I STOOD WITH my hands open to the sky and said the truest thing I have ever said in my life. Allah, I need You. This was Arafah. The ninth of Dhul Hijjah. And for months, this is what I and the two million other pilgrims standing on that plain had been waiting and preparing … Continue reading Allah, I Need You
EVERY JOURNEY OF Hajj begins at Mina. At first glance, Mina appears temporary and functional, endless rows of white tents spread across a valley outside Makkah. But Mina is not merely a staging post before Arafah. It is, in the deepest sense, where the pilgrim begins to shed illusion. This is fitting. Mina is where … Continue reading A Place Where Illusions Fall Away
AFTER TAWAF YOU leave the Ka’bah and walk up towards Safa. Hajar once stood here too. Not in a marble clad corridor, but in an empty valley with her infant son. Ibrahim (as) had left them there by Allah’s command. Limited food and water. No shelter. No people. When she understood that this came from … Continue reading Sa’i
NOTHING QUITE PREPARES you for tawaf. You have seen images. You think you know what to expect. Then you arrive at the mataf and see it, a vast human sea, swirling endlessly around the Ka’bah, and whatever you thought you knew just disappears. Whether on the mataf immediately around the Ka’bah or on the upper floors, you find yourself sometimes … Continue reading The Centre That Does Not Move
THERE ARE CERTAIN images every Muslim grows up with. For many of us, the most powerful of all is the sight of the Ka’bah. Long before we ever travel to Makkah, we already know it intimately. We see it in our homes, in masajid, in taraweeh broadcast from Makkah during Ramadhan, in Hajj documentaries, on … Continue reading The House That Lives in the Heart
THE BUS FROM Jeddah to Makkah was packed with pilgrims from a dozen countries, dressed in the same two white cloths. On my second Hajj, I was handed the microphone to lead the talbiyah for the journey into Makkah. One voice began it, others joined, and within moments the bus was one sound. It didn’t matter which … Continue reading Labbayk
THERE IS A moment I will never forget. Standing in the departures hall at London Heathrow, surrounded by the particular chaos of a busy international terminal: trolleys, announcements, the smell of coffee and duty free. And yet something was happening that had nothing to do with any of it. Around me, hundreds of fellow pilgrims … Continue reading Two White Cloths
I MEET PEOPLE who speak lovingly about Hajj, who feel its pull, who fully intend to go, yet continue to delay year after year. Some reasons are entirely understandable. Hajj is expensive. Quotas are limited. Health is not always on our side. There are dependents. But beyond those genuine barriers lies a different conversation altogether. … Continue reading What Holds Us Back
THERE ARE SOME obligations in Islam that we fulfil and move on from. And then there is Hajj. I have yet to meet a believer who says that they do not want to go to Hajj. The desire sits somewhere deep within the Muslim heart, sometimes close to the surface, sometimes buried beneath years of … Continue reading Answering the Call
DHUL HIJJAH IS almost upon us, and with it comes the familiar pull, that instant tug at something deep in the chest that every believer who has stood in those blessed places will recognise. I have been blessed to perform hajj twice in my life. The first time I was in my twenties, fresh out … Continue reading Remembering Hajj
Living For Islam 