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-->

Hajj steps 9: Tawaf Ifadah

Tawaf Al Ifadah, the other most important pillar in Hajj...you just cannot miss it as there are no replacement for it and you need to come back to finish it, even if it was 30 years later!!..

After finishing the Jamarat at 04:00, we carried on our walk towards Mekkah. If you plan to walk to the Haram Mosque, you must take the Pedestrian road towards Mekkah. Beware that many people are confused at some point of time and might follow the signs for the cars, which is much longer. You must take a LEFT TURN towards Mekkah after you pass the Barbers, it is a path that has sun cover on top of it, so you should not miss it. There are also indication plates everywhere, you will not get lost so do not be scared.

Fortunately, the road between Mina and Mekkah is on a gentle down slope. This will help you as you are probably tired from the long walk you have done so far. However, just remember that Allah is Helping you in every step, so just keep holding onto Him to make your matters easy till the end and you should just be fine.

The trip from Mina to Mekkah will take you about 1 hour exactly. We reached the gates of the Haram Mosque at 05:00. My wife and daughter went to the ladies and I waited for them. We still had our back packs with us and I just left them hanging somewhere on the grills outside. Allah is there to Protect them from any harm and if it is written that you would get stolen, then there is not much you could do. Hopefully, Allah will not allow any thief to get onto your belongings.
Note: Although I am tall and put the back packs high, after I returned to take them,  I found them buried under several other "heavy" other bags and it was all mingled and difficult to release the knots people had put on their bags, just keep this information in mind.

As my wife and daughter returned from the ladies, the Azan of Fejr took place. We prayed outside then entered the mosque to make our tawaf on the ground level.
It all went fine for the first 3 turns, but then, the Eid Salat took place and the pilgrims stopped the tawaf to make the salat of Eid. This is a mistake as the pilgrims are not obliged to pray the Eid Salat. The ground level was then in a mess, with some pilgrims trying to continue their tawafs while others deciding to stand in their path and pray the Eid salat. This generated tiredness on us all and my daughter could not continue any further..

I just can't walk anymore..:
When my daughter told me that and I looked at her face, I knew that it was maximum she could take. Now, trying to find a wheel chair inside the Haram will prove to be a little bit more complicated (and expensive) than anticipated.
We found a wheel chair person who asked us 800 SR!!. By that time, we did not have much money left in our pockets, we negotiated the price down to 600SR, but as I searched for the money to give him, we only had 560 SR left, which he accepted al hamdulil'Allah and we went to the 3rd floor to continue the rest of tawaf.
The duration of 1 tawaf on the 3rd floor lasts around 10mn. When we started on the ground level, our 1st turn took 10mn, the 2nd took 12mn and the 3rd took 15mn because the crowd kept coming. There are no much difference between the floors and the 3rd floor is more relaxing than the ground one, you can make more duas at ease.

The 560 SR wheel chair, make sure he does not run faster than required.

We started our Tawaf at 06:10 and finished the tawaf ifadha + the saii between Safah and Marwah by 08:50, so it took us 02:40 in total.

We went out of the Masjid after the Saii, then walked to the grills, picked up the back packs, walk again a bit, drew some money and headed to a Turkish restaurant for some very nice chicken grills to gain some strength.






Where are you? we are still stuck in the buses!!
At 10:00, I decided to call our group leader to give him from our news. I was shocked to learn that they still had not reached the Jamarat and they were stuck in the buses on the road after Muzdalifah, not even reaching the limits of Mina!!!...They could not believe that we had already finished all our rituals and were having nice food, so they decided to drop off the buses and continue by walk..I was glad that we did not stay in the buses and went by foot all the way from Arafat, it might not be easy, but it was certainly better than staying stuck in bus for hours and hours.

Return to the Hotel:
We took a taxi back to our hotel and paid the price of 200SR, we reached the hotel by 11:15, and took a good shower, changed the clothes and had good rest. Luckily, I managed to find a cash machine close by.
Note: it is not advised to try to negotiate taxi price from Mekkah, just grab any taxi as you might not have the chance to find another one. If you have already walked 30KM, I doubt that you would have enough energy to negotiate long or to stand again for much longer time, so just grab whatever taxi is there and for whatever price you will get.

Tawaf Ifadah on Eid Day.

Our 6 person bedroom - After walking all the way from Arafah, that bed would feel as a 6 star hotel.

<--Step 8  Step 10-->

Hajj steps 8: Jamarat

10th Dhul Hijja; the day of Eid. After resting a few hours, you should get ready for the long day ahead. The sleep was short, often cut with people trying to pass through narrow paths and almost falling on your tent. Just put in your mind that you are there to gain some rest, and not to sleep, do not expect to have an undisturbed night, everybody is looking for quiet spot, and there are just NONE.

If you have with you elderly or women/children, you are allowed to leave Muzdalifah after the middle of the night.
There are reports that the middle of the night is not "midnight", it's rather the time where the moon would have set.

You would have to look at the moon on your left hand side if you are facing Mekkah, and it won't be very high on the horizon, so when it's about to disappear, it will be time for you to leave the boundaries of Muzdalifah.
You will also need to know how far you are from Muzdalifah boundaries, as it takes at least another hour to reach there.

As for us, we slept at 22:00, and woke up at 01:00 AM. By the time we packed and were ready to go, it was about 01:40. Just leave the tent behind you, we just donated it to a couple who was outside with a child, they were happy to get some cover to sleep a bit more comfortably.
So we started walking again around 01:40, but my wife was too tired and the cream for the muscles did not help much. We had to take a push chair to the Jamarat. Luckily, we found close by a person with a chair, and negotiated the price down from 250 SR to 200 SR, then we set off.

We reached the Jamarat at 03:40, so it took us 2 hours from the Masjid Mashaar Al Haram to the Jamarat.

Note: there are many guards along the way to Jamarat, they will not allow you to take bags/ mats, umbrellas etc, so make sure you do not keep these unnecessarily as they might be taken away.

The path you are on would take you to one of the many levels of the Jamarat complex, you head towards the last pillar, and you stone that pillar with 7 pebbles that you would have collected in Muzdalifah.
After that, you move out of the path of other pilgrims, keep walking untill you exit the Jamarat bridge, and you can cut your hair either at the barber shops, or ask your wife to do it if you have brought with you the necessary items to shave, just like we did.
By 04:00 AM, we were done with shaving and needed to head towards Mekkah for the Tawaf Ifadah.

Jamarat - 10th Dhul Hijja. Approaching the complex from Muzdalifah.

Jamarat Complex at 04:00 AM. Many people are there and will continue to be there.

<--Step 7 Step 9--->