Every soul feels very excited and privileged when people talk about Hajj. This ibadah addresses the pilgrimage as the guest of Allah and wipes out all previous sins as a newborn, who has no sins. It needs enormous physical motion to complete if we pursue the highest level of satisfaction.
In a nutshell, we start doing hajj with doing umrah, seven circle around the Kaba and walk between two small mountains Safa and Marwa, on the 8th Zul Hajj, we go to Mina to stay in tent, on the 9th, we camp in Arafa, and spend night under the open sky in Mujdalifa. On the 10th we come back to the Mina tent and start pelting on Jamaras. On 11th and 12th again we pelt on Jamarah (symbol of satan) and then by doing the last tawaf we end the hajj. We can visit Madina after or before hajj any time though.
If we try to experience the hajj, firstly our amount of walking for tawaf, the circling around Kaba can take 5 times more walk if we take the 1st or 2nd floor instead of the main floor surrounding adjacent to the Kaba. Pilgrims don’t have many options because of the crowd. People recite the Quran, read supplications and duas, in silence or loud, and at any salah time they stop circling right away and complete the rest of the circle of tawaf after the end of the jamat of salah.
Likewise the floor of Kaba, walkway between mount Safa and Marwa is also marbled, very smooth and airconditioned, but again we have to walk through the crowd and stay with our group, that is a couple of km of walking, it is a bit more walking than usual walk in modern age of motor vehicles. With completing Umrah, we end the 1st phase of our Hajj rituals as non-Makkan pilgrims before the 8th Zul Hajj.
On the 8th Zul Hajj we travel to the valley of Mina, with white Ihram, the hajj uniform on, where thousands of tents, with air conditioning, are built for Hajjis, more stable and permanently structured tents along with washrooms in every section. We need to stay there for 3-4 days. There are roads and flyovers built for the traffic movement during hajj season. All tents neighborhoods are divided by countries. Hajjis stay there, do salah and recite quran, or learn about hajj from the halaqa inside the tent.
The 9th Zul Hajj is the Arafah day, core part of hajj, all hajjis after fajar salah try to move to Arafah. The Arafah is a huge field with thousands of 1 day-tents. It is very challenging for everyone to get into their bus from their tent site in Mina, 2 million people moving out to one place for one day. After reaching Arafah, they perform Zuhr and Asr salah together, go to Masjid Nimara, those who can, listen to Hajj knutba, not everyone can get the opportunity to hear the khuthba, because their tent could be a mile away. With no landmarks leading back to their tent site, it is very easy to get lost from a group, mostly everyone stays in their own area, and doesn’t go far, not even go to Jabale Rahmah, where the Prophet (sm) delivered his famous sermon in his last hajj. Staying on Arafah is so much a mandatory part of Hajj that even the sick hajjis are also brought into the field of Arafah to have their hajj performed.
As sun goes down, all hajjis move to Mujdalifa and do Maghrib and Isha together, and also collect stones for pelting to Jamara during the next 3 days. Mujdalifa is again a big open field,
with few lavatories scattered in different corners of the field, we spent that entire night slipping on a mat under the open sky, which would give us a unique feeling of humility and be ground to earth, making us to feel equalized in one solid ground of earth with entire humanity. Again, because of the lack of landmarks, many people and families get lost there and reunite again in Mina, the next destination, if Allah will.
Next morning, the 10th, is time to go to our tent in Mina, pelt into 1 Jamrah, 7 stones for each Jamara, shave/cut our hair there and take off our Ihram clothing, our qurbani is sacrificed by the organizers and we can do the last tawaf starting from today. Now, we can go back to our Mina tent to stay for two more days.
On 11th and 12th Zul Hajj, we pelt into all 3 jamrahs form Mina tent with our normal clothing, keep in mind we are going to pelt with all 2 million people, through 2 stories walkway, it is again physically demanding and many week hajjis or sisters, who are unable to do so, ask their fellow hajjis to perform such rituals on their behalf.
We leave Mina 12th or 13th Zul Hajj and perform the last tawaf marking our end of hajj rituals and by the willing of Allah our all sins are wiped off.
Many amongst us perform hajj after all family obligations are completed, most of the time when we reach our 40s or beyond. However, as per actual teaching of our deen, it becomes mandatory as soon as we become capable to do so, physically and monetarily.
We literally saw Indonesian hajjis, at an early age, men and women, which is tremendously inspiring, there always are quite a big number of Indonesian Hajjis in their 30s doing tawaf and sayee. I heard, this is one of the important questions asked when the discussion for marriage between the two families progresses, is whether the groom paid their visit to the two-holly mosques.
I request all of our youngsters to open an account to save money for hajj, and go for hajj at an early age. This ibadah demands plenty of physical action, which you can visualize by now, but can't perform all the rituals with your complete satisfaction in later part of your life.`
A piece of advice, performing Umrah earlier to hajj is a better option to get a better idea about hajj and also see all the attractions, the historical places, i.e field of Badar, mount Hira and mount Noor etc, because it is difficult to visit due to crowd and amount of work you need to do during the Hajj,
As a dweller of high earning nation, i.e. Canada, it is an excellent place to make such decisions for youngsters, so please do not keep this ibadah for an older age, rather save the money dedicated for hajj, go as you are young, even as a couple, and perform all the rituals with your highest satisfaction.
May Allah give us barakah and have all of us visit his House of Allah and Prophet’s (sm) Masjid, Masjid An Nbuwi, at least once in our lifetime. Ameen.