Many people are willing to spend much money to leave their countries in order to worship in the Holy Mosque especially during Ramadan, Masha Allah. Since we live in Jeddah, only around 87 km from Makkah Al-Mukaramah, we (with my husband) went to the Haram on the 5th night of Ramadan. We tried to find a time that we thought it would not be too crowded, or at least, not as dense as in the last ten days of Ramadan. We set off after Asr prayer at around 16.45. Maghrib in Makkah was at around 19:09 so hopefully we could start Umra at 18:00.
Around 18:00 we were already in Makkah, but the roads leading to the Masjidil Haram apparently had been increasingly congested and it took us 30 minutes to arrive at the Grand Mosque. It was unpredictable, just entering the first week of Ramadan and the Grand Mosque was so full, Subhanallah!
We were intending to implement Thowaf soon, however we could not enter the mosque as there were police who guarded some of the doors and diverted us toward the 2nd floor of the mosque. Arriving on the 2nd floor, we tried to enter the newly constructed Thowaf track, but as it is devoted to wheelchair users, we were forbidden to enter. I was getting restless, the time was at 18:50 which meant that we had less than 20 minutes before the adzan Maghrib would begin. For a half an hour we tried to start Thowaf but failed and we finally gave up and sat down to get ready for breakfast. I had prepared dates and drinking water from home, so that at the time of breaking we did not need to wait on anybody to share dates. Subhanallah, every year when Ramadan arrives, many people want to share iftar, especially dates, Arabic coffee, and laban (fermented milk), and sometimes there is also a lot of bread. Even in Jeddah there is a generous man who supplies his vehicle to take about 15 women, three times a week, to the Grand Mosque and back to Jeddah, as a form of charity.
The Adzan echoed and we all were breaking with dates and zamzam water to quench our dry throats and it replaced the lost energy from fasting all day long, bismillah….. A few minutes later, an imam directly led Maghrib prayer.
Right after Maghrib prayer we tried to go to the location of Thowaf. Two policemen had blocked the way toward the Thowaf area, preventing us to enter, because the way we were going was actually the way out, but I tried to ask the police to allow us to go in, because if not, we would have to take another road further and we did not know which way. Thanks be to Allah (SWT), because I am a woman, they were more respectful and let us enter this way.
It turned out we were entering a new floor for the Thowaf area that we had wanted to visit before Maghrib prayer. The area that caters to wheelchair users. If we had not been permitted there we would have had jostle at the Thowaf area near ka’ba and we saw that it was filled with hundreds of people, Masha Allah. We went to Masjidil Haram many times before but due to the construction in the Mosque, it was not very easy for us to find the place for Thowaf. After approximately one and a half hour we finally could complete the Thowaf, alhamdulillah. After praying in the area Multazam for a moment, we continued to perform sa’i.
Since we had not eaten anything except dates and zamzam water, we started to feel tired. My husband and I only ate dates and zamzam water again and again and continued to survive until sa’i (and even taraweeh) was completed. We wanted to finish sa’i before Isha prayer at 21:08. Alhamdulillah, with non-stop walking, right after the 7th of our sa’i, the adzan for Isha echoed throughout the Mosque and we completed our Umra with tahalul (hair cut).
We looked for a place to perform Isha prayer in the middle of the crowds of pilgrims, which was getting fuller by the moment. Although I only got a small place near the exit of Marwa hill (the end of the sa’i area), with sloping floors, alhamdulillah, I still could carry Isha in congregation and then we looked for a place outside of the mosque in order to carry out a few raka’at of Taraweeh prayer in congregation before we left for home.
Dear Muslimah, wherever you are, surely we will receive the blessing of Ramadan if we worship with humility and sincerity. May we it be so for us all, including those who will be placed with the pious in His jannah, aamiin Ya Robbal ‘Aalamiin.
Ramadan Kareem
