“HAJJ 1420H”
or
“PILGRIMAGE to MECCA 2000”
(A journal of my experiences, observations and impressions before, during and after the event)
(Part 1 of 3 Parts)
How it began to happen
February 24, 2000
Shortly before noon today, I received a phone call in my office at the Philippine Helicopter Services, Incorporated, Domestic Airport, Manila, from Dr. Mohammad Amin Ghafari, my teacher on Islamic studies and the Director of Islamic Wisdom Worldwide (IWW) in Manila.
Dr Ghafari called to tell me that I was one of the nominees to perform Hajj or Pilgrimage to Mecca. He said that if I’d be lucky, I would enjoy free travel and board and lodging accommodations as, “Guest of Prince Abdul-Aziz bin Fahad” of Saudi Arabia. This privilege, Dr. Ghafari said, is being alloted to at least 20 Filipino Muslims who shall leave for Arabia anywhere between March 9 and 11. Our group, Ghafari said, includes at least three (3) Officers from the Philippine National Police namely, General Percival ‘Jaffar Al Mahim’ Adiong, General Rex ‘Abdul Rascid’ Piad, and General Enrique ‘Mohammad’ Cuadra. Also to go with us is Nick de Guzman, a broadcaster of Radio Station DZRH of the Manila Broadcasting Company (MBC).
After our talk I was certain that Dr. Ghafari’s phone call to me today will be remembered for as long as I live.
Days later, I received another call, this time from Abdul-Aziz Amrani of IWW. Mr. Amrani told me to proceed to the Saudi Arabian embassy and see Mr. Sahl Ergesous, the 2nd Secretary.
At the embassy I was instructed by Mr. Ergesous to wait at the lobby and it was there where I met for the first time ‘radio man’ Nick de Guzman or ‘Ra Lam Mohammad’. Shortly afterwards, Mr. Ergesous handed to us the letter of Ambassador Saleh Moh’d Al-Ghamdi to Director Acmad Tomawis of the Office of Muslim Affairs (OMA), requesting for the facilitation of our passports at the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).
Departure from the Philippines
4th of Zul-Hajj / March 10, 2000 (Friday)
This was my first time to see the rest of the ‘20’, except for Robert ‘Hamid’ Coo who had been my co-worker in some Islamic dawah activities a few years back.
From the Saudi Arabian Embassy which was our meeting point, a van ferried us at around 12:00 a.m. to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. At the airport’s lobby, there were Muslims performing the noontime prayer. Once inside the plane some of us started adjusting the time to coincide with the prevailing time in Saudi Arabia. In my case, I chose to keep Philippine time all throughout the journey.
Ra Lam and I occupied the seats assigned to us on the left-hand side of the plane, with me sitting beside the window. Through the microphone, someone spoke to the passengers in Arabic, then in English advising us about the does and don’ts in flight followed by a Duat (prayer in Arabic). How comforting it is to think that a Muslim’s voyage always start with a prayer. Our first stopover: Riyadh. Flight time from Manila: 9 hours.
As soon as the aircraft has taken off and assumed level flight, earphones were distributed and Emergency procedures were demonstrated jointly by a flight stewardess and by audio-visual presentation through the screen in the forward section of the plane’s aisle. Afterwards, the screen began showing us an illustration of the plane and of the Kaaba and their position in relation to each other. Also, the position of the plane and its path in relation to the illustrated map of countries over which it would fly, were shown alternately with data indicating our altitude, speed, bearing, distance, and it’s time from points of departure to destination. Seeing a Saudi Airline Magazine in front of me, I scanned its pages and learned through the Foreword that this year’s pilgrims would number about 700,000 who would be shuttled by some 300 units of the Saudia 737s deployed around the globe. This figure does not include other carriers and means of transports.
At 7:00 p.m. it was already evening in Manila, yet through the plane’s window I was seeing mid-afternoon daylight. Some passengers began adjusting their watches by adding 5 hours to coincide with the local time or the time at point of destination. Some didn’t do that; they preferred seeing Philippine time in their watches all throughout the duration of the Hajj.
Many times I peeped through the window in the hope of seeing land or water below us, but 40,000 feet is too high I couldn’t see anything beyond those clouds below, except darkness.
Stopover / Refueling in Riyadh
Minutes before the 9th and final hour the plane began descending. Then I saw lights about the ground below. “So this is Riyadh” I said to myself, “full of lights”. And I observed that none of those lights down there flickered. Whether big or small they were unmoving lights and they all looked like having the pinkish color. They were unlike the colorful flickering lights in skyscrapers we see in western movies. One moment I saw this odd-looking, imposing structure with huge circular shapes about itself it looked like flying saucers of some sort installed one on top of the other - I recalled I saw it earlier in a photograph on a wall at the ground-floor lounge of the Embassy in Manila.
Finally, the plane landed at about 1:50 a.m. (Philippine time) for an hour stopover.
Then plane took-off again for an hour and a half flight to Jeddah. Afterwards the steward excitedly advised us that it was time to wear our Ihram (the 2 pieces of unsewn white cloth which are the prescribed clothing that a male pilgrim must use - without any underwear - during his Hajj http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03ughnIIvEI&feature=related). In a short while male pilgrims one after another went to the bathrooms to shave off all of their underhair and then take a bath. These by the way, are rituals required prior to the wearing of the Ihram. The other pilgrims, while waiting for their turn outside the bathroom, rehearsed for the prescribed manner of wearing the Ihram. The others went cutting their fingernails - an act that a pilgrim would no longer be allowed to perform after he has put on his Ihram, otherwise his Hajj will be nullified.
Stopover / Overnight in Jeddah
We landed in Jeddah as scheduled. As our plane was taxiing towards the tarmac, we saw a line of 737 planes sitting idly at the ramp. I suppose those planes had already done their mission of transporting pilgrims from various countries just a few hours earlier. In a short while Arab attendants led us down the plane towards the buses that awaited us. As soon as we were seated in the bus with fellow-pilgrims from other countries, brother Timosa began reciting, “Labaika La Humma Labaik; Labaika La Shareka Laka Labaik; Inalhamda; Waniamata; Laka Wal Mulk; La Shareekala!" This recitation was repeated on and on in the bus, led alternately by pilgrims of various nationalities till the bus stopped at the terminal where our travel documents and belongings underwent checking by airport authorities. At the terminal we saw, to our amusement and delight, pilgrims from all races waiting to be checked. Needless to say, there was pleasant chaos in the terminal while scores of pilgrims - black, white, tall and short - quietly performed individual prayers; others in the crowd either chatted on the floor and benches or conversed with fellow-pilgrims they just met. After about 2 hours of checking, we were led to the terminal of the pilgrims airport, a vast sheltered open space where we spent the whole night conversing with one another and with other nationals who gathered around long tables.
Departure from Jeddah to Mekka by bus
5th of Zul-Hajj / March 11, 2000 (Saturday)
At about 8:00 a.m. today, all the pilgrims in Jeddah were instructed to board on buses assigned to them. Ra Lam motioned to get his things to load them to the cargo compartment but the hosts insisted to do the loading for us instead.
While the bus was speeding on the wide highway, videotapes were played on the television sets on board. Those tapes were actually footage of common mistakes committed by pilgrims while performing Hajj rituals, while circumambulating around the Kaaba. Those footages were shown to keep us informed of acts that we should avoid.
Looking through the glass window of the bus I didn’t see any motion in the desert out there. The pilgrims in the bus one after another fell asleep. My eyes were heavy too that I struggled to remain awake wishing to see as much as I can about ‘Hajj’ on television and about the surroundings, but I found myself waking up later and learn that I have slept 15 or more minutes and then I was awake for 15 or more minutes and had fallen asleep again. I think most of us in the bus slept for as long as half or maybe more of our travel time. A number of things that I saw outside puzzled me. For example, I noticed cracks on those rocky mountains, they appear as perfect straight lines. Also I noticed that the designs of edifices I saw from time to time on either side of the road are far different from the western designs that my eyes are accustomed to, and yet I found Arab architecture very appealing. These observations gave me the impression that, when the Great Creator created this area, He designed it to be different and isolated from the rest of the earth and as to why He did that nobody knows except Him.
Inside the bus, our breakfast was served in carton boxes.
Arrival at the Guest House in Mekka
We reached Mecca before noontime. The bus stopped before a huge building. We Filipino pilgrims were gathered along with other nationals at the lobby of this structure that we found out later to be known as ‘Guests of Prince Abdul-Aziz bin Fahad’. It was in this lobby that each group of nationals was given a briefing about schedules of buses plying through the different areas of Hajj. The in-charge of the host whom we only knew by the name Ibrahim informed us in fluent English that every hour buses are stationed in front of the building to ferry pilgrims intending to go to Masjid Al-Haram. We were also informed among other things, about the services that we pilgrims can avail of in that 10-story building. After that briefing, an attendant went around to distribute umbrellas, pack of necessities like toothbrush, toothpaste, nail cutter, soap (unperfumed). In addition, we were each given a rubberized white wristband with red Arabic inscriptions. I saw none from our group and from among the other nationals bothered to ask for the meaning of that inscription. It seemed to me that none of the pilgrims gave thought about what the wristband was for. It was days later when someone from our group told us that the inscription means, “Friend of Abdul-Aziz bin Fahad” - residing in ‘Guest of Prince Abdul-Aziz bin Fahad’ in Aziziya. The wristband was therefore, a sort of an identification and address for the Arab in the street to refer to, in case the wearer gets lost at any time of his pilgrimage.
The Pilgrims at the guesthouse
We Filipino pilgrims were given 3 separate rooms on the 4th floor. My companions in the room were Ra Lam, Butch Balaiao and the 3 generals. Each of us had a mattress, pillow and blanket - no bed in that room as in other rooms. The occupants of the room next to us were brothers Abdulkadir Dimabildo, Mohammad Ebrahim Du, Gadat Ismael, Muhammad Eugenio, and Esmael Timosa. In the 3rd room, were brothers Hamid Coo, Abdurrahim Rueca, Abdulwali Villanueva, Nathif Omar, and Kamar Sabdulla. Muslim brothers from Sudan occupied at least 2 other rooms close to us. On the table at the lobby, coffee, tea, and hot water were available day and night. For our movements up and down the building, 3 elevators were in use. Restaurant was on the 2nd floor, providing services on the following daily schedules: breakfast at 8:30 a.m., (local time) lunch at 3:00 p.m. and dinner 7:30 - 10 p.m. There’s a ‘Question and Answer Room’ on the 1st floor. Also, there’s a huge prayer room at the 3rd floor, although most of the pilgrims proceed to the Bembaz Mosque just across the guesthouse when Adhan is heard through loudspeakers.
Although we have at least 2 Imam’s in our group, brothers Sabdullah and Timosa, the absence of an Arab guide who could communicate with us in English gave us a hard time communicating with non-English-speaking Arabs and other nationals. For this reason, once in a while someone in a crowd could be heard asking, “anybody speaks English?” or simply, “English?”; those in the crowd who don’t respond by either shaking their heads or calling a companion who knows the language. And when there is one who does, he readily comes forward and say, “yes, what is it, brother?”
(To be continued)
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