Alhamdulillah, AHS and I are back at home after about 45 days in Saudi Arabia. Very soon all pilgrims will arrive in their own hometowns, and will go about doing what they routinely do. Alhamdulillah, AHS and I completed our haj process without any untoward incidents. Yes, there were the dry coughs and the sniffles. And there were the shoves right, left and centre; but those were expected. Hey, more than 2 million people congregated in that valley called Makkah and in Masjidil Haram. I also lost my voice for 2 or 3 days.
I am back at work, though not fully charged. For how could I be, when my heart is still pining for Makkah. How I had wished to exchange my flight home to a later date; but I had to think of AHS too, who I could sense had wanted to come home. He prefers Madinah.
Makkah during Haj is not an easy place to be in. When we were there it was hot and rather dusty, and typically having not much 'life' apart from that that revolved around Masjidil Haram. But that kind of life is very fulfilling, especially to a pilgrim. That's what we were there for!
I miss tawaf, difficult though it was days before and after wukuf. I enjoyed the challenge of trying to get to Hijr Ismail; but enjoyed the feeling of triumph even more when the task was accomplished. I still have sentimental feelings for the rajm (somebody corrected me whan I said 'melontar') since it wasn't a difficult journey where people pushed and got stampeded. The Saudi government had really done a good job since the collapsed tunnel incident years ago. Yes, alhamdulillah for all that. I still am thankful that I had 'good' roommates; or your stay there could be hell.
Most of all, alhamdulillah for being Muhammad (s.a.w)'s ummah.
