11th Zilhajj 1432 :
On this second day of throwing stones , first we went for tawaf Ziyarah in morning to Makkah . Right after breakfast , our group arranged a bus to drop us at Masjid Haram. I packed my back pack with snacks , juices , pampers for my child so that we don't face any problem in the upcoming hours. Later we got to know that the bus would be picking us at the Azizia stop so we all walked to the required point . It was a long walk , about 30 to 40 minutes .Since we left home for hajj , I kept reminding my husband that we will do tawaf in the mutaaf area ( the original ground area around the Kaaba). But when we reached Haram , he did what I think every man does. Smile. He walked straight to the escalators of the first floor instead directly going to the mutaaf area. Anyways , he was more experienced as mashAllah it was his third hajj. We completed our two rounds but due to the pushing of crowd which was leading us to suffocate , we decided to move to the top floor. It was about 11 am.
One thing I would like to add here , when the hajj was coming near , I started making dua to Allah swt to let my eyes to see less crowd during tawaf as He did in the battle of Badar. In this event of the Islamic history , Allah swt made the mushrikeen to see massive number of Muslims , but in original Muslims were just few and vice versa.
Alhamdulillah summa alhamdulillah , literally people won't believe me , Allah accepted my dua. During tawaf Ziyarah , i could see less crowd because later people were sharing their experiences about too much rush in tawaf but I didn't agree with them. It was , but too much. At least , the huge crowd didn't scare me . Infact , I was enjoying doing zikr under the hot scorching sun. Our feet were not feeling that hot as we think but due to the air conditioned cool floors . Still now , those moments resides in my heart , sound of helicopters in the air , minaret all around the haram etc. I was trying to capture in my mind so that I could cherish forever.
During the tawaf , holding an umbrella for my husband and child was indeed a huge task for me because I had to put it upwards more at the point of hajr I aswad so that people might not get hurt with the sides of umbrella. Anyways! JazakAllah khair to my husband who takes care of me during tawaf. He never asked me to hold Subhana even if he gets tired during tawaf or saee or I must say anywhere . Almost at the end of each round , we were drinking lots of zamzan to refresh ourselves.
At the last round of tawaf , we could hear the loud sound of zuhur Azaan . I simply can't explain the moment I was listening to and answering it. Teary situation for me! At that instant , I was thanking Allah from the depth of my heart to be a part of this Hajj.
We prayed zuhur and namaz janazah in congregation in the saee area. After the salah , we did saee. Again , after doing two rounds of saee , my husband succeeded to find the entrance for fourth floor saee which was pretty less crowded. Even my child could run by herself there. Allah please forgive me as I am writing it , I got very tired between 5th and 6th round. I asked my husband to take rest somewhere . Near 2.30 pm , we completed the saee . At the end of marwah mountain , we found a place close to the place where haajis move from marwah to safa mountain. We laid down and slept , as we were waiting for our family friend to rejoin us because they were still doing it with their three kids mashAllah . As far as i remember we slept for about 30 minutes. We didn't know what was happening around us , at least I didn't know. After taking a deep nap , we met the other family who wanted to see Kabah from the top floor . I saw once during the tawaf , but I also wanted to go again to see the beautiful Kaaba again. My husband stayed with the kids and I went to see the exotic view from the top floor with the other couple.
Indeed it was breath taking view from the top. Huge clusters of people moving around the Kaaba like a swirl in an ocean . I was thinking that my husband was absolutely right because we might not be able to do tawaf serenely with our three year old daughter.
I love this part of hajj too of which I am going to tell next inshallah. We had delicious chicken corriander shawarmas with fresh orange juice. It was a heavenly food to me after the whole day exercise. We had twice. Meanwhile , subhana did what I never thought of it . We changed her diaper on the side of the road in the public road for the first time. It was hilarious for all of us . I don't need to go in details but it was an emergency as we could not find any nearby washrooms over there.
We prayed Asar salah in the bus and headed towards jamarat for our second day stoning. But the course of plan changed a bit and the buses dropped us to our mina camps. After isha salah , another 3 to 4 miles was waiting for us to cover. We did the stoning on all three pillars and came out of the building very peacefully. In the end , when we were returning from there , my friend asked me to sit on wheel chair which she brought for her own kids on hajj but that time she was offering me to have a ride on it as it was very evident to her that I was at low pace.
Actually my legs were in pain due to over walking in a day. , otherwise , I would have asked my husband to throw stones on my behalf but I wanted to do my own hajj with my own hands and feet.Alhamdulillah , Allah made it happened. Returned back to mina and we slept without seeing here and there.
12 th Zilhajj 1432 :
When we woke up , we had to get ready for the third day stoning . I packed my luggage beforehand so that I just had not to do later. We were told that the bus would be leaving for Jeddah in noon at 3 pm . But we haajis were the ones who wanted to do tawaf i wida, that is farewell tawaf in Makkah and our buses were departing at about 4 pm. So we were required to do stoning in morning right after zuhur . Now I think that was the worst decision we have ever made . We must have waited for the majority of the crowd to get over with the stoning but that had to happen. We had no choice. At least , we were purely tested here. Well , you , the reader , must be curious what happened next actually.
In the middle of the walk towards jamarat , we stuck in a huge stampede we have ever seen in our lives. Crying , shouting , pushing was in the air. And the heat was testing our nerves. I didn't take umbrella with me that time. My girl cried when she couldn't bear the heat and sweating. An unknown Arabic man was with us , he shared his umbrella .That was the moment , I really felt the help of Allah . That man was an angel to us. Allah sent that man to us at the right time. About one and a half hour we remained stuck in the middle of the huge rush. Another family who came with their three kids literally hit by people from the back which made them breatheless. Kids on wheelchair was completely rolled down and that made their parents and kids really scared. Yes , it was a huge test for us. On the other hand , we suddenly got seperated from other families with whom we came as a group. After a long wait , I asked my husband that I didn't want to take a risk with my child in this mega traffic of humans. So we decided that I must sit on the side of the road with my daughter and he would stone on my behalf . AlhamdulAllah , our deen gives easiness and that time i had to quit , so i availed another option which was better for us. Later , we got to know that elevators got stopped working , which lead people to stuck in one place under the scorching sun. We heard about deaths too . May Allah reward them jannah , aameen. I kept waiting for my husband . He came back in an hour . AlhamdullAllah but the job was done. In returning to Mina , I was thinking to give this umbrella back to a person who really needs it for the sake of Allah. I was searching for an elderly people who might not have umbrellas. MashAllah , I got one old man near the tunnel , he prayed for me in Arabic and smiled widely . I got excited and felt happy that I did something which I must supposed to do with that anonymous umbrella. May Allah accept my effort. Aameen.
Back to Mina . We missed the bus at the required time. The bus came again at about 5 pm to drop us to makkah for our farewell tawaf. As we are supposed to leave Mina before maghrib so we got very tensed at that time. My mind is still scanning the boards I saw "End of Mina" right before 15 minutes of maghrib. It took about 3 to 4 hours to reach Makkah from Mina. The bus dropped us far away from the Masjid ul Haram and they asked to come back at about 1 am at night. We just had 5 or 6 hours to make farewell tawaf with the hajis from all around the world. You must be thinking , farewell tawaf is not compulsory for the residents of Jeddah . But what I conclude , that's purely a fiqh issue. It's still ambiguous to me. Anyway , we tried our best to reach Masjid ul Haram in taxi who charged us huge amount of riyals, as far as I remember he took 500 riyals for both families . You see , this is a golden business the taxi drivers do in hajj, because of the fact that "we"need them to drop us at the actual place and they don't. Well , thats part of the game. The taxi dropped us a mile away from the Masjid ul Haram as no transport was allowed there except the private ones , so we had to walk again for our last step. Guess what! Another trial was waiting for us !
Of course , as compare to the tawaf Ziyarah , we opt the third floor for the farewell tawaf too. Yes , the top floor again. But Allah swt had planned something else for us . As we approached towards the escalators , an Arabic tall fair man ( Syrian or Egyptian to me) stopped and warned us not to go up with your children. In return , my husband asked him the reason . He answered us " كذلك من الموت " , that means the well of death. I literally got shivered after hearing him. My husband kept staring at him . He further asked us not to take kids upstairs. But he went suddenly, as might be his loved one was waiting for him. Anyways , we took another chance , but we saw some people coming down and requesting people not to think in going upstairs specially if anyone of them had come with family. That moment was really a hard one for us to make a decision. But still , we took another ( third chance ) . As we went upstairs through an escalator, literally you won't believe me there was not even a foot to move here and there. In just two or three minutes , another bunch of people were coming up with the same escalators , suddenly we heard and saw the scream of women who were asking people not to come as there was not enough space. Due to jam of hajis, a security officer operated the escalators to work in reverse so that no one could come upstairs. People were trying hard but obviously they couldn't made up.
I was keep praying to Allah to show or guide me towards the right decision . In just the moments of time, I asked my husband to withdraw. He didn't ask me "why" as it was so evident for him too about that worst situation. I still remember , when I was going downstairs , Allah swt gave me peace in my heart . I was not tensed at all because of leaving farewell tawaf . That wise decision was better for us at that time. I called my father , in return , he helped us to contact an Islamic scholar. He asked to pay the penalty , in case , if we couldn't made up the farewell tawaf. I was realizing the fact , there is ease in our deen. Nothing is hard. It's we humans who make our religion difficult . Many different scenes we could see all around us. Many people were sleeping , some people were waiting , some were like us etc . We saw ambulance staff too going up with a stretcher for the injured one. Allah knows better. Reminding you , we were present at the most crowded place on earth at one time. You may guess the count around millions of people we were with , so the task was not that easy. So around 12.30 am , we decided to return on the same tracks with our hearts full of hope that may Allah accepted our hajj and rewarded us double because we brought our children with us too on Hajj. I must say that was an excellent decision we have ever made. My child still remembers the stoning , white tents of Mina and much much more. We cherish our hajj memories ! I would not advise you to leave your kids in your homeland. Take them with you. Believe me ! Allah will take care of your children and you will get the double reward inshallah.
Till 2am we waited for other hajis of our group to join us in the bus and the engines of the bus finally started to finally drop us to Jeddah. At about 4.20am we reached the place where we all had to split and to move on with our lives. But , I believe , we all must had came with a different feeling . New plans to try to become a perfect Muslim as that time , we were representing the candidates of hajj from the institution of Masjid ul Haram , Makkah.
We reached home at exact 5 am.
Did I mention that we had a flight to Pakistan very next morning at 11 am , so we needed to return home till fajar. My twin brother was getting married and I had to reached there on time. Alhamdulillah Allah planned beautifully for us. Summa alhamdulillah! All gone well !
May Allah grant all of us another Hajj again . Aaameen !