and at least, you will protect your health and not fell sick at the wrong time.

Facilities:
Facilities are going to be an issue in Mina, but you will just have to bear patience. Queue for the toilets can take an average time of 30-45mn, so plan on waking up very early in the morning so that you will not miss the jamaa prayer.
Alternative: look if there are toilets outside the camp. In our case, the camp was located not far away from a major toilet complex, so it was easy for many people to just go there.

Preparation:
The day of the 8th zul hijja should also be used to make a lot of zikir, but it should also be used for you to rest in preparation of the next day, the day of Arafah, as it will be a long day. It will also be the time for you to make sure you prepare your bag of Arafah, especially if you plan to walk and not take the buses.