Hajj Epilogue

Al hamdulil'Allah, going to hajj and coming back is a great blessing from Allah. Now, one of the most difficult parts after Hajj, is to keep straight and not deviate again. For sure one cannot keep straight unless Allah is Helping him/her in that, so keep making duas daily for getting His Help..

Imam Ahmed was asked:

سُئل الإمام أحمد - رحمه الله -: كيف أصبحت؟ فقال: كيف أصبح مَن ربُّه يطالبه بأداء الفرائض، ونبيُّه بأداء السُّنة، والملكان بتصحيح العمل، ونفسه تطالبه بهواها، وإبليس يطالبه بالفحشاء، وملك الموت يراقب قبض روحه، وعياله يطالبونه بالنفقة؟! فالمطالب كثيرة والعمر قصير، فالبدار البدار.

How did you wake up (what is your state today)? He replied: what is the state of the one who has his Lord asking him obligations, and his Prophet to practice Sunnah, and the Angels to correct/perfect the work, and his nafs (soul) to follow her whim, and Iblees to follow sins, and the Angel of Death monitoring to take his soul, and his children asking him to spend on them??....The demands are so many and the life is short, so hasten, hasten. 

Imam Ahmed summarized our state today, may Allah Keep us always on the straight path and do not Turn or Flip our hearts after He had guided them.

Al hamdulil'Allah, I thank Allah for His Help to summarize these Hajj steps over the last few months, may Allah Make the trip to this extraordinary place easy for all the Muslims and Muslimah.

<---Previous

Hajj Step 11: Tawaf Al Wadaa & return trip

And this is it...you have reached the last step before departing: Tawaf al Wadaa (Farewell Tawaf). It is the last thing to do before departing from Mekkah.
Our group advised that the departure to Jeddah Airport would be at 08:00 AM. As such, they took us to perform the Tawaf Al Wadaa at 02:00, to give us ample time.
I have been in another Hajj previous to this one where the crowd was such that we could not make the Tawaf Al Wadaa and had to pay blood money in Mekkah. This time, al hamdulil'Allah, most of the crowd had gone in the hours after Maghrib, so as we reached Mekkah at 02:00 AM, it was relatively easy to perform it.

The Tawaf was done on the ground level with relative ease, there was not many people, but the crowd came in around Fejr time. We were all done by that time. We took a Taxi for 100SR.
We returned to the Hotel to pack and waited for the buses to depart to Jeddah.

Note: many shops were closed, and many had little merchandise left on their shelves. I struggled to find small Quran in English as I thought to make this last minute shopping prior to start the tawaf, al hamdulil'Allah, I managed to get what I wanted, but that was a lesson learnt, most of the shops will close on the last day.

On the way out after finishing Tawaf, still many people were doing the Saee.

Towards Safah door

Need to walk towards Marwa door and exit the Haram.

Many people were coming in the early hours of the day, i.e. before fejr. For our group, the 2AM tawaf looked to be the best one as it was easy to accomplish, al hamdulil'Allah for this.

Last moments in Hotel:

Buses outside the Hotel, getting ready to depart

The excitement of departure is at its height. Everybody is waiting for the buses to get arranged, people get their boarding passes organised. The lifts were a bit of a headache, as people and luggage had to fit in a limited number of lifts. People are just very tired at this point of time.

More luggage getting piled up in the hall

One last look to our Hotel, we are on the way to Jeddah.

On the way to Jeddah:

All aboard...moving out...

The journey back to Jeddah lasts about 2 hours. The streets of Mekkah were getting very empty, Pilgrims were either returning home, or moving to Medinah. Many shops were closing too.
Inside the bus, many people just fell asleep. As you leave Mekkah, you start feeling all the tiredness of the trip falling back on you, but it is a nice tiredness, with the feeling of having accomplished something extremely important in your life.

Many shops were closing, Mekkah was getting empty

People falling asleep from tiredness in the bus as soon as we started moving

This place was so crowdy just 24 hours earlier

Jeddah Airport:

Approaching Jeddah Airport, Hajj Terminal

Jeddah Airport (Hajj Terminal) has all the facilities, however, it will be easier for you to plan on having your lunch in one of the restaurants that are outside the airport, not inside. The restaurants inside the airport are located at the gates halls, so it all depends when you will reach that point, they also do not offer as much choice as the restaurants that are outside the airport.

Hajj Terminal - The buses would park here, luggage will be unloaded using those side stairs

Hajj Terminal

Hajj Terminal

Your group leader should take care of the heavy luggage from that point on, you should not worry about checking in, they should do it for you.

Flight is delayed:

Inside Hajj Terminal, having some food and refreshment as the flight is delayed

We got the news once in the airport that our flight will get delayed by a couple of hours. We anticipated this, so one must stay patient once more. It is worth to mention that there are not many chairs for people to sit inside the departure hall, so plan on keeping the "Muzdalifah mat" close by. Also to note that the A/C are extremely cold, the floor is very cold, if you have elderly people with you, plan on keeping some kind of jacket/ thin blanket handy, you do not want to get sick on your last day of the trip. The good news was that the plane would be ready within 2 hours.

Jeddah Airport - Departure hall

Waiting at the gate

Waiting for the flight

Keep a mat handy, not many chairs available. People were just sitting on the floor.

Flight is delayed, sit and wait

Our Plane

Doors opened, let's just go back home now..

Once inside the plane, just sit where you can, the cabin crew was very friendly, good food was served, the return trip was very pleasant and relaxing. When we landed in Muscat, there was rain, it added to the happiness of people, as rain is such a great blessing from Allah.

Back Home:
Getting home finally, kids jumping from happiness, it's just great to be back home among the family for sure.

gimme my toys..

come on, let's open the bags now...

Mekkah on 13th Dhul Hijja, we miss it already, just 24hrs after leaving it..

<-- Step 10  Step Epilogue-->

Hajj Step 10: The 3 days of tashreeq

After the Tawaf al Ifadah done, we returned to the camp in Mina at night. It is worth mentioning that some people from our group reached the hotel in Mekkah at 18:00 only, after having spent more than 12 hrs inside the buses from Muzdalifah. They were just too exhausted and could not complete their Tawaf ifadah, they had to do it another day.

It is important to know that traffic jam in Mekkah/Mina/Muzdalifah is such that you can be trapped inside the buses for hours long, if the bus has facilities inside, then you are in good shape, but what if there are no facilities and one has to relief himself/herself? this is why it is important to plan onto walking and be independent from the traffic jam, especially if you have elderly people with you.

As for us, we found ourselves trapped again inside the return traffic to Mina from Mekkah, the roads seemed to be all closed, and we came to a stand still. Sensing that we could stay trapped long, I decided to talk a walk back to the camp with some other friends, leaving our women in the buses as they felt too tired to talk.
We walked for another 90mn to reach the camp, there was so many families sleeping on the walkways, and this is what generated a lot of traffic jam.
As for our wives and daughters, they also had to abandon the bus at some point of time and had to walk again another 90mn to reach the camp, asking for their way to confirm they were heading to the right direction. Al hamdulil'Allah I spent some time on the day 1 when we reached Mina to explain the tent position inside Mina to my wife and daughter, and to show them reference points and show them the street map. This proved to be very valuable lesson given as they were confident on finding their way back to our tent, while many people stayed behind trapped in the buses because they were so scared to get lost.

27 hrs inside buses:
As for the 9 people that stayed in the bus, they had to spend their night inside the bus at Muzdalifah, far away, their bus got lost and they only managed to reach our hotel in Mekkah (not even Mina) by the following day at noon time. Among them were people who had been trapped already 12 hrs the day before, and another 15 hours on the return to the camp.
Bottom line: if you are fit to walk, then do not waste your time inside the buses and WALK WALK WALK...

The Jamarat and the 3 days of Tashreeq:
During the 3 days following Eid, the main ibadah to do is to stone the 3 pillars each day after Dhohor. You could stay 2 or 3 days. Our group spent only 2 days in Mina.
There are clear pathways to the Jamarat and the place is wide enough al hamdulil'Allah, there are no reason to be scared of that place anymore as the authorities have made it very large and wide to accommodate the pilgrims, Jazahum Allah khair. The Jamarat used to be the most scary event of the hajj, but it is nowadays very easy.
There are escalators that can take you to the different levels, walkways are well indicated, there are no mixed crossing of the crowds, you enter one side and you will exit from another one, without having the risk to cross another flow of people.

It gets crowdy, keep vigilant to have always an escape route just in case.

Jamarat - Escalators to the 2nd floor

Escalators to the 2nd floor of Jamarat

View from Escalator

Walkways well defined, one way in, and one way out

Jamarat wall - very large, keep your head low when you finished throwing and you walk out of it

That bridge at the backside is the train track.

Exit from Jamarat, we will have to turn left and return to our Mina camp for the night.

<--Step 9  Step 11-->