member of the human race

every where i looked there where men shaving other men's heads, and clumps of hair every where, it was interesting to say the least.

one thing that annoyed me was that after they would finish they would leave the blades just lying there, how dangerous is that? again what with all the bins every where why would you choose to just be reckless and leave dangerous items lying around, any one can easily walk over them and cut themselves, we humans can be perfect at lacking consideration for others.

we get back to the tent, and my mum brings out her scissors from her magical bag, seriously this bag is famous and it holds everything you could possibly think of, its a bottomless bag that has another life, kind of like the cupboard in Narnia, i haven't tested it yet but soon i will put my hand in her bag and i bet you i will never feel the bottom of the bag, magical or what!!!

it was time for us ladies to cut a small part of our hair, we all lined up and released ourselves from ihram, that meant that we could now cut our nails, use fragranced soap and shampoo, fragranced deodorant, none of that simple product that i hated, although now when i go shopping and i come across any simple products i end up smiling and remembering my time at mina. we wherent completly out of ihram, we would be released from total ihram after teh tawaf al ifadah.

we had already payed for the hadee it came to about 40 pounds per person, Offering a sacrifice (a sheep, a goat, and for seven people a camel, a cow, or an ox) is incumbent (wajib) upon every adult Muslim who has the nisab amount of wealth. The difference between having to pay zakat and sacrificing is that zakat must be paid on it if the person has had it for one year, while a sacrifice must be offered if the person has had it for only one day. The sacrifice must be made on any of the first 3 days of eid, we didn't do the actual sacrifice, we payed the amount needed and left it for our leader to organise, the meat is then distributed to the poor, again this ritual goes back to prophet ibrahim who was tested by Allah concerning his son, where he was asked to sacrifice his son and just as prophet ibrhaim was about to perform this action, Allah sent down a ram to replace his son subhanallah.

when walking back from the jamarat there are big sign's that say slaughter house and another one that says modern slaughter house, i wonder what the difference is? cows with lap tops and mobiles maybe?

that evening we had meat with our rice instead of the usual chicken and now we could use those scented wet wipes they put in the food box.

for the next three days our days consisted of walking around mina shopping, seriously every where you walked their would be some one selling something from jilbabas to hand made socks, to fake watches, sibhas, toys, bukhoor (incense), it was lovely just walking up and down the rows of people looking at the different varieties of stuff being sold as well as the different versions of people selling the stuff, at one point we came across the Eastern European camp and there where people who had driven in a big coach type transportation all the way from the home towns to Saudi and they where selling all types of gear.

some where even offering camel rides..



i couldn't resist taking another picture of those cute imprisoned babies, mashallah there so good, you never hear a sound coming out from them, at one point i had to prod one just to check whether it was breathing or not.

look at its little sandal sticking out, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw mashallah.

when i got back to the tent i was amazed to find a cleaning frenzy like no other, it was scary to watch, the woman just couldn't get enough of cleaning, one lady had found a wheel barrow somewhere brought it back to the camp and filled it with her clothes and husbands ihram, dumped a ton of soap and scrubbed like there was no tomorrow.

the wudu areas where taken over by woman intent on cleaning every thing in sight, the toilets where hijacked because they where using the hose pipes, there was soap stud every where, it was scene from a movie where washing machines rule the world and vomit soap all over people (there is no such movies but I'm sure Hollywood will come to film one)

even the water containers which you find outside every tent had been taken, dismantled and used as a do it yourself washing machine, it was hilarious, clothes where hanging from every corner of the camp, the good thing was by the end of the washing the toilets where remarkably cleaner.

this was mina life and as each day went by the more attached you get to it and you forget your world back home, its strange to think that living in such cramped conditions with so many people can make a person feel good but subhannallah it really does and i have to say my best times ever since birth have been at mina.

the next 3 days of jamarat went really well, no deaths mashallah this year, very smooth no problems, people stuck to the rules, sometimes we would go to the ground level and other times we would go to the first level, walking towards the jamarat was always fun and you would meet people from all over the world, some of the sisters would have different style of hijab to make themselves noticed by their group in case they got lost, you really see all sorts of style, some where wearing hats, some had massive bows, some had flowers, others would wear neon colours, this lady decided to have her country...




it says Malaysia on her scarf, the Australian brothers and sisters had kangaroos, how cool is that?

we would walk through a tunnel each time to get to the jammarat



look at the space between me and the people in front of me, quite alot of space, enough for a person to make cart wheels (which my brother did do)


when you get to the jamarat you start with the smallest, then the middle then the largest, after each one you would face the kibblah and make dua of your choice except the third jamarah, you don't do dua after that, at each jamrah you throw 7 pebbles, like i mentioned before people do get emotional and start throwing there slippers, water bottles and shout things at the pillar, as it symbolises the devil so they get carried away.

mashallah at each one i managed to get right to the front and i even took my time with throwing the pebbles, no one was pushing or shoving apart from one freak of man who felt he had to copy a bull, seriously he would bow his head and run into the crowd of people knocking people over when there was no need to. another man threw his pebbles so hard that his fist landed on my head and for a few seconds i saw birds just like in the cartoons, the funny thing was he didn't even notice he had hit me.

by the last day of the jamarat it was the most easiest and funniest, there where ice cream vans right infront of the jamarat, never has that happned,you can see teh jamart right behind the van, the man was shouting 'iscream iscream', you could have a camel ride if you wanted, the new system seemed to work so well that by the final day it began to look like some theme park seriosly.

completing the final jamarh was really sad because it indicated the final acts of hajj and saying goodbye to mina, we had one more act to do before our hajj was complete and that was the tawaf al ifadah.