We rose up shortly before dawn from our sweet slumber on the hard
ground at Muzhalifah. This is the place at which Allah instructs us
in the Qur'an to remember Him and celebrate His praise. When we
prayed Fajr, we felt relaxed, fresh, ready to resume our blessed
journey which symbolized a break away with everything we had done in
the past and which was not acceptable to Allah.
After Fajr, we glorify Allah, praise Him and supplicate to Him. There
is no set prayer to say here, one should pray as he feels and for
whatever he wishes.
We spend close to an hour in this attitude with the morning freshness
adding to our pleasant feeling of happiness. When the light of day
begins to be bright, and just before sunrise, we resume our walk
toward Mina. The same scene of the night is continuing now, the only
difference being that we can see people much more clearly. The same
song, with its angelic music is repeated again and again, in every
accent and with a very wide range of variation on its musical theme.
No one seems to have had enough of it. How can you have enough of
declaring to Allah that you believe in His Oneness and that you
associate no partners with Him?
We cross the boundaries of Muzdalifah and soon we find ourselves in
the Muhassar Valley. Here we speed up our walk, because it was in
this valley, sometime around 1450 years ago, in the same year when
the Prophet was born, that Allah destroyed Abrahah, the Abyssinian
military commander and his army when he was heading to Makkah where
he wanted to destroy the Kaaba. The Prophet teaches us to walk fast
here because it is the place where Allah destroyed His enemies. When
we have left it, we enter Mina.
Unlike Muzdalifah, Mina is built up with tents, ranging next to each
other. Every inch of Mina Valley is utilized for these few days. No
space is spared, because Mina can hardly accommodate the number of
pilgrims that we see nowadays.
As we walk with people from all parts of the world walking with us,
repeating talbiyah, the roads not far away are still heavily
congested with pilgrim traffic. There also, pilgrims are repeating
the angelic tune with its fine words. We still have a long distance
to walk, because our camp is on the other side of Mina. We stop to
have some breakfast : Fruit and drinks. We do not want to take much
time because the day promises to be very hot. We move forward with
the procession which seems never ending. I believe that the beginning
is right at the Jamrahs, at the end of Mina, while its end should be
right back in Muzdalifah. In other words, it stretches more than
seven or eight kilometers. At last, we arrive in our camp. We sit
down to have a cup of tea and rest for a while. It is still early
morning.
I explained to my parents and my wife what duties we have to
accomplish today. The first was the stoning at the Grand or First
Jamrah. Knowing that the place will be heavily crowded at this time,
I suggested to my parents that they delay stoning until late in the
day or till the evening. I took leave of them and took the seven
pebbles I had picked up at Muzdalifah and left. I rejoined the
procession and repeating phrases of talbiyah I went on till I reached
the jamrahs. There is only one jamrah to stone today, namely, the
Grand Jamrah. When I arrived there I saw that the authorities have
built up the area so that pilgrims can do the stoning on two levels.
Not wishing to be in the midst of the great crowd on the lower floor,
I took my way to the upper level. I wanted to make sure that my
position was the correct one, with Mina to my right and Makkah to my
left but that was not easy. I had, therefore, to be content with
drawing near enough to make sure that all my pebbles landed at the
right spot. I threw the stones repeating the name of Allah and
saying, "Allahu akbar", before throwing every single one of them.
When I threw all seven I moved to one side and said a prayer. I
immediately went away in order to leave room for other people to do
their duty. I went right back to the other end of Mina, heading for
the slaughter place. On my walk this time I did not repeat the
phrases of talbiyah. That ends when one does the stoning on the first
day. As I walked, my thoughts were concentrated on the scenes all
around me. This is a unique place. One cannot really imagine it on
hearing reports of what it is like. One can say, however, that
everywhere one sees faces beaming with happiness. My mother used to
say: "There is no feast like that of Mina." I am now in Mina on the
day of the feast, or the Eid: Her words are absolutely true. Eid is
associated with happiness and pleasure. There can be no greater
happiness.
The way I felt last night and this morning reflects my absolute
happiness. I felt very light, as if a burden which had weighed very
heavily on me had been removed altogether. That burden is created by
my past sins and mistakes, Now that these have been forgiven, I feel
light, I can move more easily, more freely. This not an abstract
idea. It is very real.
At last I arrived at the slaughterhouse. To my amazement, the scenes
which we used to hear about in the past are not longer there. People
use to speak of slaughtered animals thrown away like rubbish. Nobody
cared to pick the meat or to take it away. Now, very few sheep are
being actually slaughtered. I see a small window where vouchers are
being sold. I learned that one could buy a voucher which entitled him
to receive a sheep. If he, on the other hand, surrendered the voucher
after receiving it and paying its price, he actually appointed the
Islamic Development Bank to do the slaughter on his behalf. The bank
would make sure of distribution the meat to the poor in the Haram
area and transport whatever is left, which is a great amount, to
areas in the Muslim world which have been stricken by famine or
suffer great poverty. This is a good use of sacrificial meat. I
bought four vouchers and surrender them immediately and went back to
the camp. The two duties took me close to three hours. It was nearly
midday when I arrived there. I was very tired. When my parents
learned from me what I had done, they blessed me and prayed for me. I
sat down in front of my father and he shaved my head for me. When he
had finished, I released myself from ihram and wore my own clothes.
This was the first release which meant that all restrictions of ihram
were removed with the exception of sex. That restriction remains in
force until I have done the tawaf of Ifaadah. We sat in our tent,
because there was nothing else to do. It was very hot and it was
necessary to stay in the shade. After having prayed and eaten, I fell
asleep. When it was well after Asr, I took my parents and my wife to
the jamrah to do the stoning. I hoped that it would not be as
congested as it was in the morning. When my mother was selecting her
pebbles from the ones she gathered in Muzdalifah, I could not fail to
note that they were too big. When I pointed that out to her, she
said: "Are we not stoning Satan? I want to make sure to hit him very
hard." That was a very simplistic view of stoning. I explained to her
that Satan is not there to be hurt. Otherwise, he would have died
long ago with all the stoning pilgrims every year do. Stoning is a
symbolic action, making us remember that we are engaged in a never -
ending battle against Satan and all that he represents. We stone at
the Jamrahs commemorating Abraham's action when Satan tried to
dissuade him from sacrificing his son, in response to Allah's order.
Abraham stoned him in order to be able to do what Allah has bid him.
My mother said; "What shall I do now? Do I have to go back to
Muzdalifah to pick new pebbles?" I explained that one could use any
pebbles, which may be picked up in Mina. She picked up new smaller
ones and we went ahead. Arriving at the jamrahs about half an hour
before sunset, we found that both my father and the two ladies could
do the stoning by themselves, because there were not a great deal of
people around the jamrah. When they have done the stoning, we went
back to our camp. My father wanted to pray Maghrib in he mosque known
as Al-Kheef. It was overcrowded, and my wife and mother would have
had to wait for us outside. It was preferable that we go back to pray
in our camp, which we did. My father did not wish to shave his head.
He thought shortening would be sufficient. I shortened his hair a bit
and he released himself from ihram as did the two ladies.
We had to think of the tawaf of ifaadah, a main duty of pilgrimage
which fell due today. Now, however, we could not go to Makkah because
there was an immediate duty to fulfill, namely, staying the night at
Mina. We will think about that duty tomorrow, Allah willing. Thus
ended the second great day of pilgrimage. Our happiness was beyond
description.
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