ALMIGHTY Allah legislates in the Holy Quran: — And complete the Haj and Umrah for sake of Allah ..." (2:196) Haj is one of those incomparable experiences, for many a trip of a lifetime. Three years ago I finally fulfilled one of the main pillars of Islam, I felt exhilarated, special, happy and also humbled to have been chosen to take part in this amazing journey. Haj is a congregation of millions of Muslims from every place imaginable and it is also a reflection of the condition of the Muslim Ummah; the good and the bad amongst us. One of my most vivid memories of Haj was seeing this old Arab woman trying to navigate an escalator, in the Jamarat area, for the first time in her life. The woman was terrified and her son was literally carrying her on the steps and cajoling her not to be afraid. When she got off on the next floor she cowered to a corner and sobbed her eyes out. The woman was a reflection of most of the pilgrims — many whose trip to Haj was for the first time they had ever left their villages or small towns. Many of them are overwhelmed, afraid and are dealing with modern city life for the first time in their lives. When you take that into consideration, then you will give the pilgrims the benefit of the doubt and understand that some of the complaints that we hear of bad behavior if not justifiable is at least understandable. The bad behavior usually stems from ignorance and lack of etiquette of how to deal with certain circumstances. One of the major complaints of any returning pilgrim is the lack of consideration from some and the pushing and shoving in the crowds. However, I personally did not suffer a lot from the pushing and shoving in the crowds, as I attempted to try and stay clear from too congested areas which I had also been warned to do by my friends. However, with all the pushing going on I also saw many considerate pilgrims. For example, once when I dropped my prayer book during tawaf, an old man stopped the crowds, at risk to himself, picked it up and gave it back to me, I thought that was really sweet. Also I never forgot this sight of a man pushing his elderly mother in a wheelchair during Tawaf, on the roof. He had accidently pushed the chair on another pilgrim's toe, who stopped and showed his displeasure. The wheel-chair pusher then apologized profusely, in sign language as they didn't share a common language, and kissed his hand in apology and the whole incident ended up in them hugging each other. Of course globalization and commercialization had to rear their ugly heads for surrounding the Haram are five star malls and international hotel chains, like a fortress of consumerism blocking off the haram, which means the sanctuary, from the common Muslim. Another sign of commercialization is the Haj operators promising a VIP Haj, a contradictory term in a ritual where we are all supposed to wear Ihram, a symbol of purity and equality that removes societal status and distinctions. The VIP treatment meant that we were fed a five course buffet meal at Arafat with the centerpiece a whole platter of roasted goat! So instead of focusing on our prayers, they would instead have us fight indigestion after stuffing ourselves from such a feast! I was happy, at least, that most people were grumbling about the opulence and many attributed the need for clean toilets to be their main criterion to choosing these VIP Hajs. It is understandable that there will be a lot of trash created as a result of the congregation of around 4 million people. What is not acceptable is how can Muslims, whose part of faith is cleanliness, without any disregard, litter and sully their holy sites. The usage of tons and tons of plastic and other disposable utensils is the main culprit behind the accumulation of so much trash in the sacred sites. And I commend the authorities for employing workers round the clock to clear away the accumulated trash and keep the holy sites clean. It is sad how we ignore the fact that Haj is supposed to be an opportunity for us to live simpler lives where we respect the environment around us. A greener Haj, where less plastic is used, is something that the Saudi authorities need to work on instead of introducing more cleaners and bigger waste dumps every year. However, I do realize that the task of educating the Ummah to be environmentally friendly has to start in their home countries. Despite the commercialization, there was still a lot of sadaqa, almsgiving, going around and the word sabeel was commonly mentioned. The word sabeel is an abbreviation of "Fi sabeelilah" meaning "giving in charity for the sake of Allah". The people of Makkah in particular are staunchly proud of their status of serving the pilgrims, which was more obvious at the Haram where common Makkans would turn up with bags of dates and big flasks of tea and coffee to distribute to the pilgrims. Some would send out young men with baskets filled with chocolate bars or coolers filled with ice-lollies, a welcome respite from the heat. Pilgrims also practiced sadaqa, for when I visited the branch of a charity, called the Haji gift; I found it busy with pilgrims from all over the world coming to donate money. The Makkah charity did amazing work. It ran a very essential program to provide food and water to the hundreds of thousands of poor pilgrims. At Arafat and Mina you would see the poor pilgrims happily carrying boxes of food, water and juices from the different sabeel distribution points, many funded by anonymous donors. There were always big trucks stationed at strategic areas that would offer cold bottled water to the parched pilgrims, they would just shout sabeel and people would rush to them. Sharing prayer rugs was another form of sadaqa that most pilgrims practiced at the Haram. Some of the pilgrims would turn up at the Haram with bags of sweets and would walk around distributing, a wonderful gesture that brought warm smiles to those present. One of my favorite memories of the Haj is one day after Isha prayers on the roof of the Haram; I decided to sit near the edge of the roof, which was a balcony like structure, to watch the Kaaba below where tens of thousands of people were swirling around it performing tawaf. I found two elderly women sitting, one Turkish the other Egyptian, when they saw me they smiled and made space for me to sit next to them. The Turkish woman filled my palms with nuts while the Egyptian offered me a cup of tea from a flask. We all sat quietly munching on nuts and sipping tea while basking in the peaceful aura of watching the crowds underneath us doing tawaf. For me one of the most touching sights at Haj was when I saw two old men, in simple shalwar khamis, eating from a small container, a meal of rice and some curry. The food looked like it was barely enough for one person, let alone the two of them, but despite that they had shared their bits of morsel with a mongrel cat. The sight of the three of them enjoying their food was touching and was a lesson for many of us that despite their meager possessions these men had understood the spirit of Haj, which is to share, have love, show mercy and kindness even to the weakest of God's creation.
