Saturday, March 10, 2007


going back to see mount arafat was interesting, not only did i manage to get a camel ride with my brother clinging on to me for dear life, but i got to see the mountain without the millions of peoples surrounding it.

so i stood at the bottom of this mountain, looking up at it thinking 'how am i going to climb this' it was possible as you could clearly see people at the top. i began by jumping onto the smaller rocks, then climbing, struggling, hanging on for dear life at one point, slamming myself against a jagged rock and shouting out my frustration, eventually i got to the top only to find that there where camels, old people as well beggars without limbs, how on earth did they manage to get to the top????????

simple, the answer is, they walked up the stairs on the other side, and those stairs where big, spacious and just easy, a 2 year old could do it, white african had to go about it the long and hard way duhhhhh, i seriously felt stupid lol.

the view from the mountain was splendid, and i kept thinking how amazing it was that just a couple of days ago this view would have been full of people dressed in white praying to Allah, now it was emptiness not to be filled with people until next year.

Arafat is overlooked by a huge mountain referred to as Jabal Al-Rahma or Mountain of Mercy. Muslims believe that Adam and his wife Eve were reunited on this mountain and forgiven by God, it is also where eth prophet Muhammad gave his last sermon, when you look at the mountain you will notice a white pillar at the top of it, it's just to symbolise the mountain as well as where the khutbah is held, it wasn't there at the time of the prophet and it has no connection to worship or any thing like that what so ever, but to see the people reacting towards it you would thing that this pillar held some sort of power, touching it and what not, when you come closer to the pillar you cant help but notice the amount of graffiti on it, and even when i was standing there some one took out a permanent marker and began to scribble something on the pillar.

i have to say i did get a little tempted to write 'white african was here 2007' but then i scolded myself for having such thoughts, tut tut tut.

i have never understood the concept of wiping your hands on an object, wanting to attain blessings or some sort of cure for a disease, or even forgiveness, its an object for crying out loud, if you have travelled all this way to perform hajj with the intention of pleasing god, gaining forgiveness and his mercy, then why on earth would you commit shirk (associating partners with god) by seeking something from an object that was probably made in Italy???????

it's mind boggling, and it's a very common sight to see, an you just want to shake people and say 'what is this object possibly going to do for you', in my opinion it's the same as idol worship, how else did people get into the stage of worshipping idols, through the same means. i remember once reading the life story of the companion umar al khatab (ra) and he said that there was one thing that he remembers from his ignorant time that makes him laugh out loud and that is he once moulded an idol out of dates and then began to worahip this ideal, then one day he was extremely hungry and couldn't find anything to eat other than his idol, so he ate the idol.

what is stroking a piece of glass, marble, metal possibly going to do for you? when i was in madina, i was standing next to a metal gate that looks into the grave yard where many of the companions are buried, i was just looking standing directly in front of the gate, when a woman started to shout at me telling me to move and give her a chance to stand where i was standing, i asked her exactly why she wanted my spot, to which she replied 'i want the barakah (blessing)', i asked her where the 'blessing; is exactly? to which she replied the metal gate your protecting, to which i told her that in that case I'm staying where i am and not budging as this metal you so want to touch and feel and pray to does not want you.

Allah swt is to whim they pray to but yet they feel that they need to find solace in metal, and other objects that have no meaning what so ever, I'm confused....

as well as the evident shirk that was happening all around me, there where people who where just admiring the view, and praying generally this guy was Turkish, you can tell from the little flag on his bag as well as the fact that they all wore the same clothes, it was a uniform to differentiate them from other groups, i wasn't sure what he was doing here, maybe adthan?

also on top of the mountain there was a man selling things, i swear any opportunity and people will be there trying to sell you something, soon you wont be able to enter the toilet unless a person sells you toilet paper and water, i can see that happening.

there are camels if you want a ride with a picture, and they really hassle you into getting on the camel, he got 10 riyal of me, no more.

also you will most certainly come across a beggar with some form of disability like this man:

he was wailing and crying, saying 'sabil illah' (for the sake of Allah) and people where putting money on to his jilabeeyah, he was acting like he couldn't move, lying on the stairs preventing people from passing. after i had taken pictures of everything and looked at the view, i decided to make my way back down to the valley (going down the stairs this time) when something passed me by in a fast manner nearly knocking me over, i looked to see who it was and low and behold it was the beggar man who couldn't even breath properly before never mind running down stairs at the speed of a marathon runner, hmmmmm when i saw that i thanked Allah i hadn't fallen for his tricks and given him money.

the beggars are really every where and its sad because you cant differentiate between who is genuine and who is a fake. we where told that the best people to give money to are the workers who work at the haram, cleaners and what not as they are in need due to their rubbish pay, they usually where orange suites, i called them the Guantanamo bay people because of their uniforms. the beggars became a nuisance and you can no longer feel any sympathy for them although saying that you cant but help feel sorry of r the children, as a child should keep its innocence and play like every other child and have the rights that each child should enjoy rather than be abused by working and begging all hours of the day and teaching the child to pick pocket and trick others, its a sad thing to see. sometimes a child will run up to you selling tissue or packest of chewing gum and your heart just goes out to them.

i remember once in egypt a little boy around 5 or 6 was selling chewing gum or something, we gave him money but we didnt take what he was selling, for like over an hour he was following us, each time we would go into the shop he would be waiting outside for us, and we thought we would never get rid of him, we mistakenly thought he wanted more money, and just as we where getting annoyed by him, i went up to him to tell him to go home that we had already given him money, to which he replies in cute Arabic, 'i don't want more money, i want you to take what you payed for'

how adorable is that? even a child has dignity and a sense of what is right and wrong, and for some one to take that away from them is an ultimate betrayal.

the most thing that affects me is seeing a child not given its basic rights.

on the note of children and charity for those who are based in Britain:
Islamic Relief Proudly Presents...


outlandish are going to be there and i have to say they are really good, so as well as entertaigmnet and a good night, its an oppertunity to help the children.

anglo and brave as well as manchester, there coming to london and birmingham as well :)

19 comments:

Anglo-Libyan said...

you should not feel stupid for climbing the mountain, you did it the proper way, good excersise as well :o)
thank you for highlighting the idol or stone/metal touching worshipping issue, this is something very important and very sad to see that it is still practiced by many people that might not know its wrong, many Muslims have a duty to correct the wrong doings of other Muslims, this is more important than the stupid action of trying to ban women from attending Mosques or telling me that wearing jeans and taking pictures are Haram, you know what I mean.
I can imagine that begger running down the stairs like a flash, I have seen many like that in Egypt and other countries :o)
I am glad they are not that disabled and can manage but as you said there are others that deserve the money a lot more than them. especially if it is spent to improve the situation for children, they always come first.
Thank you for mentioning the Islamic Relief night, I will keep an eye on that.

Brave Heart said...

u r very active WA,i'm vey lazy to climb 2m mountain, i hope when i'll go to hajj they'll use elevators.
about sherk issue is it's due to education and culture if u c our generation the percent will be less 1 or 2%, but the generation be4 us, the education was very rare.and they believe in such things like cidi abduslam alasmer.
i saw one fighting between 2 begger women after i finished my juma prayer in Libya one time about which one should stand in the front gate of the mosque and which one should stand in the back gate.

thanks for islamic relief invitation.

The Godfather said...

The Umar(RA) story is funny. In one instance he is crying with tears pouring down his face as he remembers his days of ignorance when he moulded an idol out of dates to worship it. In the successive instance he is laughing out loud as he remembers eating that very same 'idol of dates' because he was starving.

You see a lot of this kind of weird stuff in Saudi...people touching things and what not to gain the blessings?!?!?!?! May Allah protect us all from this kind of fitna.

I hear what you satin' WA.....you do get sick of the beggars over there; many of them turn out to be frauds....which is why we did exactly as you did....give them to the Guantanomo Bay people; LOL!!! what a name!!!!

ISLAMIC RELIEF ALL THE WAY!!!!!

white african said...

well anglo when you put it that way how could i still feel stupid :)

this shirk buisness is seriously annoying and it really gets to me how a person can pray to allah yet at the same time belive that a peice of wood contains healing power???

and they dont listen to you if you try to advise them, its what they are used to and they would say 'well our parents did this', same excuse throught generations.

ive promised my bro that i would take him to the islamic relief gig, im using him as an excuse, but deep down i want to see outlandish sing :)

brave sorry to dissapoint you but no lift or escalaters on the mountains, saudi have not developed that fast although i wouldnt be surprised if they did in a few years time :)

majority of the shirk happening around me in hajj where from the older generation, but its something thats passed down and spiced up and that gets evolved.

theres alot of this sidi buisness, my aunt always shouts out 'sidi abdussalam' when ever anything happens, my mum always tells her of lol.

birmingham is where islamic relief was first started, its where its all happening.

godfather i love reading up on the companions life stories and comapring their personality traits. so much to learn from.

did teh workers have the orange suits in your time as well??? wow maybe the guantanamo folk got the idea from mecca and madina lol.

how sthe work going for the concert?

The Godfather said...

Yeah man, the workers had orange suits back then too.........if my memory serves me correctly, they had blue suits too.

IR is going OK Alhamdulillah.......got meetings left right and centre though!?!?!? Insha'Allah it will be a good gig.

Anonymous said...

LOL!! how did you climb the rocks?? they were massive!!!! elhamdulilah i found the stairs before i attempted the climb :o) When I went to see it, it was at night so there weren't any people selling things there..only a few guys offering to take a photo of you by the pillar and the camel guys of course! hehe. As for the people expecting to get a blessing from the pillar and stuff..don't they read the sign!! there's a massive sign in loads of different languages in all these places telling you shouldn't do these things..but then again..maybe they can't read..but someone should tell them!
the beggers were pretty sad, especially on the way back from Jamarat and there were so many people you wouldn't notice them sitting on the ground, and you'd have to watch out incase you trip over them!
But apart from all of that, must agree with you, was great to see it without all the poeple on it :o) Would loved to have gone on the day of Arafat, but was too packed when we got there.
Oh, and the Islamic Relief thing...i got that..luks good, although must admit the only people i know on there are outlandish, but that's enuf for me! :o)

NATIVE said...

Yes its the missing blogger and I'm back in business :D

Still lovin the Hajj diary WA. Sad that it will soon be over as I was experiencing it through your posts.

Hey you climbed the mountain the proper way so all good.

The whole issue about finding blessing in a peice of metal or rock is due to ignorance. May Allah grant us knowledge and protect us from ignorance.

Evening of inspiration looks good! Coolstuff!

NM said...

I am currently reading a book on Tawhid and its scary how wide spread shrik is in the muslim world!

And we wonder why we have problems

Brave Heart said...

well WA:I'm always loving the idea of cidi brave heart, it's very good business i'll gain in 1 year what i could gained in 50 years hard work,it needs nothing some bukhour and some bad writing in bad paper and every thing is done.if u have any problem cidi brave heart,i can help u free just in the first visit.
BTW I was in Manchester today, to be honest it's more cleaner than be4, i used to live there 2 months, i was looking for every hijabi girls, i thought that i may be c u again

white african said...

godfather where would you be without your meetings :) you would so miss it, admit now you would wouldnt you.

amena i completly forgot about those massive anti-shirk signes, they where every where couldnt miss it if you tried, still people ignored them.

the view must have been different at night, and less commotion than the day time.

another thing i forgot bout where the beggars on teh way back from jamarat, they just appear and sit there or cart themselves every where, crazy.

thanks for jogging my memory :)

my god native you blogged!!! congrats sis :)

ameen to your dua, so can i convince you to come to teh concert?

nm problems is just the begin of our problems if that makes sense, man we have issues, go to that mosque in cairo opposit ethe azhar, now that had some weird shirk buisness, take your camera and have a blast lol

brave hmmm sidi brave, clearly you have a buisness mind lol, i get a percentage of the profit because i started the topic, so you owe me money :)

by the way i wasnt in manchester today, i went to liverpool, so i wasnt around my own home town today, manchester is cool, and it has changed alot withing these years

The Godfather said...

Yes, I do love my meetings........they're so chilled out.......you know that...remember the 20p meetings?

white african said...

oh yeh godfather what i recall from the 20p meetings is you getting a telling of loooooool

The Godfather said...

I know man......I'm 33 years old and I still get a telling off!?!?!?! LOL!!!

Lebeeya said...

I hope you werent wearing high heels while climbing :P

What happened to that guys hands?? :( I have a weak spot for beggers, young or old, faking or not, they break my heart. I usually give them everything I have.

I agree so many people do weird things! I once saw this lady praying, and someone accidently bumped into her, so the lady looks at the person and pushes them, then continues praying. I didnt know if I should laugh or cry.

white african said...

glad to say no high heels leebeya, i didnt take any wid me, tempted to but stopped myslef.

over there you see all sorts of beggars, some with no hands no feet, one guy didnt even have a nose subhanallah!!!

i'm the same when it comes to feeling sorry for them, but then you learn to spot the genuine amongs the fake.

it can be so funny observing people praying, people do all sorts

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