My first Umrah By Rayya Taha Al-Falah International School, DPS Jeddah This is my first trip to Makkah and I am really excited. I have heard many stories from my parents, aunts and uncles about Makkah and Haram. Finally, I can see it for myself. We board the elevators and reach the top, my eyes widen in amazement by the sheer size of the mosque and the hundreds of people walking past us in all directions. As we are about to enter the mosque through one of its many doors, my mother instructed me to take off my shoes as no one was allowed to walk inside the mosque in dirty clothes or footwear. I take off my shoes and follow my parents inside with our shoes in our hands. My dad stops in front of a pillar and wedges in our shoes in the space between the pillar.As we start to move away, I worriedly ask my dad why he put our shoes there. My dad smiles at me and tells me that the shoes will be safe as no one will dare to steal them in the House of Allah. He told me we will pick up the shoes on our way back. As I look ahead, there in front of me rising from amidst the crowd was the Ka'bah. It was beautiful and I was mesmerized. We joined the crowd around the Ka'bah and to do Tawaaf. I looked around me and saw old and young people, children and people in wheelchairs performing Tawaaf. I also saw a man leading a group of people reciting Dua's. After finishing our Tawaaf, we prayed two Ra'kah prayer followed by Dua'as. I was very thirsty so I went with my father to drink Zamzam. Few minutes later we began our Umrah and here the crowd was even larger and I felt nervous. As we started to walk forward I tightly grabbed my mother's hand.Two minutes later we were nearing the mountains of Safa and Marwa. This was where we turned around and walked back to the start. It was a tight turn. There were so many people there. It was difficult to move my arms or even to breathe. Slowly, we made the turn and started walking again. For a moment there I thought I'd get separated. I saw an aged woman stumbling and walking slowly. There was a young woman with her, who was trying to help her but she also was being crushed by the huge swell of people. I went to the water coolers, again, for another refreshing drink of Zamzam. It felt sad when people behave this way in Haram. After all they come here to worship and to earn good deeds, but by pushing others and selfishly causing harm and possible injury to them they are only losing it and gaining sin instead. My father told me not to hurry in my prayers, especially when I visit Haram to perform Tawaf and Umrah. __
