Journey to Hajj - Makkah

Pedestrian precinct between Makkah City
Commercial Buildings (L) and Masjidil Haram (R)

Mecca (Makkah)

From: World Encyclopedia© World Encyclopedia 2005, originally published by Oxford University Press 2005. (Hide copyright information

City in w Saudi Arabia and the holiest city of Islam. The birthplace of the prophet Muhammad, only Muslims are allowed in the city. Mecca was originally home to an Arab population of merchants. When Muhammad began his ministry here, the Meccans rejected him. The flight or Hejira of Muhammad from Mecca to Medina in 622 marked the beginning of the Muslim era. In 630, Muhammad's followers captured Mecca, and made it the centre of the first Islamic empire. Egypt controlled the city in the 13th century. The Ottoman Turks held it from 1517 to 1916, when Hussein Ibn Ali secured Arabian independence.
In 1924, Mecca fell to the forces of Ibn Saud, who later founded the Saudi Arabian kingdom. Much of Mecca's commerce depends on Muslim pilgrims undertaking the Hajj. After World War II, the city's wealth increased through oil revenues. Pop. (2002) 1,541,800.

Pilgrimage 1429 (Part 1)

Alhamdulillah, I had returned home after spending about 27 days in Makkah, 1 day in Arafah, 4 days in Mina and 8 days in Madinah. I flew to Jeddah via KT74 on the 25-November, 2008 and returned home on the 4th. January, 2009 from Madinah to KLIA. The Saudi Boeng 747 plane landed exactly at 3.50 a.m. local time while most Malaysians were still fast asleep. So, after so long my blog has not been posted with any news, I have to start writing on something... maybe about my hajj which could be a useful to those who are going there this year. As there are so many things to write on, I let the photographs to be in the blog first and the description will come later.


Basically, Hajj rituals to be performed are almost the same by every pilgrim. So, every pilgrim from Malaysia will undergo almost the same route taken by the pilgrims who had performed the Hajj before. The only major difference is that every pilgrim will encounter different obstacles along the way which may be unique or different to him/her only. The way he/she tackled and resolved those obstacles will be be evaluated by Allah SWT and only the Almighty will determine whether his Pilgrim Ritual is accepted as Haji Mabrur or not. And everybody knows that the reward for Haji Mabrur is nothing less than Paradise (Syurga). This is what the main focus of every pilgrim performing hajj every year.

So, the route or programs to be taken by every pilgrim has been established in my last post. For my case, the route taken was as follows :
1. Flight from Kuala Lumpur to Jeddah
2. Took a bus from Jeddah to Makkah
3. Stayed in Makkah until Wukuf Day in Arafah (would be decided by the Saudi Ruler)
4. Moved to Arafah by bus (with all the pilgrims - last year, it was about 3.5million pilgrims)
5. Wukuf at Arafah (Zuhr util Maghrib)
6. Moved to Mudzalifah by bus (stay in the open field until mid-night)
7. Collected stones after mid-night (to be used at Jamrah)
8. Moved to Mina by bus and allocated to a camp/tent
9. Stayed in Mina for 4 days for Stone-throwing at Jamrah
10. After the stone throwing for 1st day at Jamrah Aqabah, performed Tahallul (hair-shaving)
10. Once the rtituals are completed, moved to Makkah
11. Performed Tawaf Ifadah (Hajj)
12. Performed Sai'e (walking between Mount Safa and Marwah)
13. Hajj completed.
14. Performed Umrah (depends on type of Hajj Rituals chosen)...

A lot of construction going on around/near vicinity of Masjidil Haram.
Expected to be completed in 5-years time

MY WEEKLY KL-JB ROUTE

At Rest and Repair Area, Pagoh

Since 1989, I have been plying between Skudai, Johor and Kuala Lumpur. This is due to the job requirement that needs me to travel. Way back in 1990's, I sometimes took Johor Bahru - Kerteh - Kuala Lumpur route even during the fasting month. As I was still young then (40++ yrs old), driving a car along that route did not pose any problem for me.

For the past three years, I have been commuting between JB-KL almost every week. As I have an office in Bandar Seri Putra, Bangi and another office in Taman Teratai, Johor it has been a norm for me to do so. However, as the age is catching up, I could feel the effect of ageing and driving.

To kill the boredom, I normally tag along my camera to snap some photos along the way. This is one of the highway photos in my collections ..




Skudai..