Hajj Entry No. 3

The stop over in Mina quickly went by, it is time now to go to Arafah. Arafah is not really far actually, only about 20 km or so from Mekkah, even less from Mina. But bear in mind that during Hajj, your time reference is the traffic jam :P. In any case, our ride to Arafah went relatively smooth, we got there right before noon I believe.


From here on, I just want to say that Arafah is basically the Essence of Hajj. Whereas other rituals can be replaced with penalty (aka dam) if you missed them, Arafah cannot. Here is a barren desert, almost devoid of any kinds of vegetation. Here is the place where you can go crazy with your du'a, until the sunset. Complain to Him, praise Him, rejoice in Him, wallow to Him, whatever your heart feels like. If I may recommend you, pick a solitary place somewhere on the hills of Arafah, stand, face the Kiblat and raise your hand to the sky. Look at the all the humanity below the hills and just pray, pray, pray! Cry all you can as well, may your prayers be answered in this sacred ground. I cannot tell you how much emotion that went in this place, but I guarantee you, come with the right heart and mindset, and you will leave the place with its memory imprinted and etched forever within your soul.

Sunset finally came and the time has come to return to Mina again, with a stop over in Muzdalifah. But this time God decided to play with our patience a bit :) The trip that could have taken less than 1 hour turned out to be 15 hours marathon in a bus that had no AC or toilet. I wish I could have just walked to Mina, but there were some members in the group who were quite seniors, so it was not wise to leave them......We spent the night in Muzdalifah in a bus actually and picked up small pebles that will be used later for the Jumrah. Until then............