Arriving in Mecca with SA Salaam – Umrah part 1

It would be a shame not to write about this experience. It was the trip of my life and it left a huge impression. The Umrah. You should see us at the airport in Ammaan. There, we had our stopover and we sat one by one in the small sanitary facilities, wrapping our cloths. “You check with me if it fits well, I will check with you”. It was kind of funny. Now we were in the state of Ihram as it is called. Our next flight would now be to Jeddah. Jeddah airport was hectic, we were also a bit tired. Outside I immediately enjoyed the view of a palm tree, so serene. We were really there, the land of our prophet, peace be upon him. After a while, we were able to get on the bus. On our way, the bus drove past a large arching structure over the highway. The Haram, the sacred part, started from this point. I tried to wake up myself and try to realize where we had just arrived, in the sacred city of Mecca. All history flashed through my mind, the Prophets Ibrahim and Ismail built the house of God here, our Prophet, peace be upon him, grew up here. An unprecedented history. And we are really here now! You wait for the moment when you see the colossal clock tower, which is not that difficult with 600 meters in height. It wouldn’t be long …

Although everyone could use a little bit of sleep at the moment, we still had to keep awake. Now that we were in the state of Ihram, we wanted to do the small pilgrimage right away. So, we only made a short stop at the hotel to leave our suitcases and freshen up quickly, which was badly needed. To be fair, no one really wanted to rest now that we were so close to our goal. In a little while, we would be standing in front of the Kaaba itself. We couldn’t wait anymore. We took the shuttle bus to the mosque. we arrived behind the clock tower at the final stop, we would have to walk all the way under it. That was a special occasion, crossing one of the largest buildings in the world. I have to say that I was never too impressed with the building, I just thought it was unnecessary. But when I was there, I thought it had something to offer, it also had a really nice function of a clock, a clock is essential for the Muslim to perform prayer. The moment you cross this building you will pass the entrances of a number of luxury hotels. The average Saudi likes large American SUV’s that gulp oil. After the passing we came to the other side, at the mosque. We had reached the well-known white marble….

We had ended up in the main square. We had missed the morning prayer and would first catch up together in the mosque. It is a gigantic mosque, and the gates seem to be made for giants and beautiful stones have been used for it. It was an exciting prayer because after this we would start performing the rituals of the little pilgrimage. It was special to see the inside of the mosque. Here and there, a man was sleeping. Most of the pilgrims consisted of old to very old people, there were hardly any young people to be seen. It is therefore a very good trend that more and more young people are coming to Mecca as it is also cheaper nowadays. We looked for an empty place to pray together. That was not that difficult, because we were in a quiet place in the mosque and the Kaaba was still far from sight. Every now and then I felt uncomfortable, because we still only had two towels on and a bag. In the mosque we walked barefooted of course, the entire mosque is made of pure white marble slabs. And it felt very cool to the feet, because of the water pipes that run underneath and the fact that a lot of sunlight is reflected off of it due to the bright white colour. But walking barefoot also hurt a bit, but again it wasn’t all comfortable. After the prayer we grabbed our bags and got ready for the big moment …

More to follow…

Author: Youssef