On 4th of November 2011 , 11 o clock , me , my better half and my little grown up girl ( yes mashAllah , she knew what we were upto because she was trained well for hajj before the departure) .

We left Jeddah and headed to another area in the city named as Azizia . A Hajj group was going to gather there for the most rememberable trip!

In between 11.30 pm and 12.00 am , we reached at the required meeting place. New faces introduced each other with cheerful smiles because they were heading to the event which was hosted by Allah SWT. Our group had approximately consisted of 300 people invited by Allah from different cities of Saudi Arabia.

Some were doing Hajj for the first time like me, super excited! Some has being repeatedly doing hajj before. ( may Allah invite us too every other year and those too who are reading this piece of my travelogue right now, aameen ya Rabb ul Aalimeen )

All was set to leave to Makkah and then to Mina. We residents were required to do Hajj Ifrad , in which the haajis do one umrah ( including one tawaf plus one saee)

When the buses got started, I had a changed feeling . It seemed to me that whether am coming back home or not because I was leaving to the place where most of the people usually wish to leave the world in the state of ihram.

I couldn't sleep along the whole way to Mina , I was just kept waiting for my teary eyes to see the white triangular cap shaped tents.

Finally , after a very long wait due to traffic jam full of people in the state of ihram , I entered Mina . Literally , to me it was a city of ghosts ! Wherever I could see in the long vision , white tents were not ending .

I didn't take camera with me , as I thought I am going to worship Allah only not to waste time in taking pictures of the places I visited. But at the same time I tried to capture the scenes in my mind so that I could remember in my whole life. I was trying my best not to involve in wordly talking , just zikr and talbiyah of course which is the real essence of Hajj.

People in Ihrams , wherever I could see! MashAllah this was the event I have never seen. All were going to their own assigned tents . Our tent was on the high hill , driver drived the bus so smoothly but at the same time , we got stuck too in the huge traffic. Being seated on the window seat , sometimes I was thinking , here we go down here , here we go down there , because the bus was on the steep mountain. During this traffic , we could see other tents of Saudi people . They were highly decorated to welcome the haajis. As we were going higher and higher , the temperature was changing naturally , we could feel the cold wind when we reached our tent after 2 to 4 hours of traffic jam. But subhanALLAH , nobody got irritated as far as I think , because we were out on a journey which actually teaches a haaji before hand to control and to be patient whatever happens because anything happens is because of the reason that it's by only Allah swt to teach us a lesson or to save us from a big calamity as Allah knows the best.

When I reached my tent , believe me , I was in utter shock! Because the tent was not like our luxurious homes with a seperated cleaned washrooms but it was completely the opposite. My purpose is not to scare you but to tell you the truth , this scene we had to face once in our lifetime because it is necessary to realize as a reminder that this world is just a transit not a destination. According to the hadith , that we human beings are like travelers in this world. And Mina was depicting the same idea.

When I peeked inside the tent , I was really shock to see the scene . Thin mattresses with small thin pillows were lined side by side , no gap in between . But that was just the start ! I bucked up myself and my little hajjan too that "remember this is Hajj ! ". We all people had to live together in that tent for 5 days. I took the heavy luggage by my own hands to my bed number 38 which was in the last row. Loud chit chat was in the air . Yes , trust me it was like fish market to me. But again , I would say that was just a welcome !

All haajis were asked to sleep so that we could wake up for fajar . Subhana got settled as she was set by her friend whose family was with us in Hajj. Lights got turned off and we were made to sleep so that we could be fresh for the next day that is , 8th Zilhajj.

Azan woke me up and the lights were turned on too. Subhana kept sleeping as she couldn't sleep last night. After offering fajar prayers , we were called out to take our breakfast from outside. And did I mention about the washroom scene? There was no water supply over there for a time being . Again , that was the real test for us not to talk too much about the unavailability of water in taps. But as a natural human factor , it did , shaitan invoked us to argue on that problem. May Allah forgive us . Aameen.

After having golden breakfast , yes it was , the group mashAllah provided everything of anyone can think of food for a journey.

It was the first time for me , I had no idea before , what else I could do besides doing zikr , talbiyah and reciting Quran. Well , most of the ladies were going to sleep so that they could wake up and do Ibadah later. I was not in a mood to do that because as far as I thought that I was there to do Ibadah there as much as I could . But still again , of course after reciting surah kahaf ( as it was Friday) and other chapters of Quran , I decided to do zikr , trying to hold tasbeeh in my hand. But poor me , I couldn't helped myself , I spoke a lot during it , may be it was a new place for me that's why we ladies were commenting on every aspect of what was going on. Yes , literally , this is the truth. After realizing I was in shame of what I was upto , I decided not to talk because I was there to make most of my Ibadah time , this event would never come back and if it will come back no one knows when.

Lunch albaik got served . And to us that was not fresh as hot ! But again ! Reminded ourselves not to speak odd about it. We thankfully ate it because that was only meal being served.

Whole day was gone , after doing some chit chat with people, introducing ourselves to others. Knowing them. All natural. One thing I had been noticing that Hajj is the event where we can know about other people also. No matter , whatever the nationality or race, haajis get united over there as they are required to be!

Right after maghrib and isha prayers ,desi dinner got served ! And we all were asked to sleep because the next day was the big day! Arafah Day!

Catch up tomorrow InshAllah!

Thanks for reading!