I left home around 6.30am that day on the 24th November 2009 – the weather was fine الحمدالله and I still can’t believe that I made it after all – after the boss told me two weeks ago that I should postpone the trip to next year. I did not gave up – called some colleagues from China and India etc to find a substitute for me to work during the Hajj period. Lot of drama – and I am glad I did not utter words that might affect relationship between me and my boss due to my “ketak puas hatian” to his decision . Added to that my cancelled trip to Bangkok was revoked and I went there for the training while I was in fever just a week before the Hajj trip. Despite all that – maybe the dhua from my mother, families and friends made him changed his decision at the very last minute -only Allah knew how happy I was hearing the good news less than 24 hours before the actual trip.
So that day six of us from Apartment Sri Wangi headed to Mutiara Restaurant where all other hajj “candidates” gathered waiting for the bus. We had breakfast first and around 8am the two buses started moving – then stopped at some government office place to collect the tasreeh [the permission to do Hajj] .
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We got the tasreeh perhaps in 20 minutes time but the bus had to wait for a while as there was a mechanical problem with the front door of the bus. There was a “mobile foreman” around so he took about an hour to fix the problem — [I later found out that it was very important for the door to be fixed as it needed to be properly locked to protect our stuffs inside . Imagine -- a place like Mina where thousands of people "living" around the area anything could happen -you can see people around opening the luggage compartment of most the buses so that they can sleep inside.]
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The bus then continued the journey and we arrived at the Miqat Qurn Manazil in Taif area around 9.50pm . Ustaz Ahmad the “leader” for our bus told that the bus will stop for about an hour to allow us to get ourself cleaned and changed to ihram . The picture below shows us the Miqat Area — we did not stop at the masjid as it was normally crowded with pilgrims so we went to some private “hotels” around the area [the messy green track in the picture shows the location]. Normally they had a room with bed(s) and a toilet – and the normal rate would be ~SAR20 per hour but on a peak season like Hajj — the price would go up –so we were charged per-person basis that day — SAR60 for six of us.
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After did my ghusl (shower) , applied some perfume according to the sunnah and got ready with the ihram - we went to the masjid nearby to perform the ihram prayer and later we recited the niyah out loud.
“Labbayk Allahumma Hajjan.”
“Oh Allah here I am performing Hajj.“
Around midnight the bus left to enter Makkah . There was a long queue after this – the police and Hajj authorities started checking all the passenger who entered Makkah . Obviously they were checking for the tasreeh . You can see people running around in ihram which I believed were those who came to do Hajj without the proper documentation or tasreeh. Can the authorities stop them? Ustaz Hassan reminded us before about the ayah :-
And proclaim to mankind the Hajj (pilgrimage). They will come to you on foot and on every lean camel, they will come from very deep and distant (wide) mountain highway (to perform Hajj)
