My Hajj Experience 2009 - Medina

Beautiful Masjid Nabawi, Medina. Entrance to the men's section with non-stop mechanised cleaning.










Medina was a delight. I always like this clean, modern city with moderate climate. The drive from Mecca to Medina took more than 8 hours, stopping along the highway for lunch and prayer. The stop-over place was as filthy as years ago when I did my Umrah, not a restful, comfortable and clean place. The government seems to forget that there are thousands of people break their journey along the way to Medina and they need a place that's clean. The condition was real bad.

We arrived in Medina at Maghrib time and checked in Bahauddin Hotel, a modern hotel in front of Masjid Nabawi's door for ladies. The new Masjid Nabawi is magnificent.





The old part of Masjid Nabawi where Makam Rasullullah is, indicated by the green dome.














The courtyard is now sheltered from sun by rows of huge beautiful umbrellas. I don't know exactly know what they are made of. You don't have to fight your way to find a praying place for Zohor and Asar in the mosque. The courtyard is cool and breezy and most time when I found the mosque was packed, I prayed there with many other Malaysians. But of course, just like in Masjidil Haram, there are Malaysians who believe that praying inside the mosque is more pahala but not in the courtyard. So the struggle continues.




The huge umbrellas are closed in the morning and at night.

















The half-closed umbrella.












The discontent among the jemaahs towards the company spilled over to Medina. Though the hotel is good, very near the mosque, clean with regular service, there was another kind of struggle. With more than 500 jemaahs, the dining space was so limited, shared with other groups of companies. Breakfast, lunch and dinner were big tussles. Limited tables and chairs, crammed buffet tables, jumping Qs, coughing at food tables and greedy habit of piling huge amount of food in the plates and left it unfinished were the unsightly daily scenes. Again I wondered what Hajj meant to them. I resorted to going to the dining hall as fast as I could, took some food and brought it up to my room to eat in peace. Lunch was always kebabs or bakso bought outside and sometimes dinner too. Another hassle was the elevators which are small and cannot accommodate the 800 people in the hotel. It was an endless struggle and you were told to be redha and sabar because it's Ujian - all man-made that could be avoided with efficient management.

Throughout my stay in Mecca and Medina after Mina, I was unwell. My body was filled with cough mixtures, panadol and antibiotics. We were reminded to use face masks in crowded places, I wore it faithfully but my roommate simply refused because she didn't feel comfortable wearing it. I have never heard of people die of wearing a face mask. So every time she got the attack, the next day I would fall sick too and I was so tired of being sick all the time. It was so frustrating and tiring - the 'I, Me, and Myself' syndrome really reared an ugly head. Since wearing a face mask didn't help me to avoid the germs in my room, I used it for the purpose to protect others from getting the germs/virus from me when I coughed or sneezed. The same thing happened also in Medina and I have to cancel joining the ziarah trip outside Medina. By the time I reached KLIA, I was still coughing so badly. It has calmed down a bit now but I still need to get drug into my body.

It rained in Medina on 22 Dec 09 at Asar - not the heavy rain as we have here in Malaysia. There was only one umbrella opened. Everybody ziroed in the mosque for prayer and it was really jammed packed as the women's section couldn't accommodate the huge number of women jemaahs. I chose to pray outside under the umbrella, in calmness and in peace. Well, rain is water and water will dry. So it was no big deal for me when my telekung and my praying mat got a bit wet. One Indian lady slipped in the mosque and broke her arm. I could imagine the chaos in the mosque when everybody fought for a space to pray. I loved the rain, it made it so cool and pleasant and the rain went away as fast it came. Many Malaysians couldn't understand why I chose to pray in the courtyard during the rain.

Arrangement for returning to Malaysia ignited another conflict between the company and the jemaahs. The company, working with Tabung Haji and MAS suggested that all jemaahs pay Rial 35 so that all baggage would be handled by airport staff which made it easy for all. I was delighted with this plan. I thought why not do it and treat the Rial 35 as sedekah to those airport workers who had to work hard to check in all luggage. Another selfish attitude surfaced when many questioned why we have to pay Rial 35 and why not paid by the company and accused the company was making money out of the jemaahs. Out of sheer frustration the organiser cancelled the plan and everyone had to struggle with bags and jumping Qs. It was unbelievable. I just didn't understand it. Many shopped for thousand of ringgits plus paying hundred of ringgit to send parcels home and they grudged the Rial 35 for the airport service? Where did charitable heart go when they just completed Hajj?

In the plane, Ju, one of the jemaahs told me that she regretted for not smuggling a few bottles of Zam-zam water in her luggage, as so many did. I told her not to regret it as she was doing the right thing. We have been warned the danger of having zam-zam water in the luggage - it can endanger the lives of people in the plane. But I know many disregarded it and out of sheer selfishness they think for their own benefit alone - not for the safety of the people in the plane and they were proud for being successful in fooling the airline. This is really mind-boggling for me - how do these people think and associate with what they do with Hajj? There is something wrong somewhere, where the internalization of Islamic teaching is concerned. Are we really the real Muslims that we claim we are????

This Hajj, I have seen so many noble deeds and kindness which delighted me but also as many if not more of selfish, unislamic behaviour of the jemaahs. In Al-Haram and Nabawi, there were so many questions I asked Allah to enlighten me on what being a Muslim is all about - are they only the prayers, the aurat, the haram and the halal?

Out of these experiences, I am still so very grateful that Allah graced me the opportunity to do my Hajj again and thus saw a different side and understanding than what I saw in 1984. I hope for those who read my Blog and plan to do their Hajj to learn from it and made some changes in themselves.

In my next Blog, I would like to make some suggestions for the would be Jemaahs for the years to come.