Hajj 1437H.... A beautiful journey...Part 1 - the Preparation

NB. I purposely did not blog anything about the journey immediately after I came back from hajj...I did not even updated my FB... I waited for a while so that I will only write what I remember dearly... however what I did then was to take as many photos of my pilgrimage this time round.... 

Part 1 - the preparation

Actually, this was my second pilgrimage for me and my wife. The first time we performed the pilgrimage was back in 2006 about 10 years ago... We were lucky to be chosen again... Alhamdulillah... to get to go there once is already a great blessing... one cannot image how happy we were when we are selected again to go there for the second time...

I was surprised and very happy when I received a SMS from Tabung Haji to inform that we were selected to perform hajj for this season, 1437H (2016AD).... having been there once, this time I was very determined that I want to perform a better hajj compared to the last one...

Tabung Haji is the body  entrusted by the Government to manage the pilgrims to perform hajj.

Tabung Haji immediately began sending series of messages to prepare the pilgrims for the journey... I really have a deep respect to the Tabung Haji guys... they have always performed their best and received many awards and accolades for that. In fact, when compared to other nations, Malaysian pilgrims are the one that is best looked after in the holy land...(yup...sometime you get angry at them for small reason but that is human after all...hehe)....

Even though the actual journey was in August/September 2016 for 1437H but Tabung Haji started the preparation way back in Feb 16. They started with Kursus Asas Haji or Foundation Course for Performing Hajj...this course is being carried out throughout the nation and is conducted every weekend at selected mosques...in total the duration lasted for about 17 weeks where all aspects of performing hajj were discussed and explained...

One has to note that Muslims in Malaysia are Sunni and we follow the teaching of Imam Shafie or what is called Mazhab Shafie... there are also other Mazhabs namely Maliki, Hambali and Hanafi... Fundamentally all 4 Mazhabs are inline with each other on Tauhid and Aqidah but when come to Fiqh such as solat, hajj, zakat and marriage, there are small difference in the practices. As such, in order to keep the sanctity of the teaching of Imam Shafie, Tabung Haji places a very high importance on correctly performing hajj according to Imam Shafie's teaching... year in year out, Tabung Haji will conduct postmortem at the end of hajj season to understand and solve new problems arose during the last hajj season...

I attended almost all weekly session of the hajj course...simple reason for doing it because I want to

perform a better hajj this time round... honestly I don't think trying to understand how to perform the hajj is difficult, in fact there will be mutawif or religious teacher to guide us when performing the hajj... but the most important thing for me is to mentally and spiritually prepare myself for this holy journey.... I began to understand better the calling for hajj, memorise and recite doas, read al-Quran and perform more solat sunat to prepare for the journey... which I was fully prepared by the time to leave for hajj (I supposed...)...

In Malaysia, those who are selected can perform hajj through muasasah i.e. manage by Tabung Haji or through private operators licensed by Tabung Haji... I chose to go through a private operator... we went with Batuta Travels in 2006 and this time we chose to go with Rayhar Travels... these options are for normal people.... however VVVIPs and people connected with VVVIPs... they can get special visa (not the normal hajj visa given by the Saudis) to perform hajj... (yes... there are special visas issued by Saudi Govt to perform hajj...)

Since I have performed hajj before, and after completing the hajj course both with Tabung Haji and Rayhar, there was not much difference for the whole routine compared to my previous hajj... except this time round, instead of continue going to Mina after "mabit" or spending the night at Muzdalifah, we are to go back to Mecca to perform tawaf and saie to complete the 'rukun'; then only go to Mina to perform the stone throwing at the three jamraat and mabit for three nights... (I always like to perform nafar thani as what told by Haji Ghani of Batuta, there is no better place on earth on the days of tashrik except in Mina). Everything else, the hajj routine is the same...

As the departure date draw nearer, the amount of work in office continue to pile up,,, the staffs want me to approve/endorse as much things before I go off... everyone in the office knew that I will be away for 6 weeks... yes... 6 weeks away from office... for the normal hajj duration, Tabung Haji set approximately 6 weeks or around 38 - 42 days. This is to allow smooth movement during hajj period of about 30 days in Mecca and at least 8 days in Medina... some private operators allows for a shorter duration of between 18 - 30 days but for me, since the opportunity to get the hajj visa for the second and third time round is almost impossible... I am more than willing to stay there the longest possible... 40 days is fine with me. In fact I also spent around 6 weeks for my first hajj...

We chose the late flight to Mecca... actually Tabung Haji divided  the flights into 2 groups.... early and late flights... the early flights will fly the pilgrims direct to  Medina and they will go by bus to Mecca; and they will fly back to Malaysia via Jeddah. The late flights will fly in to Mecca via Jeddah and the pilgrims will go to Medina by bus and fly back to Malaysia via Medina... just the opposite route... the reason why I chose the late flight is because the time waiting for the tarwiyah days is shorter... tarwiyah days are the days pilgrims will move from Mecca to Arafah to Mina and back to Mecca to perform the hajj rituals...usually it is over 5 days starting from 8 Zulhijjah to 13 Zulhijjah... the advantage is the energy level is still high as you have just arrived, hopefully not falling sick and most importantly the spirit is also high... the disadvantage of arriving late... Mecca is already packed by then... 2 million pilgrims or more are already there.. .the movement is very restricted and the space is very tight... you can't even spread your hands without touching other people...

Unlike the first trip, when all our 4 children are still young... Luqman was only 3 years old then... we had a maid to look after them... my mother was also still strong and healthy... she was willing to stay at our house to look after the children... but this time round my mother was no longer in the best of her health and we don't have maid anymore... however only Luqman now is staying in the house... the rest are now in universities.... thus...to overcome the problem... my wife arrange for a day maid to cook and clean during the day, Sobrina the eldest will stay at home and commute everyday to university (she is studying in UIA which is very close by) and Umar will come home every weekend... Zulaikha is far away in Adelaide, nothing much she could do... Our neighbour, Ijan and Kazri volunteer to drive Luqman to school everyday... my sister and sisters in law will come once in a while to check on them... I was really blessed... everything is in placed... no worries...really no worries...