Saudi Pilgrim

Friday 1 January 2010

In the Islamic world, it is considered a blessing if there is torrential rain before, during or after certain events. JD and I were about to embark on our first pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia and a sudden downpour over the last few hours had left Bahrain with widespread floods. Given the annual rainfall here was usually enough to just about fill a water pistol, we took this as a good sign and weren't the only ones. Outside, a man took off his shirt and began dancing and singing in the middle of the road, oblivious to the passing cars that were only too happy to soak him as they swerved past.

Our journey was to begin just before dawn and would involve driving across the border into Saudi Arabia and then taking a series of internal flights to visit first Madinah and then Makkah before heading back to Bahrain. Our guide for the trip was Hussain, a good friend I'd known for years and who had performed the pilgrimage several times.

Afternoon prayers are called in Madinah

We set off in Hussain's car at 6.15am under a beautifully full moon that seemed to beam down happily on us as we drove across the Saudi causeway towards the border. The water level here was very high given the previous 24 hours rainfall and at times dangerously close to lapping the sides of the road where it dipped to just a few metres above sea level.

Before entering Saudi, there was the small matter of car insurance that could be bought enroute via a drive-through booth. This covered us for the Saudi part of the road trip and took all of five minutes as we stopped to give the necessary credentials and were then issued with the paperwork to show in Saudi.

The Bahrain side of the border had just a handful of cars and we quickly breezed through into the neutral zone. However, there was a queue at the Saudi border because of the longer three day weekend with many Saudi's returning from having visited Bahrain for New Year's celebrations.

The queue of cars bumbled along amicably and ten minutes later our turn came. As this was my first visit to Saudi I needed to have my fingerprints taken so we were directed to park up. Hussain escorted me over to a dingy hut where a bored looking Saudi official sprayed Windolene on a glass sensor and took my fingerprints. There was nobody else around which was a relief as we had a flight to catch and this really wasn't a place you'd want to be stuck waiting.

Next up was the search of the car by customs officials but this amounted to little more than a quick look in the boot. Hussain told us that because we were travelling as a family, the security were not too bothered but if it was a bunch of guys in a battered old Datsun, the car would be probed very carefully indeed. Twenty minutes after approaching the border we were all done and I got my first look at Saudi as the sun began to rise.

Depressingly, the first thing to greet us was the ugly sight of a faded McDonalds outlet that had all the appeal of chicken pox but was the only place here where drivers could get food and drink. That is to say food and drink if you were desperate or delusion (or both) but I was clearly in the minority as the row of trucks in the car park testified.

We drove across the Saudi part of the causeway, which at one point rose much higher than Bahrain to allow boats underneath, and speeded through an empty checkpoint towards the mainland. The highway had two lanes and was empty at this time in the morning however we did see a car driving on the hard shoulder with flashing hazard lights whilst another car, presumably his mate, drove alongside as if teaching him what the steering wheel was used for. Or it could have just been that the guy was drunk, a dangerous proposition when one side of the road had mad drivers and the other was just open sea.

The sun climbed higher and we seemed to be in the middle of a vast industrial wasteland which wasn't surprising as this region of Saudi Arabia was the most oil-rich. Our destination was the King Fahd International Airport at Dammam, just next to Khobar where we were now heading, or at least trying to. Road signs were non existent in Saudi and those present often loomed up with only a few seconds spare to make the slip road. And as with other Gulf states, there was no U-turn if you missed the junction making it extra vital that we didn't miss our connection.

Fortunately, Hussain had taken this journey before and knew roughly where we needed to go. Even then, we kept our eyes peeled at every intersection as missing the flight would have been disastrous. There was plenty to see from the highway too; a huge JCB graveyard full of forgotten heavy machinery; rusted cars abandoned by the roadside that looked like they'd been used as target practice by the military; Bedouin tents dotted around the landscape which at first glance seemed a very strange place to pitch a mobile home given the scraps of metal lying around. However, most Bedouin had permanent houses too but hadn't given up their traditional Nomadic way of life tending livestock that also explained the number of SUV's parked in the middle of the desert.

Mosque entrance at night

The junction for the airport suddenly appeared and Hussain swerved into an unmarked lane riddled with potholes. The car bounced dangerously between two lorries and a tractor that both had the right idea and taken the inner and outer routes to avoid the shrapnel that was strewn across the lane. With moments to spare before the runoff that would force us to the next junction, we veered off the road and joined another highway, everyone collectively breathing a sigh of relief and me rummaging around for my rosary beads.

We could see the air traffic control tower in the distance and eventually came to another checkpoint where a gruff Saudi guard with cool shades and a machine gun peered into the car and then waved us through.

King Fahd International Airport is one of the three main international airports in Saudi, the others being Jeddah and Riyadh. It was a large building but despite this, it looked deserted from the outside and there was no hum of activity or constant throng of people walking to and fro. It was by far, the most deserted international airport I'd ever seen.

Going down a ramp and taking a ticket, we drove into a murky unlit underground car park, the type where you might expect to find bodies in trunks or a drug deal going down. It was quite full but again, there was nobody here either except for a porter who approached to take our bags.

Inside, the airport was huge and spacious with very few people wandering around. It was a far cry from the hustle and bustle of Heathrow and you'd have been forgiven for thinking it was for domestic flights only or that there were no flights scheduled for that day. The Saudi Arabian airlines desk was also empty and we checked in within minutes.

Riyadh ul Jannat by the Prophet's tomb

Security was stringent, far more than other Gulf states where it amounted to little more than a quick pat down. The security guards here requested all passengers to remove shoes and belts and would ask you to go through the scanner repeatedly until no alarms sounded. In keeping with the rest of the airport, the departure lounge was as quiet as an exam room with only a single shop selling a small selection of the usual duty free suspects. Irritatingly, few of the goods had price tags meaning you had to ask a salesperson for help although with so few people around, I think this was a deliberate ploy if only for the staff to indulge in a little light banter with someone.

A few minutes before the scheduled departure time, we boarded the smallest plane I'd ever been on, Hussain noting that it was made in Brazil that didn't really instill any of us with confidence. There was seating for just 48 passengers and the plane was fully booked however the staff were efficient and boarded everyone quickly so that we were ready to depart just thirty minutes after the gate had opened.

The two hour flight to Madinah was uneventful apart from the odd screaming kid and a large fly that annoyingly had managed to enter the cabin. However, most people were content to nod off or just chat among themselves. The seats were large and comfortable and cruising over a mainly featureless desert at 30,000 ft without a cloud in the sky really brought home how big and sparsely populated Saudi Arabia was.

The plane began its approach and banked steeply affording us a 360 view of the outside terrain. The sandy desert had given way to craggy rocks and we were surrounded by reddish orange mountains, very like the ones in Mashhad. From the air Madinah looked like a small and quiet place with no obvious signs of industrialisation or wholesale economic activity, not necessarily a bad thing and wholly expected given that this was Islam's second holiest city.

Madinah airport is only used for domestic flights and subsequently was a tiny affair with no terminals. Passengers disembarked onto the airfield just like in the olden days and were then taken to the main building. The sun was high with not a cloud in sight and we landed in 30C although a cool breeze made it feel slightly chilly as we stood waiting for the bus to take us to the main building that couldn't have been more than 50 yards away. It would have been much quicker to walk but security around here was tight and armed guards stood watching with the kind of look that said they'd happily open fire if anyone so much as sneezed in the wrong direction.

Most of the passengers were pilgrims but there were also a few suited businessmen, most likely sales people, who wasted no time in switching on their mobiles. This fascinated me somewhat as the notion of somebody coming to Madinah for a business meeting seemed very out of place for a town that was the final resting place of the Prophet Mohammed.

The bus arrived and everyone got on for the ten second drive to the main building. Inside, there were three short conveyor belts for luggage and a single immigration desk that was empty. Guards stood either side of the exit but there were no immigration or security checks as the airport catered for domestic flights only. The whole place couldn't have been larger than around 100 square feet and one could only imagine how busy it would be during the peak Hajj season when millions would descend upon this tiny airport.

Baggage promptly collected, we were out in under twenty minutes and took a taxi to the hotel. There was a further security checkpoint outside the airport and then we got our first proper look at Madinah or least tried our best. The driver was an old guy but that didn't stop him from speeding off as if the police were in hot pursuit. The short journey to the hotel was like a white knuckle ride as we jumped red lights, swerved in front of heavy lorries and tailgated clapped out bangers that looked like they belonged in a museum exibiting relics from the 1970's.

As with lots of the places in the Gulf, Madinah was full of people from the Indian subcontinent, all dressed in shalwar kameez, and it seemed even more prominent here with very few Arabs wearing traditional thobes to be seen anywhere. We passed a mountain where bismillah (In The Name Of God) had been engraved and then got our first glimpse of the holy mosque with its tall minarets.

We were staying at the Intercontinental located a few minutes walk from the mosque in a district full of tall hotels. It was the only area of Madinah that could have been described as commercial and tall gleaming buildings stood against a backdrop of older apartments and ancient mountains. As it was low season after Hajj, we had got the rooms at a good rate so it was no surprise to find the place wasn't busy. A nice touch was the free wifi that was fast and available pretty much anywhere in the building.

Latticework in front of the Prophet's tomb

We checked into our rooms, all of which were spacious, clean and modern, but unfortunately didn't have a view of the mosque. Whilst everyone else unpacked I nipped out to buy bottled water for the group. There was a small parade of shops in the plaza by the hotel but as it was almost prayer time they were all closing so I had no idea where else I might find a grocers or supermarket. I decided to have a walk around the back of the plaza and with a constant stream of people heading towards the mosque, I was conscious of being the only one walking in the opposite direction, something that made me feel a little uneasy especially as it was Friday which is the main day for prayers.

I eventually found a tiny and very noisy shop nestling among the hotels and with a line of people queuing for all manner of interesting looking sandwiches and drinks before prayers began. I bought water and headed back to the Intercontinental. Everyone had unpacked and washed so of course the immediate priority now was to go visit the mosque and read prayers.

The holy mosque of the Prophet Mohammed is huge as you would expect and surrounded by a vast courtyard that has giant mechanical sunshades to keep the heat off the tiled floor. A grand entrance flanked by the famous twin minarets leads the way inside the mosque that is arranged as one vast building with multiple exit and entry points, each one guarded by Saudi officials. People were milling around having finished afternoon prayers and some families had sat down to spread out a mat and share food in the manner of a picnic.

The tomb of the Prophet was located around the far side of the mosque at the opposite end from where we entered and rather than go through the mosque to get there, we walked around the courtyard instead. We passed a separate entrance for women and also the Jannat ul Baquee (heavenly cemetery) which is the ancient graveyard that has stood since the time of the Prophet and is where the Imams are buried along with other prominent members of the Prophet's household. A few watering stations were also dotted around the courtyard for pilgrims to drink from and various other buildings appeared to be for official use although none were manned or open.

A green dome indicates where the Prophet's tomb lies and there is a men-only entrance underneath with a pair of heavy gold doors opening the way inside. Upon entry, the tomb is immediately to the right behind a roped off area that extends a few feet away from the heavy latticework behind which the actual tomb of the Prophet Mohammed can be seen. A Wahabi accompanied by a security guard stood just inside the roped off area to prevent anyone from reaching out to touch the latticework or take any pictures and also to dispense information should there be any questions. Pilgrims crowded in front of the Prophet's tomb to pray towards it and every now and then, the Wahabi would tell them to move on, not only because this might cause a bottleneck with pilgrims but because the notion of praying at a grave was not something Wahabi's believed in or endorsed, something that would crop up in any burial place at Madinah that pilgrims visited.

To the side of the Prophet's tomb is a very sacred area called Riyadh ul Jannat that was identified by way of the carpet that was older and more worn that that around the rest of the mosque. Surrounded by pillars, this area was the space between the Prophet's house and the minbar (pulpit) from where the Prophet used to recite khutbah (preach). The Prophet of Islam was heard to say that a piece of jannat (heaven) lay between his minbar and house and that this land would be raised to meet jannat on yom il quiyamat (judgement day). Hence, this area was considered the best place to read prayers in Madinah and was always very busy.

A beautiful dawn at the holy mosque

As with the front, a lattice wall separated the tomb from the praying area by the minbar with a solitary guard on duty to ensure nobody came too close. Hussain told me that we should just find any space we could and pray here since it would always be crowded. This was no easy matter itself but we eventually managed to find space without too much trouble. However, praying was quite hard as people constantly pushed and shoved for room and walked in front with little regard for what you were doing. I felt quite obstinate by this and am ashamed to admit that I stuck out my elbows to ensure that any person who tried to push past me would get it in the kidneys and take the hint not to walk in front of where I was praying.

After spending some time next to the Prophet's tomb in the sacred area, we left to explore the mosque grounds. Next to the green dome above the Prophet's tomb was a smaller silver dome that indicated where the house of Imam Hassan (2nd Imam) used to be. This was directly opposite the Prophet's house but was now a library inside the mosque.

The call for afternoon prayers was made and the Wahabi's started rounding up people wandering in the grounds, including us, to go and pray. Once again the streets rapidly emptied and those few shops still open began to shut, the majority having remained closed during the sleepy afternoon period.

Prayers over, I found JD padding around barefoot like a kitty cat. Somebody had liked JD's brand new shoes a little too much and taken them so we made our way to the stalls just outside the mosque grounds and bought another pair.

Hussain and I were keen to visit the baquee which was accessible for an hour after morning and afternoon prayers so we hung around the grounds waiting for the gates to be opened. Entry to the cemetery used to be for everyone but was now men only and truth be told, the Wahabi's would have much rather nobody visited period. As a movement founded just over 200 years ago, Wahabisim has certain practices that differ from mainstream Islam, one of which is the belief that visiting the graves and shrines, even of the Holy Prophet and Imam's, is a form of idolatry and totally un-Islamic.

For this reason, the graves of the Imam's had long since been demolished and there was even a story about the Wahabi's trying to tear down the Prophet's tomb in the early 1900's. However, the first man to strike the blow on the green dome had immediately been struck by lightning and, unable to remove his body, the Wahabi's had simply painted over it to make it part of the dome. The bump where the body lies is still visible to this day although it has since been covered with additional construction to disguise its origin.

Sunrise at the holy mosque

Whilst the women congregated outside the entrance and peered through the grating, Hussain and I followed the crowds of men making their way inside. As a precautionary measure and perhaps to remind people who was boss, the Wahabi's had converted a nearby basement building to house a troop of soldiers complete with riot batons who now took up position inside the baquee between the main graves and pilgrims whilst guards mingled with the crowds. Hussain said that this was yet another strong arm tactic by the Wahabi's to discourage as many people as possible from visiting the baquee.

None of the graves inside the cemetery were marked but fortunately I had a guide that Hussain had thoughtfully printed off for me and I'd memorised the main plots so we could pass on our condolences. Four Imams are buried in this baquee and as immediate members of the Prophet's household, there was little mistaking their graves. However, once again, the Wahabi's had chained off the entire area leading up to the tombstones and everyone was forced to read their prayers from a distance of some 30ft.

The four Imams were buried side by side in chronological order with Imam Hassan, 2nd of the twelve Imams, nearest to where the pilgrims were gathered. Alongside Imam Hassan were Imam Zain al Abideen (4th Imam), Imam Mohammed al Bakar (5th Imam) and Imam Jaffar as Sadiq (6th Imam). Immediately in front of the Imams was the grave of the Prophet's uncle Abbas.

With the Wahabi's glowering and lecturing to the assembled pilgrims about how wrong it was to visit the tombs of the Prophet's household, Hussain pulled out a prayer book and discretely read from it whilst I stood in front of him so he wasn't spotted. There was good reason for this; the Wahabi's wouldn't hesitate to confiscate any prayer books or literature they saw people reading from and we weren't about to surrender having come so far to visit the Prophet and Imams.

Near the entrance of the cemetery where the women had congregated was the grave of Umm al Benin, mother of Abbas the General who was martyred in Karbala with his brother Imam Hussain (3rd Imam). The grave was a large plot set against the wall with a rectangular stone border and it too was chained off at some distance making it difficult to see anything in detail. A single guard and Wahabi were also on duty here, the only other place in the cemetary where access was strictly prohibited.

None of the other graves in the baquee, of which there were hundreds, had been fenced off or had access restricted so we were able to visit them up close although without the printed guide we wouldn't have known what each plot was as there were few headstones and often no indication at all that anyone was buried there.

Visiting the baquee was considered important given that many of the Prophet's household were buried here and there were various stories of miracles occurring for those who made the effort. One such story was of an old blind man from Iraq who had a dream to visit the grave of Umm al Benin and pray there. Upon reaching the plot, the old man knelt down to pray and wiped his eyes with the dust around the grave that miraculously restored his sight.

A deserted clocktower after sunrise

The cemetery was a peaceful yet dusty and barren place with hundreds of pigeons fluttering around. The whole area was surrounded by CCTV and the cemetery was still in use to this day with the far side, a good several minutes walk away, reserved for burials. Feeding the pigeons of the baquee was considered a good deed but strictly prohibited but here and there we saw pilgrims reach into their pockets and scatter seed when the guards were not looking.

A small boy, barefoot and dressed in shabby clothes, was selling bags of pigeon food away from the main crowd so we decided to take a risk and buy some seed. As we stood talking to the boy, who couldn't have been more than ten years old, we heard a shout and spotted an old man ambling over. He began to scold the boy and tried to take the pigeon food but Hussain intervened and told him to leave the boy alone as he was just trying to earn a bit of money and not doing any harm. The boy took this as his cue to leave and with us urging him to run, began to edge towards the exit whilst the Wahabi, who looked as though his idea of exercise was waddling to the nearest pie shop, puffed and panted after him.

Leaving the mosque, we stopped at a KFC to buy food to take back to the hotel as there didn't appear to be anywhere else nearby to eat. However, the chicken was far too salty and the fries tasted as though they had been cooked three days ago and then reheated. With the group fed, albeit with junk food that tasted awful, everyone retired to bed for a few hours rest before night prayers. We'd all had an early start that day and I hadn't even bothered sleeping the night before but I quickly found that sleep would be the last thing on my mind during my stay in Saudi and I managed perfectly fine on a daily ration of just 4 hours, a feat that would be laughably impossible for me in normal circumstances. I'd often heard from other pilgrims that they slept very little when visiting the holy places in Saudi and always wondered how they managed. Now I was here, I understood how and why; when you visited such places, all you wanted to do was spend your time praying and the more you did this, the less anything else mattered.

At 10pm I knocked on everyone's door but only JD answered. Leaving the others at the hotel to rest, JD and I left to read our night prayers. The mosque was lit up beautifully under a crystal clear sky studded with stars and was far less busy than during the day. I once again entered the mosque from next to the Prophet's tomb and made my way to the sacred area of Riyadh ul Jannat. It was still bustling but there was plenty of space and I managed to find a spot to pray no more than 10ft away from the Prophet's tomb. I felt very much at peace here and could easily have spent all night at the mosque.

Returning back to the hotel, JD felt a little peckish and with everything apart from KFC shut, our options were limited to Hardee's. Thankfully, the chicken burger here was far better and restored my faith in fast food as an occasional treat to be enjoyed when there were absolutely no alternatives. I finally got to bed at 1.30am after having decided against popping back to Hardee's for a few more of those tasty chicken burgers.

 

Saturday 2 January 2010

I was already awake by the time the call for prayers, known as adhan, was made at 5.45am. Everyone else was still asleep and with no signs of activity from any of the rooms I made my own way to visit the holy Prophet. During my stay in Saudi, I was the only one who didn't miss a single morning or evening prayer at the mosque and soon became the default person who got up at adhan time and woke everyone else.

Madinah centre after morning prayers

The mosque grounds were busier than I expected and the Riyadh ul Jannat area was absolutely packed so I ended up reading in one of the huge mosque extensions just behind the tomb. I noticed that the floor inside here was covered with giant rugs rather than carpets and that each section of rug on which you prayed had the Saudi symbol of two crossed swords.

Despite morning prayers being very busy, the mosque soon emptied and the maintenance crews moved in to start the daily shift. Barriers were erected and pilgrims evicted so the halls could be cleaned one section at a time. Given the huge size of the mosque, one would have expected the operation to take several hours but the crews were very efficient and had finished cleaning well before noon. I had put my shoes in a rack outside one of the entrances which was now closed but the maintenance crews had thoughtfully placed all the shoes on a mobile cart that was placed at the designated exit points saving pilgrims a long walk back.

I made my way to the baquee that was now opening and saw a few people were wearing face masks in the wake of the whole swine flu scare that had been doing the rounds in the Gulf. With the sun slowly creeping off the horizon, the cemetery turned a crimson red and shafts of sunlight penetrated the dust kicked up by the pigeons to create a stunning dreamy landscape.

Over at the Imam's graves, a Wahabi was having a rant about something in Arabic, most likely why pilgrims shouldn't be visiting, but without Hussain to provide the translation it was all lost on me. A large sign placed at the entrance in several languages, including English, declared something the Wahabi's believed the Prophet had said regarding visiting the dead which the Wahabi seemed to be emphasising.

After passing on my condolences to the Imam's and spending some time at the plots, I was back at the hotel for breakfast by 8am. Hussain was most indignant that I hadn't woken him for morning prayers until I pointed out that I'd practically hammered on the door as well as call his room several times to no avail. We took a lift to the first floor restaurant, Hussain grumbling away almost as much as my stomach that was now anxious for proper food after the junk we'd had the day before.

Crossroads on the outskirts of Madinah showing the surrounding Mountains

It was a buffet breakfast with a good spread on offer catering for all tastes. We wasted no time in getting the eggs in whilst I commandeered the toaster and set about making a mountain of toast for everyone. The breakfast room wasn't at all busy yet the waiter seemed to be in a real hurry to clear our tables and ended up dropping food and water on JD whilst taking our plates. Eyeing him balefully, we headed back to our rooms to change and freshen up for the rest of the morning as we had a few short trips planned around Madinah.

We hired a Toyota taxi van and driver for the morning at a cost of 100 Saudi riyals and set off at 10am for our first destination that was Uhud Mountain on the outskirts of Madinah where the second war of Islam had taken place. The land of the battle was now a small open-air market but there was a fenced off cemetary where those who died had been buried including Hazrat Hamza, the uncle of the Prophet Mohammed and also known as the Lion of Allah. The Prophet was heard to say that whoever visited Madinah and did not visit Hazrat Hamza had been unfaithful to the Prophet.

Hill from where the archers disobeyed the Prophet and fired their arrows

As with the baquee in the holy mosque, there was a sign, complete with a lone Wahabi on patrol, giving the obligatory lecture about why we shouldn't pray for the dead. With Hussain once again reading discretely from the prayer book, we passed on our condolences and had a quick look around. This was a much poorer area than downtown and the few stalls sold mainly fruit and small religious artefacts. I passed an old man with misbah's saying "zaytun" as the beads was made from olive stones (the Arabic word for olive being zaytun).

To the side of the market was a small hill where a significant event had occurred during the second Islamic war. At the beginning, the Muslims were winning the battle but a group of archers stationed at the entrance to the mountain left their position to fire arrows and loot the belongings of the retreating soldiers despite strict orders not to do so. It was on this small hill where the archers had assembled and disobeyed the Prophet by firing arrows that subsequently lost them the war. It was also here that the Angel Jibreel (Gabriel) brought the sword Zulfiqar, with its two distinctive points, down from heaven as Imam Ali had broken so many swords in battle.

There were a few people walking around Uhud but there was nothing much to see. An old building that used to be much bigger was now in ruins and the hill was covered in dry scrubland although a few people had ventured to the top to see what it was all about. The hill most probably offered a comfortable vantage point during the war but perhaps from thousands of years of pilgrims walking on it and taking earth, was now worn down and eroded.

Back in the car, it suddenly struck me that we were going pretty slowly and hadn't gone above 40km which immediately elevated the driver to one of the best in the Gulf. It was 22C outside and we were heading to the other side of Madinah.

We passed by a shopping district that had all the brand names like Next and Subway along with the tiresomely ubiquitous McDonalds and then came across a mall that looked sleek and modern, similar to the commercial area where the hotels were.

Uhud mountain

Our next visit was the Qiblatayn mosque. It was here that the Prophet Mohammed, after receiving a revelation from God, changed the direction of prayer (called Qibla) from Jerusalem to Makkah. It was a lovely peaceful building finished in pristine white and practically empty. We entered to read our prayers and spoke to one of the men inside who pointed out the old Qibla. The direction towards Jerusalem was still visible in the mosque but had now been rebuilt as a niche so it was no longer prominent. Despite this, the mosque was so called because the phrase Qiblatayn literally means Two Qibla's.

Our final destination for the day was the Quba mosque which was the first to be built by the Prophet. One prayer here is said to be equal to performing one full Umrah so it was beneficial to read as many prayers as possible whilst visiting. This was a much larger mosque and set in grounds near an area of dense palm trees. As with the Mosque of Two Qibla's it was peaceful and quiet inside and not at all busy which gave us the opportunity to spend more time there to read prayers.

Market at Uhud

There were other mosques in Madinah that we would have liked to have visited but these had long since been demolished by the Saudi authorities. As we approached the hotel the driver told us that even the new Hilton had been earmarked for demolition so that the Prophet's mosque could be expanded and it was doubtful that expansion would even stop there in the long term.

We went to read afternoon prayers and entered the Riyadh ul Jannat where Hussain and I found a spot right next to the Prophet's tomb. Through the latticework, I could see the dark building of the Prophet's house and behind that, the house of Imam Ali. Upon leaving, we stopped to have a look at the tomb from the front and Hussain fell into conversation with one of the Wahabi's. I was standing behind Hussain and fell foul of the religious police when they spotted my neck chain. This had been given to me as a child by my mother when she performed Hajj and was a simple silver chain with God's name engraved on one side and a prayer on the other.

The Wahabi was having none of this though and jabbing his finger at me launched into a tirade about why wearing a chain with God's name on was of no use or protection and that it would be better to carry a Quran and read from that instead. This was all in front of the Prophet's tomb where crowds of men had congregated and catching Hussain's eye which silently told me to not start an argument, I just stood there dumbly and nodded without having the faintest idea what the Wahabi was saying in Arabic.

The old Qibla at Qiblatayn Mosque

One good thing out of this was that having struck up a conversation with the Wahabi, we found out a bit more about the history of the original mosque from where the Prophet gave sermons. The original size was from the three pillars next to the Prophet's house, and which was now where the latticework began, up to the fifth pillar past the minbar. In other words, the entire Riyadh ul Jannat area that was carpeted used to be the site of the original mosque.

We left to visit a hotel nearby where some of Hussain's friends were staying. They operated a coach business carrying pilgrims from Bahrain and were in town so we wanted to find out if they could arrange transport for us to Makkah. We greeted the main guy Jaffar outside the hotel and then went back to his room to meet his two friends. After a few minutes another friend arrive and sat to chat, and then another, and then another every few minutes thereafter until nine of us were squeezed into a small room. We drank tea and I sat and listened whilst the group talked about the best way to get to Makkah.

The baquee opened for the daily afternoon session and we said our goodbyes and left the hotel. Upon reaching the cemetery, we saw a heated argument taking place just by the chained off area in front of the Imam's graves. One of the pilgrims had been reading from a book about Imam Jaffar and the Wahabi had commented on the book saying it was all lies. In a society where rules were enforced and expected to be followed, any form of debate or argument would quickly attract a crowd which had now duly gathered to see what was going on.

Current Qibla at Qiblatayn Mosque

Hussain whispered that it was always unwise to get involved in a debate in Saudi, even more so in Madinah that was pretty much the centre of Wahabi fanaticism, as things could get pretty nasty if the Wahabi's were provoked. As we listened, the argument moved onto where Sayeda Fatima Zahra, the daughter of the Prophet, was buried as the exact place is unknown. At length, the Wahabi unable to refute the claims or defend his argument resorted to sitting back down behind the safety of the chain fence were the soldiers were standing. There were still lots of military personnel milling around so the crowd soon dispersed and we left the cemetery. I noticed that women were only allowed near the baquee during the afternoon session and forbidden from going anywhere near it in the morning.

We stopped off at Hardee's as we still hadn't found any restaurants nearby or places that sold anything other than fast food so our choice was pretty limited. Matters weren't helped by the fact that Hardee's seemed to be out of stock of pretty much everything except chicken burgers. You'd have expected that a place whose main business was selling fast food would actually have enough fast food to sell!

Inside of Quba Mosque

Back at the hotel we settled down for our decidedly mediocre feast. Whilst the chicken burger was ok, the soggy fries were not fresh or crisp and tasted as bad as those served up at KFC. Even with something as simple as basic fast food it appeared there was a wide margin for getting it wrong.

Hussain had got to know a local taxi driver called Abu Fadhal who very kindly agreed to take us to Makkah and now offered to show us a bit more of Madinah. We met Abu Fadhal at 7pm outside the hotel and climbed into his taxi to visit an area called Al Awali located on the other side of the baquee where the majority of Shia lived. Here, there was a place called Fadak that was owned by Sheikh Al Aameri. Fadak is what remains of the farming land that Sayeda Fatima Zahra was given as a gift by her father the Prophet Mohammed. Abu Bakr and Umar, companions of the Prophet, took this land on the basis that Prophet's did not give inheritance. Subsequently, the land had remained in control of the ruling dynasties until the authorities allowed what was left of it to be bought back by the Shia population.

Today, the land of Sayeda Fatima Zahra is known for date trees and plantations and is populated by mainly Shia who are called the slaves of Imam Hassan, an honourable title for those who fought to have the land returned lawfully. Our intention had been to visit the farm and catch a daily lecture that was given there but in the event the lecture was almost finished by the time we arrived.

The farm was surrounded by high walls and a double gate for security as the Wahabi's did not want people visiting and would sometimes stand outside the main gate to turn away pilgrims. We wandered around the gardens and bought a bag of dates that were the sweetest we'd had.

Outside of Quba Mosque

Back in my hotel room, I went through the rituals and steps to perform Umrah the next day so I knew exactly what to do and when. The call for evening prayers was made and we set off. The Prophet's mosque was less busy now as the weekend was over and people were leaving Madinah and returning to work. Hussain and I managed to bag a prime spot in the Riyadh ul Jannat right next to the Prophet's tomb just a few feet away and took turns to pray here as this was the closest that any pilgrim could ever get in the sacred area. Between us and the tomb, there was nothing but the latticework.

A young 20-something guard was on duty in the Riyadh and Hussain struck up a conversation with him about the building. The grating and latticework surrounding the Prophet's tomb was over 500 years old and dated back to the Ottoman Empire. However this was as far as we got as the discussion rapidly escalated to questioning the legitimacy of the whole Wahabi ideology and the guard, unable to answer the probing questions Hussain was firing at him, reverted to an "I know better than you" argument.

The domes of Quba Mosque

Hussain decided to test the water by attempting to reach out and touch the latticework, a move guaranteed to annoy the Wahabi's and likely to provoke a jail sentence on a particularly bad day. The guard instantly batted away Hussain's hand and another Wahabi cleric poked his head around the corner to see what was going on. This second cleric was far more senior and looked like he meant business so we decided to leave before the scene turned ugly. Of course, there was absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to touch the latticework surrounding the Prophet's tomb. In Makkah, people could routinely touch the holy Ka'aba and did so whilst in Iran and Iraq, the tombs of the Imam's were accessible to all.

On our return to the hotel we stopped at a mall to buy tea and water. Nobody could face fast food again so we ordered room service and I had a very good roast beef sandwich with proper fries. JD hadn't been feeling well and as we'd be driving to Makkah the next day, I popped out to buy some medication for sickness and vomiting. Fortunately, there were two all night pharmacies right outside the Prophet's mosque and with JD dozed off after having taken some tablets, I retired to bed at 2.15am.

 

Sunday 3 January 2010

On my last day in Madinah I awoke at 5.30am sharp for morning prayers. Everyone else was still asleep so once again I made my own way to the Prophet's mosque. As before, it was very busy but this time I managed to pray right behind the Riyadh ul Jannat in the main body of the mosque very near Imam Ali's house, the next best thing if one wasn't able to actually get inside the sacred area.

The maintenance crews moved in again immediately after prayers had finished and started sectioning off areas for cleaning. For the first time I noticed that the middle of the mosque was actually open-air with just one of the huge mechanical umbrella's for shade. I only realised when I suddenly heard bird's tweeting inside and looked up to see where they had entered from.

Mosque entrance in the morning

Outside, the mosque looked beautiful as the marble glinted and caught the yellow and orange rays of the morning sun. I headed over to the baquee to visit the Imam's and saw the same rent-a-rant Wahabi from yesterday. He had drawn another crowd but this time his colleague was addressing a large group of pilgrims in Urdu. With everyone including the guards scandalously engrossed in what the Wahabi was saying and the area in front of the graves completely devoid of anyone, I had the company of the Imam's all to myself.

There was a funeral being held at the cemetery that morning and the burial was at the far end so there was a group of mourners walking through bearing the coffin. Despite the several stone paths that wound around the baquee, the pallbearers would sometimes take a more direct route across the bare earth although with so many unmarked graves it would have been difficult to avoid stepping on the wrong place. The usual flock of pigeons were also present and the flapping of their wings once again kicked up the dust through which the sunbeams created a shimmering haze.

Back at the hotel everyone was still asleep and with nothing else to do I mooched around and watched the BBC World News. An hour later, everyone was up with JD feeling better but still unwell. We headed downstairs for breakfast and found the 9-10am slot a lot busier than our usual time. Breakfast over, we returned to our rooms to pack. Additionally, I wanted to revise the specific prayers for my first Umrah that, God willing, we would be performing this very day so I spent some time writing everything out phonetically and in longhand. The rest of the morning was taken with packing and napping until afternoon prayers beckoned and we left the hotel to say goodbye to the Prophet and Imam's. Hussain and I headed over to the Prophet's entrance for the last time and were fortunate enough to pray right at the back of the Riyadh ul Jannat between the Prophet's house and Imam Ali's house.

The same Wahabi guy who had lectured me the previous day about my neck chain was there again and obviously recognised me and Hussain as he smiled as we passed by and stopped to greet us. With a final prayer at the front of the Prophet's tomb we left the mosque and stepped back out into the grounds. The sun was dazzlingly bright and reflected off the white tiles forcing us to screw up our eyes. It was difficult to see anything clearly unless you had shades yet the actual floor tiles in the mosque grounds were cooled underground and remained pleasantly comfortably to walk on barefoot.

Graves of the Imams from left to right: Imam Hassan, Imam Zain al Abideen, Imam Mohammed al Bakar and Imam Jaffar as Sadiq. The larger tombstone in front is of the Prophet's uncle Abbas.

We returned to the hotel to check out. Abu Fadhal was already waiting for us and we eventually left at 3.45pm for the long journey ahead to Makkah where we would perform Umrah immediately upon arrival. I suddenly became quite anxious as things were getting serious now and I didn't want to make any mistakes. However, our first stop was a 10 minute drive to a meeqaat just outside Madinah. The meeqaat's are designated places where pilgrims to Makkah are required to perform ghusl (wash) and put on the ihram which, for men, consists of two pieces of white cloth. There are five such meeqaat's surrounding Makkah to accommodate pilgrims visiting from any direction.

Grave of Umm al Benin against the wall

Buying our ihram was the first task and a small market at the meeqaat had various stalls for this very purpose. Hussain asked me what type of clothing I would prefer and I blinked stupidly as I had no idea that we were required to make a choice. One of the stall owners took out a few different sizes of ihram and Hussain pointed out the difference between the thickness and finish of the material. I still had no idea what I should be looking for so I felt the material of the sample ihram in a manner that suggested I was an expert and decided on the "thickest is best" principle given that it might be cold in Makkah.

We also needed a pair flip flops each so I chose a matching white pair with a sole as thick as a sandwich for comfort although it would make little difference in Makkah as I was soon to discover. The whole attire cost little more than a fiver each and clutching our new belongings we headed over to the shower cubicles. I already had my piece of paper with everything I'd written on so I knew what specific niyyat's (formal intention) needed to be said and when.

For men, the two pieces of the ihram are really just two very long towels but the cloth used must be paak, that is pure and clean according to Islamic convention, and cannot be made of silk, animal hide or contain golden threads. Additionally, the cloth for the ihram must have been lawfully obtained and not usurped from its rightful owner and must not be sewn or stitched. Although there are several ways to wear the ihram the basic premise is the same; the upper piece covers from the shoulder to the elbows whilst the lower piece needs to cover from the navel to at least below the knee. Apart from the ihram, nothing else including socks or undergarments can worn for performing Umrah or Hajj.

The Prophet's tomb seen from the Riyadh

Going into the ghusl area, I saw a long line of stone shower cubicles and entered one tentatively. The moment I started ghusl, put on my ihram and carried out the necessary rituals, I would enter a purified state whereby I would be forbidden from removing the ihram until my Umrah had been fully completed.

When showering and washing, no scented soap can be used and you cannot dry yourself afterwards which explained the practicality of ihram tending to be available as just two long pieces of towelling. I said the necessary niyyat whilst performing ghusl and again when putting on my ihram. The first problem was how to wear the thing. The lower piece was dangerously loose after I wrapped it around my waist to wear like a sarong whilst the upper garment was even more fiddly. I blundered around with the top piece, first trying to wear it like Batman's cape followed by a boob tube type affair and then an off-the-shoulder sari style number before settling on a poncho similar to something you might expect to see Clint Eastwood wearing in a spaghetti western.

Imam's graves at sunrise

Hussain had been waiting patiently for me outside and tried not to laugh as I exited the cubicle desperately trying to stop my lower garment from ending up around my ankles. Of course, having done all this previously, Hussain's ihram was neatly tucked in and wasn't going anywhere. He suggested I turn over the waistband a few times and I tried to copy the manner in which he had put on his upper garment so it wouldn't flap about and get in the way.

Each meeqaat has a mosque where further niyyat's must be declared and so we now all duly read our prayers and set off for Makkah, a distance of 440km down the highway. Part of the ritual of wearing ihram is that men must travel without any shade. Ordinarily, this would have meant we'd be sitting in the back of a pickup but this wasn't possible in Saudi due to the authorities disagreeing with this particular requirement. We finally left Madinah around 5pm and hit a checkpoint before joining the main highway. It was unmanned but during the Hajj season, each and every vehicle would be stopped and inspected, a process that could take hours.

The journey to Makkah was through craggy mountains, a few scattered villages and a barren landscape that once again really brought home how sparsely populated and underdeveloped Saudi was. Before long, the sun slipped below the horizon in a blaze of orange hues turning the highway pitch black. There were no lights on the road or indeed anywhere so I couldn't see a thing apart from the occasional passing car that would always put on its beam lights before overtaking.

Jannat ul Baquee A 360° video clip of the Jannat ul Baquee

I was now in a state of ihram where I spent the time reciting my prayers or watching the occasional scenery fly past. Abu Fadhal drove at no less than 100mph, albeit safely, and the highway was empty so the journey didn't take anywhere near as long as expected. The car was big and comfortable and soaked up the bumps so it was no surprise to anyone that I soon dozed off. We stopped at a halfway point to stretch our legs and for me to adjust my ihram that once again seemed to have its own agenda and finally reached Makkah four hours later.

The first thing to meet us was another checkpoint, far bigger than the one in Madinah but also unmanned. Non-Muslims are forbidden from entering and this was the outer boundary from which pilgrims could be turned away. We drove through the checkpoint and, with streetlights once again in abundance, got our first look at Makkah. It was much larger than I had expected and resembled a proper city rather than a town like Madinah. I could see a tall high rise in the distance and there were commercial property developments everywhere. In fact, the contrast with Madinah was the most surprising aspect of the trip.

Entrance to the Prophet's tomb

We got our first brief glimpse of the Haram Sharif before driving underneath, past some incredibly noisy fans, to get to the other side where the hotel was located. We arrived at the Le Meridien and checked in. It was a very nice four star place, clean, modern and more plush than the Intercontinental. There were mirrors everywhere that made finding the way to our rooms rather tricky as, whilst wearing ihram, pilgrims are forbidden from looking into mirrors for cosmetic reasons. And so it was that there were mirrors at the check-in desk, mirrors in the lift, mirrors in the hallway and several mirrors in each room on every wall.

Despite keeping my head bowed and my eyes to the floor, it was quite difficult to not look in any mirror we passed by. It's a natural thing that most humans do and I still had no idea how I looked in ihram.

Dumping the luggage in our rooms, I immediately washed and then we set off to perform Umrah. It was dark now and we approached the site via a beautiful floodlit plaza with a tiled floor. Removing our flip-flops and storing them in the shoe boxes outside, we stepped into the Haram Sharif.

Plaza outside the Haram Sharif

It's difficult to describe the first moment you actually see the Ka'aba. It's a magnificent building that draws the eye from near or far and looks so real and imposing that you can't believe you're there. Dressed in a luxurious thick black cloth, the Ka'aba was much larger than I expected and utterly grand with a majesty unmatched by anything else. I was utterly captivated and could have spent all day just staring at it. One of the world's most famous and recognisable structures that over a billion people worldwide turn to face and pray towards five times daily was right there in front of us.

It wasn't at all busy inside and we immediately made our way towards the corner of the Ka'aba that has a crack in the wall. Imam Ali was born inside the Ka'aba, the only person to be granted this honour, and the crack in the wall opened up to allow his mother Sayeda Fatima Bint Asad to enter a few days before the birth of the Imam. Up close, the Ka'aba was even more imposing and exuded an air of grandeur, greatness and divinity that instilled peace, tranquillity and contentment.

The Ka'aba just after morning prayers

We read our niyyat and started our Umrah that began with seven tawaaf's (revolutions) around the Ka'aba. Whilst doing a tawaaf, one should always look straight ahead and keep your left shoulder facing the Ka'aba at all times. A slow but steady pace is to be adopted but some pilgrims preferred to treat it as a task to be done as quick as possible. Once again, it was extremely difficult to resist the temptation to just turn my head and look at this magnificent building to admire it in all its glory.

Next was the walk between the mountains of Safa and Marwah that must also be done seven times. This part of Umrah was the longest and even with me setting the pace with a brisk walk it took us nearly fifty minutes to complete. The mountains have long since disappeared and an underground tunnel now links the two places. It is here that there have been crushes in previous years where people have died during Hajj due to the sheer volume of pilgrims. However, now during the low season it was empty so we were able to complete our rituals comfortably.

With the walk between the mountains finished, we headed back down the tunnel to the Ka'aba outside. The Haram Sharif is forever being cleaned by an army of maintenance workers and I suddenly slipped violently on some wet tiles that hadn't been dried. With nothing to hold onto I clutched at the nearest thing available which unfortunately happened to be Hussain who was rewarded with my elbow in his stomach. Apologising profusely to Hussain who helped me to my feet I thanked God that I hadn't gone for a six and cracked my head on the tiles as we still hadn't completed our Umrah. I was very much shaken and Hussain immediately went over to the nearest maintenance guy to berate him for leaving wet tiles where pilgrims were walking barefoot.

Video clip of the Haram Sharif

Back outside, it was much busier now as evening prayers had been called. However, we finished the final part of our rituals, a further seven tawaaf's around the Ka'aba known as tawaaf un Nissa, followed by prayers directly behind the small display case housing the footprint of the Prophet Ibrahim, made when he rebuilt the Ka'aba. And then we were done. I felt much relief, elation and happiness at having successfully completed my very first Umrah and was now able to spend some time taking in my new surroundings and to simply sit and enjoy being in the Haram Sharif.

With the whole site lit up under powerful floodlights I noticed small twittering birds flying excitedly over the Ka'aba whilst insects (mainly crickets) buzzed cheerfully through the air but here's the thing; none of the birds ate any of the insects and of course, it was forbidden for pilgrims to intentionally harm anyone or anything inside the holy Haram Sharif. The atmosphere was different from Madinah in that there was more energy in Makkah and everything seemed far more alive. I was enjoying it immensely.

Ka'aba after morning prayers viewed from the second floor balcony

As I sat there, a man sitting a few paces away from me got a telephone call and pulled out his moby to have a conversation about selling a car. This annoyed me hugely, not only because the guy hadn't bothered to switch off his phone, which had one of those stupid ring tones, but also because he had the audacity to take the call in the middle of the Haram Sharif. This was right in front of the Ka'aba and it seemed not even God's house would stop some people doing a deal so I glared at him as he proceeded to talk in Urdu at a volume that suggested he wanted the pilgrims in Madinah to hear what he had to say on his highly important call.

It was time to leave the mosque and with a final look at the Ka'aba we stepped back out into the plaza to collect our flip-flops. There were cats and kittens everywhere but once again, none of the felines chased any of the pigeons or birds in this holiest of places. I also saw the most delightful scene of an old man selling sticks who had laid out his prayer mat and was now trying to gently shoo away a small cat without any success. At length, the man simply gave up and sat on his rug to read prayers whilst the cat playfully settled behind his back just out of reach on the prayer mat.

Video clip of the Haram Sharif and Ka'aba from the second floor balcony

Returning to the hotel I was sorry to take off my ihram as I'd grown used to it by now and found it to be warm and comfortable and very easy to wear once you got the hang of putting it on properly. Unfortunately, the same couldn't be said for my left foot which was very sore. The flip flops we bought had cost around ?2 and felt like it. The plastic thong had rubbed across the top of my foot leaving a painful welt that eventually became a permanent scar that caused me to limp whenever I had to wear the flip flops. Hussain suggested the plastic was too new with little give and that I should try stretching it out a bit which seemed to work for all of about ten minutes.

I showered and we all met in JD's room for food and to relax after our long journey. As it was a special occasion we decided to order room service as a celebration for successfully completing Umrah and also because we hadn't eaten properly since leaving Madinah several hours earlier. I had a fantastic chicken tikka biriyani that arrived heaped on a plate with a fragrant side salad and it was quite hard to finish everything which caused no end of amusement to the others who knew I had an appetite like a horse.

Returning to my room, the electronic entry key decided to stop working. We had all been given two keys for our rooms and having left the main one inside which did work, I now discovered my spare key was faulty. I took a lift down eighteen floors to reception who gave me a replacement and going back to my room, found that this also did not work. I went to JD sheepishly who, already irritated from being unwell, immediately rang reception demanding they sort it out or did they expect me to sleep outside in hallway, a comment which had me in fits of laughter. In the event, the third replacement key did work and I finally got to bed at 2.30am.

 

Monday 4 January 2010

I awoke at 6am and finding everyone else asleep, went for morning prayers at the Haram Sharif. I had lived on little more than 3 hours sleep every night since leaving Bahrain but didn't feel the slightest bit tired.

This was the first time I'd seen the Ka'aba in daylight and it looked every bit as grand now as it had at night. The same small birds I saw the previous evening were flying vigorously and twittering and chirping loudly over the Ka'aba as if to read prayers too but I noticed that no pigeons flew over or entered the Haram Sharif. There was a higher force at work here that allowed only these small unidentifiable birds to fly directly over and around the Ka'aba.

As the sun rose the floodlights were switched off and the birds abruptly stopped chirping and flew off. After reading my morning prayers I went to the second floor that was deserted. The Ka'aba still looked magnificent from all angles and I could see it was getting busier now with more people doing tawaaf whilst the outside plaza was crowded with visitors.

Highway underneath the Haram Sharif

Back at the hotel, I found everyone else was now up and about and we went for breakfast. The restaurant is on the 21st floor of the Le Meridien and offers a view of the surrounding hills. From here, we could see the scale of the commercial and property development going on outside which was pretty staggering. Whole mountains were gradually being flattened to make way for hotels and accommodation and it all looked very different from just a few years ago when Hussain last visited.

Breakfast was very good with a large buffet and truly excellent chocolate doughnuts. However, the chef didn't notice that we were a group and seemed unable to understand that we each wanted a couple of eggs for breakfast. As the last person in the queue, when I told him what I wanted he replied that he'd already sent six omelettes to our table. This annoyed me somewhat as it's not like the Le Meridien had taken out an installment on the eggs and was trying to net a healthy return on investment. I smiled sweetly and instead of getting involved in some inane argument about eggs, I just replied that we'd already polished off the excellent omelettes and would like some more.

By 11am we were ready to have a wander around outside and left the hotel to buy groceries. In a mall opposite the plaza just outside the Haram Sharif, we found a supermarket called Bin Dawood that sold just about everything. There was also a pizza place called Pizzas of Eight complete with parrot logo, a name that surely deserves a medal for ingenuity.

The house where the Prophet Mohammed was born that is now Makkah Library

Returning to the hotel we asked about a driver to visit the other holy sites and were offered the services of Mohammed, an energetic 70 year old who was born in Makkah. We left at 1.15pm and immediately plunged into a series of tunnels that ran through the mountains surrounding the Haram Sharif. Emerging on the other side, our first stop was the house where the Prophet was born. This was now Makkah Library and although the room where the Prophet was born still exists, access is prohibited and it cannot be entered. The library appeared shut so we carried on.

Near the library was the mountain Abu Qubais where the first adhan (call to prayer) was given by Bilal bin Rabah. We went through another long tunnel and emerged into a tree-lined road with a green partition. Mohammed told us that the tunnel we had just come through was built 25 years ago when this whole area used to be nothing but rocky desert. Once the tunnel was complete, the city began to grow as further roads spread out from the centre of Makkah. Many houses were now hotels and we began to see buildings, both residential and commercial, that were marked in red. These, the driver said, were earmarked for demolition so that the Haram Sharif could be enlarged.

Hawashim Cemetary where Sayeda Khadijah and Abu Talib are buried

The road climbed higher and higher and we entered an area called Salmaniya where people used to live in the mountains rather than valleys to make use of the running water. Mohammed stopped at Hawashim Cemetery where Sayeda Khadija (wife of the Prophet) and Abu Talib (the Prophet's uncle and father of Imam Ali) were buried along with other prominent members of the Prophet's immediate family. A green door indicated where Sayeda Khadija and Abu Talib were buried and also marked the place where the Prophet and his wife had a house although the building had long since been demolished.

There were hundreds of pigeons in the cemetery and the moment we stepped out of the car, four African women immediately approached to sell seeds for pigeon food. As with the baquee in Madinah, It's considered good to feed the pigeons here and they are nothing like the dirty, disgusting, disease ridden flying vermin that you might see in any other city so we bought a few bags and scattered the seed that brought on an immediate feeding frenzy among the birds. It was much hotter under the sun than it had been in Madinah and we didn't stay outside for long.

Masjid-e-Jinn (Mosque of the Jinn) and minaret located in front of the tall building between the highway and side street

Back in the car, the drivers in Makkah were as bad as those in Dubai with no regard for pedestrians, traffic signals, indicators or indeed anything human or mechanical. Crossing a bridge, we next saw the mosque of the Jinn, so called because it was here that a group of Jinn were passing by when they heard the Prophet reciting the Quran. The Jinn were so moved that they came to the Prophet, repented and accepted Islam. A mosque was later built in this very place that was called Masjid-e-Jinn but this too was in the process of being flattened to make way for an enlarged Haram Sharif. We didn't manage to actually visit the Masjid-e-Jinn but could just about make out the minaret.

Our driver Mohammed commented on this saying anything old and historic was gradually being demolished to make way for new buildings. Eventually, all the mountains surrounding Makkah would be razed to the ground in the relentless pursuit of commercial development and modernisation. Mohammed also gave us a quick history lesson relating how the British never actually bothered to occupy Saudi and were quite content to make it a protectorate by installing a compliant House of Saud as puppet rulers who wasted no time in pushing Wahabism as the standard version of Islam to be practised.

We drove up a very steep mountain called Jabal al Noor or Mountain of Light where there was a cave called Hira. It was here that the Prophet received his first revelation from God through the Angel Jibreel (Gabriel) that commanded the Prophet to recite the first verse of the Quran. The mountain road we were travelling on narrowed and eventually petered out so we parked up and got out to have a look around. It was a dusty old neighbourhood full of flies and very hot. The incline on the road was incredible and left us breathless after just a dozen paces. A path led up the mountain and in the distance we could just about make out a few people clad in white making their way towards the cave which apparently could be visited despite the signs all around stating this was prohibited. Directly opposite Jabal al Noor was another mountain called Jabal al Khaimah that used to be a source of sweet water but was now dry.

Jabal al Noor (Mountain of Light)

Travelling back through the King Fahd Tunnel we stopped at Mina, a 5km square camp used only during Hajj, to have a look at the Al Aqaba pillar, one of three where the pilgrims throw stones at the Shaitan (Satan). The camp had been modernised recently and the makeshift tents replaced by hundreds of permanent canopies under which pilgrims stayed for a few days. The Al Aqaba pillar had a number of paths winding around to cater for the ever growing number of visitors performing Hajj and from a distance looked a bit like a multi-storey car park.

Prominently signposted and right next to Mina is Muzdalifah which is mentioned in the Quran as Mashar al Haram. This is the area from where pilgrims gather stones to throw at the Al Aqaba pillar. We didn't stop here and drove straight on to Mount Arafat, past mainly scrubland, oil pipelines and also a group of Bedouins herding goats and camels. A railway was also being built here to connect Arafat with Muzadalifah, Mina and the Haram Sharif, all places that pilgrims are required to visit for the Hajj.

On the edge of the Arafat is a mountain called Jabal Al Rahmah where it is believed that the Prophet Adam and Hawa (Eve) were reunited on Earth after disobeying God and having been cast down. It is also the place where the Prophet Mohammed gave his last speech after the Angel Jibreel told him he would pass away the following year. During the Hajj, this is one of the great spectacles of the world as millions of pilgrims all in white ihram are gathered to pray on the mountain range. Now though it was deserted and as we pulled up in the car, a group of men with brightly coloured albeit sleepy looking camels immediately came over to try their luck. Hussain waved them away and we set off to climb the steps of Jabal al Rahmah that had a tall white obelisk at the summit symbolising the actual place where the Prophet Adam and Hawa met.

There were a few people milling around at the top but surprisingly the obelisk was covered in graffiti. There was barely any space that hadn't been scrawled upon and I was hugely disappointed and very shocked that such a spiritual and holy place could have fallen into this state. A closer inspection revealed that the graffiti consisted of thousands of names with dates minutely etched or scribbled onto the surface. Hussain explained the reason pilgrims did this was through ignorance and sheer stupidity, what counted was registering their name in God's good books through prayer rather than scrawling it on an obelisk of religious and historical significance in the misguided belief that it would bring good luck.

Jabal al Khaimah

Leaving Arafat and once more waving away the Bedouins who were hoping for us to take a ride on one of their camels, our next stop was a mountain called Jabal Thawr that housed a cave, Ghar Thawr where the Prophet and Abu Bakr hid from the Qureshi tribe. Parking under a bridge, I got out and scrambled up a bank to get a better look. To the left of Jabal Thawr is a mountain called Al Maskhoota that had an interesting story. It was here that a woman tending her sheep was asked by the pursuing Qureshi tribe whether she had seen two men passing by. She replied that she had indeed seen two men on the next mountain whereupon God immediately turned her into stone for helping the Prophet's enemies. The term al maskhoota literally means "The Cursed" in classical Arabic, a very appropriate name for a mountain where the Prophet was betrayed. Of course, the stone had long since been broken up as part of the plan by the Saudi Government to destroy evidence that refuted Wahabi ideology along with anything else of historic interest so there was nothing to see now but rubble. However, the ground here was quite green, unusual given the rest of surrounding landscape was barren.

The permanent camps at Mina

Our trips over for the day, we headed back through the Al Maskhoota tunnel which is the longest in Makkah at 2km and runs through the mountains directly to the Haram Sharif. I was surprised to see the Le Meridien upon exiting the tunnel as I had lost all sense of direction and had no idea we were so close.

It was mid afternoon and everyone apart from me felt a little tired and sleepy. I left the hotel alone at 4pm and made my way to the Haram Sharif to read afternoon prayers. It was quite busy and I found a place next to a bearded old man who sat quietly reading the Quran whilst I finished my prayers.

Now for some reason, the old man had taken issue with me reading my prayers at that particular time. He was a Wahabi and with me not understanding Arabic and him not speaking English, there was some confusion at first as I tried to figure out what he was trying to say. I sat there thinking where was Hussain where you needed him whilst the old man rattled on and gestured with a pointed finger.

Al Aqaba Pillar in Mina, one of three symbolising Satan, that pilgrims throw stones at during the Hajj

The Wahabi soon got tired of this game and asked around if there was anyone who could translate. A maintenance worker who looked like he was from Indonesia came up and the Wahabi began talking to him in Arabic. With the Indonesian translating, I had a ten minute discussion with the Wahabi as to the correct times to read prayers that ultimately boiled down to me telling him to mind his own business and pray however he wished as I certainly wasn't a Wahabi nor bothering anyone. With the Wahabi and the maintenance worker tutting in disapproval, I made a point of not budging, standing up on the spot and reading further prayers thinking that was end of it. The old man however, had other ideas.

Another Wahabi sat down on the other side of me and began to openly converse with his mate. This second Wahabi obviously said something about me praying at what he regarded as the wrong time too as the old man pointed towards my hands and shook his head as if to say "this guy's a lost cause". Finishing my prayers, the second Wahabi turned to speak to me and although his English was very broken, I could understand that he was basically repeating what the old man said. The maintenance guy, who had been sitting behind me waiting for his moment to butt in, also moved forward to have a listen.

Video clip of the camps at Mina where pilgrims stay during Hajj

Despite his broken English and with me purposely ignoring him to end this pointless conversation, the second Wahabi decided to step things up a gear and whipped out his mobile. The maintenance guy translated that the Wahabi was going to call his friend who spoke English so he could talk to me.

I couldn't believe it! Here I was trying to read my prayers in front of the Haram Sharif, not bothering anyone and suddenly I was surrounded by three men and a moby! It was all very surreal, even more so when the second Wahabi handed me his phone and I found myself chatting away in English with a guy I'd never met who acted as though he was my new best friend. The man on the end of the phone was very friendly and asked about my family and Umrah before the main event, a patient explanation as to the reasons why I shouldn't be reading prayers at that particular time. Obviously, this was the Wahabi convention and like so many of their tenets had no basis as to the definitive way of doing things from an Islamic perspective. With three men down including the maintenance worker and last man standing, I was feeling victorious and wasn't about to sit there and comply with something I didn't in the slightest bit agree with.

Jabal al Rahmah A 360° video clip from the top of Jabal al Rahmah showing the white obelisk

Those who know me well often say I'd argue over anything just for the sake of a good argument and it was all systems go here. The bloke on the moby might have thought I was a nodding sheep and that all it took was a few well spoken words and a five minute conversation to See The Light but he was hideously mistaken. With the same firm but polite "mind your own business", I told him exactly why I thought he was wrong and he soon decided that he had better things to do than be my new best friend. He offered me good tidings, bade goodbye and I handed the phone back to Wahabi Number 2.

Back at the hotel, Hussain was most amused to hear about the encounter and told me that I didn't look at all like a local or even someone from the Gulf. Wearing Western clothes and looking the way I do, it was obvious from space that I was ripe for a conversion and apparently, Wahabi's were told to keep a look out for such people and try to turn them or at least preach Wahabism, the reasoning being that the target would be more susceptible and open to opinions if they were from outside the Gulf and not Arab. Of course, it would have been an entirely different matter if Hussain had been with me and I made a point of saying that he was my Amex and I wouldn't be leaving home without him next time.

We had an excellent grilled chicken for food via room service and then everyone decided to have a nap for a few hours before evening prayers. As always, I wasn't in the least bit sleepy and watched the news to see what was going on elsewhere in the world as I'd lost all sense of current affairs whilst in Saudi.

Returning to the Haram Sharif for evening prayers, it was very busy with more people doing Umrah in the evening than during the day. It seemed that early morning and late evening were the peak times for performing Umrah as the temperature was more agreeable and there were no interruptions for daily prayers.

Mount Arafat

Leaving the mosque, we headed to a mall on the plaza and entered the Bin Dawood supermarket to buy a few groceries. None of us had eaten chocolate for a while so we chose two large bags of Snickers with the intention of checking how much they cost at the till so we could hand one back if it was stupidly priced, a common occurrence in such places where there were lots of pilgrims. Hussain asked the Indonesian cashier how much the Snickers cost and the guy just ignored him to ring through the extra bag. Instantly, Hussain exploded and demanded to speak to the boss. The Indonesian cashier was quite rude and just pointed to the service desk where a man was sitting. Itching to give the cashier a slap, Hussain stomped off instead to the service desk to give the manager a piece of his mind.

Returning to the hotel with two bags of Snickers and Hussain still fuming, we had tea and bread followed by plenty of chocolate and sat chatting for a while. Back in my room, I showered and actually managed to get to bed by 1am, the earliest for days.

 

Tuesday 5 January 2010

For some reason I'd had a very restless night and didn't hear the adhan or alarm for morning prayers. It was quite by chance that I just happened to be wide awake and look at my watch to see it was already 6.30am. I leapt out of bed, dressed quickly and again left to read morning prayers by myself as Hussain and all were still asleep and didn't answers their doors or telephones.

Jabal Thawr

At the Haram Sharif, an old man sitting next to me pointed to the bottom of my trousers and made a cutting gesture. I think he was saying that I should shorten my trousers as I had turned up the bottom of my jeans after removing my shoes so they wouldn't drag on the floor. This irritated me so I just ignored the old man and eyed him balefully as I left wondering what it was with these Wahabi's always having one opinion or other about me. You would have thought the last thing on your mind when praying in front of the Ka'aba in all its glory would the exact length of your neighbours trousers!

The mosque was busy but not full and I didn't stay long as we planned to do the second of our Umrah's. We had an early breakfast at 8.15am but the chocolate doughnuts didn't taste fresh and were a bit too gooey, always a sign of a bad doughnut. As we had already done our first Umrah and were still within the boundary of the Haram Sharif there was no need for us leave to perform ghusl at a designated meeqaat so I went through the prayers I had written to refresh my memory whilst the others got ready.

Just after noon, I showered, performed my ghusl and once more put on my ihram saying all the necessary niyyat's for this part of the ritual. All prayers that must be recited before performing Umrah need to be read outside the boundary of the Haram Sharif if, as in our case, you have previously gone to a meeqaat, performed Umrah and then remained in Makkah to carry out subsequent Umrah's. However, upon leaving Saudi, any further Umrah's would once again need to begin at one of the five meeqaat's.

We took a taxi to Teneem mosque which was the nearest one located immediately outside the Haram Sharif boundary. Once again, the driving in Makkah was absolutely terrible and dare I say, even worse than Dubai if that was at all possible. Car horns replaced indicators and the bumper-to-bumper traffic didn't dissuade anyone from speeding and slamming on the brakes at the last possible moment.

Al Maskhoota mountain

It was a very hot day and flies starting bothering us the moment we parked up and stepped out of the car. There were a few coaches nearby and also a number of shower and washing cubicles.

Whilst the taxi driver waited for us, we went inside the mosque to read our prayers and say our niyyat. It was a large building but quite empty apart from a few other pilgrims who were also present to perform the necessary prayers for Umrah.

Ten minutes later, we were back in the car to return to Makkah. I noticed for the first time the large and very prominent signs in several languages declaring that we were now entering the Haram Sharif boundary and that non-Muslims were not allowed past the checkpoint. The drive back also gave us a further appreciation of how mountainous the land here was and just how much had been flattened. We saw lots of homes and places built right into the hillsides as a result of the urbanisation of Makkah due to ever growing numbers of visiting pilgrims.

Pilgrims at the door of the Ka'aba. The Hajr ul Aswad is to the left and shielded from the sun by an umberella.

Arriving at the Haram Sharif, we got out of the taxi and I hobbled after the others due to my flip flops that had opened up the scar on my foot. The Ka'aba was particularly beautiful on this hot day and once again I couldn't stop staring at it. You really do feel like you just want to go up and wrap your arms around the building and give it a big hug.

It was early afternoon, traditionally one of the quieter periods at the mosque yet it was unusually busy today. We needed to read our afternoon prayers first and soon discovered why there seemed to be more people around as sections of the Haram Sharif began to be closed off for cleaning and maintenance. The Haram Sharif has underground cooling just like the Prophet's mosque in Madinah so we were quite comfortable standing on the tiles barefoot despite the blazing sun. Before long though, we were asked to move on by the maintenance crew who began to cordon off our area. I saw a worker splashing water across the floor before taking a run up and sliding across the tiles with his brush held out in front as if it was a game, certainly not something you would contemplate thinking about in a holy place let alone doing in front of the Ka'aba.

As I had already performed Umrah a few days earlier, I was doing this particular one on behalf of my father who passed away a few years ago. We started the first part and completed our tawaaf's. However, the next step would have clashed with the mid afternoon prayers being read in the Haram Sharif so we returned to the hotel for an hour and then came back to continue. We walked between the mountains of Safa and Marwa, jogging at the ends where the ramps were and where the green lights indicated thus. Heading back outside to perform our tawaaf un Nissa, the Haram Sharif was crowded as evening prayer time was approaching and pilgrims had started to flood in for the weekend.

After having finished our Umrah we walked back to the hotel although with the state of my left foot screaming under the flip flops I told the others to go on ahead whilst I limped slowly after them. A quick shower later, everyone was hungry but didn't want room service or fast food so Hussain and I headed out to see what else we could find. Our usual place, the mall on the plaza, had a whole area dedicated to just food and we visited the Ashoor Restaurant where we bought a platter of grilled meats and seafood for Hussain who was craving shrimp whilst I settled on rice and lamb. The food was cooked Yemeni style which we didn't know at the time otherwise Hussain would have wanted to go elsewhere but I quite enjoyed it. My biriyani was a dry dish, which is just how I like my rice, and was a huge portion with two great big cuts of meat, prepared in the Yemeni fashion of slow cooking the joints whole.

Food over, we returned to the mosque to read evening and night prayers. Sitting there under the stars with the floodlights reflecting off the polished tiles, I was mesmerised by the Ka'aba once again and just couldn't help admiring its beauty. It is said that there are 120 blessings available when visiting the Haram Sharif with 60 of these reserved for doing tawaaf's, 40 for reading prayers and 20 for just looking at the Ka'aba and acknowledging that God is great.

The display case next to the Ka'aba that contains the footprints of Prophet Ibrahim

I was sitting with Hussain some rows behind the structure that houses the footprints of the Prophet Ibrahim when we noticed a man in front of us scolding his son who couldn't have been more than five years old. A crowd quickly gathered and it turned out that the boy had accidently urinated whilst his father had been praying. The father was angry with his son but what impressed Hussain and I was the reaction of the Wahabi officials who were very understanding. Compassionate Wahabism, now there's something I never thought I'd see!

The Wahabi officials spoke kindly to the father and were quick to shield the boy from any further embarrassment. They said he's only a little boy and that such accidents happen to both young and old and that the Haram Sharif has a special team for this very incident. And indeed, within minutes of the accident, a crack team of maintenance workers had lined up side-by-side go kart style in their motorised cleaners to await further instructions and like a well oiled machine, set to work cordoning off the area and meticulously cleaning the spot where the boy had stood whilst the Wahabis directed the operation. It was all very slick and efficient, not something you usually associate with Gulf practices let alone Saudi officials.

The drivers left no gap between their respective cleaning machines and a further crew followed behind to manual clean the tiles again. This was followed by yet another batch of cleaning machines so that within ten minutes, all the tiles had been washed, cleaned, disinfected and made pure again, ready for pilgrims to walk across and pray upon. The efficiency, coordination and manner in which the Wahabi officials handled the whole incident was mighty impressive. The boy was extremely embarrassed but the Wahabi's treated him kindly and with compassion and had given him a blue sack to wear over his trousers so the boy could leave with his father without causing any further contamination and also to hide any soiled clothing. Hussain commented that the Wahabi's here were a lot younger than the older generation found in Madinah and as a result, far more tolerant and sensible.

Pilgrims doing tawaaf around the Ka'aba

Finishing night prayers at 11.15pm, JD and I decided to go and buy T-shirts as everyone had been changing clothes several times daily. We returned to Bin Dawood, Saudi's answer to Tesco, and trooped upstairs to the clothing section. The men's department had several rails full of odd colours and sizes so we had to root around to get what we wanted. JD was tired and sat on a stool whilst I rummaged through one of the shelves that had a stand in front it. To get a closer look I moved the stand out of the way and it promptly fell apart landing on my left foot right on top of the scab, bruising it even more and causing me to go into a hopping frenzy. Nevertheless, we managed to get what we wanted and left.

The aim had been to return to the hotel but on the spur of the moment JD decided to return to the Haram Sharif to see the Hajr ul Aswad up close which is the black stone that is embedded in the corner of the Ka'aba and that we had previously not seen due to the crowds. This is very sacred and is said to be an angel from heaven with a quite beautiful story behind how it came to be in the Ka'aba.

When God created Adam he asked all the angels to bow before the Prophet. The first to do so without any hesitation was the angel that is now in the form of the black stone in the Ka'aba. God rewarded the faith of this particular angel by assigning it the responsibility of being a witness for the Prophet Adam and all subsequent pilgrims who perform Hajj or Umrah. Thus, when the Prophet Adam was in heaven and praying to God, this loyal and faithful angel was always present as a witness.

Video clip of the glorious Ka'aba

However, when the Prophet Adam was separated from Hawa and cast down on Earth for disobedience, he was very lonely and pleaded forgiveness. After accepting the prayers of remorse, God sent down a beautiful white stone to keep the Prophet Adam company. At first the Prophet did not recognise the white stone until it revealed itself by God's will to being the angel that was with him in heaven. Only then did the Prophet Adam remember the angel and went back to the same practise of making the white stone be a witness for his prayers as it had been in heaven. Subsequently, the Prophet carried the white stone with him on his journey to Makkah where he was reunited with Hawa.

To this day, the Hajr ul Aswad is a witness to those who have performed Hajj and Umrah. Hence, whilst doing a tawaaf and passing the Hajr ul Aswad, pilgrims must acknowledge and raise a hand to the black stone for each of the seven revolutions of the Ka'aba. It is said that the Hajr ul Aswad is now black due to the sins of humans but when it first came to Earth, it was a beautiful white coloured stone.

The Haram Sharif plaza at sunrise

Understandably, there are always long queues of pilgrims winding around the Ka'aba to touch and kiss the stone so whilst we had all seen the Hajr ul Aswad when doing tawaaf's, none of us had actually been up close to it.

JD and I entered the Haram Sharif and saw that it wasn't too crowded as it was past midnight so we duly took our places at the back of the queue. A Wahabi official and a guard were constantly at the stone at all times of the day to ensure order and it was no exception now. There was a separate queue for men and women and the contrast between them was both striking and very telling.

Whereas the men queued patiently and quietly in a very civil and orderly manner, the women clucked around like hens, constantly complained about having to wait and moved in a rabble. I watched as an old woman in a wheel chair was pushed to the front of the queue and started screaming that she had the right of way on account of being confined to a wheelchair. However, the Wahabi official and the guard had heard it all before and handled everything very well indeed telling the woman to wait her turn.

There was a definite methodology to the whole queuing business that seemed to work. The Wahabi official in charge operated efficiently and diplomatically treating everyone as an equal whilst the guard would tell each person to move on if they spent longer than a few seconds to touch and kiss the stone. This kept the queue's moving and the Wahabi allowed each line to advance forward for about five minutes before switching to the other one. The exceptions were the very old and infirm who quite rightly were allowed to jump the queue.

Three Bangladeshi's tried to push in ahead of me and the bloke in front wasted no time in telling them to join the back of the line. Obediently, they at once left and the queue shuffled forward. This one little episode neatly illustrated a couple of interesting points:

1. Tell anyone from the Indian subcontinent to do something and they will almost certainly do it as they are incredibly compliant.
2. People in the Gulf generally expect others not to complain or cause a fuss.

On the second point, the three Bangladeshi's obviously expected nobody to say anything if they pushed in the queue. And on the first point, once told where to go, there was no way they would have gotten into an argument or been confrontational, it's just not in their nature.

The men's queue goes alongside the Ka'aba so I was able to hold and feel the luxurious heavy woven black cloth that covers it. In all the pictures I'd seen, the cloth looked like a very light cotton cover that would move easily in a breeze yet it was the exact opposite. Jet black, very sumptuous and with a sheen finish, I also noticed the cover had the sweet musky smell of perfume, a fitting scent for a material to cover a place of God.

Despite the woman in the wheelchair complaining loudly that the men's queue was advancing far too quickly for her liking, my turn came and I was able to see the Hajr ul Aswad up close for the first time. It was small and shiny black with a bumpy concave surface surrounded by a thick silver frame that made it difficult to kiss the stone. Nevertheless, JD and I were elated to have managed to touch the Hajr ul Aswad as it's very difficult to do so because of the queues and crowd.

We left the Haram Sharif and with JD feeling peckish, not having enjoyed the Yemeni food we had earlier from Ashoor, bought a KFC panini chicken sandwich that tasted quite good for fast food. We sat chatting and eating in our rooms before eventually getting to bed at 2am.

 

Wednesday 6 January 2010

It was our last day in Makkah so everyone got up at 6am for early morning prayers. The weekend was beginning so the Haram Sharif was crowded with pilgrims visiting for the two days. We read prayers behind the footprints of Prophet Ibrahim and then returned to the hotel for breakfast at 7.30am. The chocolate doughnuts were back to normal and even the chef didn't question our eggs order that morning as he knew us quite well by now. I saw a woman wearing a burqa sitting at a table looking utterly ridiculous as she lifted her yashmak to eat. The whole issue of wearing a burqa is cultural rather than Islamic which does not require a woman's face to be completely covered by any means.

Breakfast over, we returned to our rooms to pack and then went to the Haram Sharif to spend some time there. It was 10am and the sun was high so it was very hot. The white tiles of the Haram Sharif reflected the sunlight everywhere so we had to screw up our eyes as nobody had brought any shades.

Surprisingly, the mosque was quite empty so we decided to queue once more for the Hajr ul Aswad. And once again, I was impressed by how the Wahabi official kept order by preventing women from pushing in at the front and instead sending them to the back of the queue using a tone that was civil and friendly rather than arrogant or rude as one might have expected in Madinah.

The guard was fluent in English, Arabic and Urdu and probably half a dozen other IndoPak dialects too. He stood on a platform next to the Ka'aba with his arm in a strap to prevent him from falling whilst his other arm held an umbrella to shield the black stone from the heat. I got a much better view of the stone this time round and was surprised to see how it differed from the previous evening. In daylight, the stone had a reddish brown appearance rather than black and the surface felt smooth like onyx or marble but was pitted with lots of small holes, bumps and ridges.

We left the Haram Sharif and headed to our usual place in the mall on the plaza to buy gifts for our families and also stock up on essential medication which is vastly cheaper in Saudi than in Bahrain. Back in the hotel just before noon, we had a bit of a rest before leaving to visit the Ka'aba for the final time to read afternoon prayers and also perform one last rite which is a tawaaf to say goodbye.

It was hot outside and the Haram Sharif was still quite empty. Hussain and I managed to read our prayers immediately behind the footprint of the Prophet Ibrahim which is usually not allowed and was a measure of just how tolerant the Wahabi's were.

The time came to say goodbye and pray that this wouldn't be our last trip to Makkah and that we would visit again. You only ever visit holy places if called by God so it's always in your best interests to pray and hope that God calls you again.

Leaving the mosque, I took several glances back as I really didn't want to leave. Eventually, I just stood for several minutes looking at the Ka'aba and saying my prayers. It's hard to tear yourself away and walk out of the Haram Sharif for the very last time especially when entering through Saudi and making the necessary arrangements for pilgrimage is no easy matter.

Hotels next to the Haram Sharif

We returned to the hotel and finished the last of our packing. Checkout was 4pm but our flight wasn't until later on in the evening so we'd be leaving our baggage at the hotel. With all the bills settled, there was nothing else to do but kill time so we headed to the plaza for a quick bite to eat. After the previous days Yemeni style meal that nobody apart from me had enjoyed we decided on the failsafe option of Burger King that's always a good default in such circumstances.

On our way back to the hotel, we got a final glimpse of the Ka'aba through the Grand Mosque entrance. It was still as captivating as ever and I was a bit teary at this point with a big lump in my throat as I'd become attached to the Ka'aba and just wanted to stay within its peaceful confines. Hussain saw I was a bit upset and putting an arm around my shoulder, led me closer to the entrance to see the Ka'aba and again recite the farewell prayer. Blinking back the tears, I asked God once again to make it possible for me to visit Makkah for Umrah and Hajj.

We got a cab for our journey to Taif where we'd be taking a flight back to Dammam. The driver was a big bearded Wahabi who drove as though he was delivering pizza's for one of those places that guarantees arrival within 30 minutes or you don't pay. For example, approaching a set of red traffic lights at a crossroads, our driver simply turned right and then left and the right again to rejoin the main road. He was without a shadow of a doubt, the worst driver we encountered during our entire trip.

The car swerved suddenly to avoid a broken barrier and everyone held their breath as we narrowly missed going into the back of the banger in front. I was seated behind the driver who had a pale yellow furry car seat cover that stuck out like a mane and blocked any view forward. Honestly, it was like sitting behind Mufasa the Lion King, all I could do was see out of the driver side passenger window.

Out on the highway we approached a checkpoint where a guard carefully inspected our passports and seemed to be very interested in mine. It was rather a tense moment as the guard asked a few questions as to what I was doing here and where we were going but then he waved us past and once more we were on our way. Immediately after the checkpoint was the meeqaat of Al Sayl Al Kabeer which was used by pilgrims arriving from Taif.

The journey to the airport was through the mountains and the driver absolutely caned it all the way there. As darkness fell, I eventually dozed off which was a good thing as the driver had already decided to put his foot down on a motorway full of dangerous lorries, wannabe speedsters and other maniacal drivers. With the airport a fair distance away from the meeqaat we expected the drive to take around 90 minutes. In the event though, and given the mad driving, we made the trip in just under 60 minutes.

Pilgrims gather at the Haram Sharif plaza

Going through the obligatory airport checkpoint, we parked up outside a dingy building. Taif sits near the top of a mountain unlike Makkah that's in a valley so it was a good deal colder here with a nip in the air and a breeze giving a decidedly chilling 14C.

Taif airport was a tiny affair that didn't even have proper toilets or working departure screens. There were no terminals and as in Madinah, passengers just walked from the main building across the runway to board the plane. Several check-in counters handled all flights but the whole place was deserted when we arrived. However, we were in for a much ruder shock as, upon checking in, we were told that our flight was delayed for 90 minutes due to a "technical error".

No problem, we can wait a little longer for our flight so we thought. Half an hour later, the 90 minute delay had turned into 3 hours that was then quickly upgraded further to a 6 hour wait. A delay of this length whilst stuck in a dingy airport out in the sticks, 40km from the nearest town and with no proper toilets was going to be hard to manage and tempers began to fray.

The airport staff were all ready to help and agreed to put us in a hotel but at the very last minute a short fat uniformed supervisor blocked the request with a smirk citing the most ridiculous arguments. "If you fly through domestic airports then expect 6-8 hour delays," was one of my least favourite excuses along with "Why did you come to Taif airport? You know it's like this so don't come next time," seemingly to have forgotten that we'd never visited before.

There was no other option. We sat in the departure hall glumly and began debating whether to get a hotel room ourselves or at least a taxi into town 40km away. The debate ended acrimoniously when patience ran out and Hussain, who wasn't at all happy about leaving the airport, stalked off in a huff before returning to sit gloomily with the rest of us. Later when we were alone, he told me that he believed it was on our best interests to stay at the airport so as not to ruin our Umrah trip. After all, this had been mine and JD's first time and if any of us had unwittingly done something wrong, this was merely God's preferred mechanism for our atonement.

A flight to Riyadh was called and the departure lounge began to fill with mainly Bedouin locals who all wore the same expression indicating they would be far more comfy sitting in the desert rather than an airplane. The Riyadh flight departed and the lounge was left with just a handful of passengers bound for Dammam, most of whom seemed quite content about the predicament and settled down for the night by occupying adjacent seats to form a makeshift bed to lie on. We decided that given the circumstances, this was probably the best idea and followed suit.

 

Thursday 7 January 2010

Midnight passed and with it came a complimentary meal from Saudi Airlines. Bags of food were handed out by staff to the handful of people still awake. To my surprise, I opened the bag and found a huge portion of rice with a full roasted chicken complete with sauces. Cans of Pepsi finished off the feast and I wasted no time in tucking in. The meal was piping hot, tasty and utterly delicious with enough food to feed three at one go. It sure beat the cold sarnies that British Airways handed out when their flights were delayed and I was tempted to go back and ask for another portion.

Hussain, not being a huge fan of chicken, had a few spoons of rice and told me the meal was a traditional Saudi dish of chicken and rice with the chicken cooked whole in its skin. I found it very similar to the Yemeni meal we bought from the Ashoor restaurant in Makkah although the Saudi version used longer grain rice and was far more tasty and succulent.

By now it was 1am and everyone began to fall asleep once more. I had been going to bed around 2am for the last week now and wasn't the least bit sleepy having dozed off in the taxi earlier. At 1.40am an airline steward came around informing those of us still awake that the flight would be arriving in 30 minutes time.

A video clip of the Haram Sharif plaza

At the airport I noticed that whenever a few Arab men sat together, they would soon start chatting and getting to know one other despite them all being strangers and having not met before. They are a very easy going group of people and it contrasts sharply with a packed London commuter train full of people all silently reading the morning newspapers.

A little girl who looked around 4 years old had spent the last few hours running noisily around the terminal making friends with anyone who would pay her attention. JD commented on this in that children were encouraged to be open and friendly when toddlers and then taught to be reserved and conservative when kids so it was no wonder that many grew up feeling confused about their identity. The father was a young Bedouin who appeared to have no clue about raising kids with discipline and was content to let his daughter run around the lounge screaming her head off. JD told me that it wasn't unusual that the father was in his early 20's as Saudi's tended to marry their boys at a young age.

The plane arrived at 2.10am and a loud announcement promptly woke everyone up. The terminal began filling with other people including several women clad in burqa looking like a group of ninja's on a mission. As we lined up to board, JD couldn't resist sarcastically commenting "thank you for the excellent service" to the fat supervisor who was standing by counting the numbers. We started boarding at 2.30am and eventually departed 30 minutes later.

The plane had the noisiest air con I'd ever heard but despite this, I managed to sleep for most of the 90 minute flight as the late nights and early starts caught up with me.

We landed at Dammam at 4.45am and the plane taxied off the runway. Ignoring the stay seated sign, the Bedouin all immediately got up to unload cabin luggage, one of them carrying a baby even though the plane was still moving.

There was no security as this was an internal flight and upon leaving the plane virtually everyone immediately lit up and began puffing away on cigarettes. "We're back in civilization," noted Hussain drily as the little girl started another symphony of noise with her clueless father. We got our baggage and returned to the car park where we had left several days earlier. It was chilly outside with a slight breeze, more so than Taif so we had the heater on in the car as we started the journey back home.

The road to Bahrain was much quicker than when we came despite a number of convoluted detours with no signs that left me totally without direction. As a result, we were back at the Saudi causeway before I even realised. Leaving Saudi was easier than entering and we drove onto the Bahrain side of the causeway at 6.20am just as the sun was rising over the calm waters of the Gulf. We were arriving exactly a week after we left at the exact same time on the 7th day of the 1st month, 7 being my favourite number. Not at all a bad way to end the journey, I thought.

When I finally unpacked and tiredness washed over, my thoughts of the trip were rather like a dream. I couldn't believe I'd visited and was aching to return. Now that JD and I had done Umrah, our sights were set on Hajj, one of the five pillars that are obligatory for all able Muslims. Having done Umrah first was a truly fantastic experience and it would be weeks before the scent of the Ka'aba would begin to fade.