Photo by Nushmia Khan, UNC-Chapel Hill
Flying over Saudi Arabia
Eden Gass of New Orleans, LA. discusses her travel experience to the Noble City of Makkah. This is Eden's first Rihla and her first trip to Saudi Arabia.
In the Name of God, the Most Merciful, the Compassionate.
The shadow of a hand fondling prayer beads cast on the floor beside my feet…the pilot invoking blessings of peace upon us as he announces it is time for the Fajr prayer…brothers and sisters using every available space in the plane for worship…spreading out rugs or airline blankets in the aisle beside me…quiet murmurs of “Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar”, a singsong of praise…this is what it is to fly to Saudi Arabia….these are the first steps on my journey to Makkah…Insha Allah…
Finally sitting in front of the Haram, I make du’a before dawn…as I sit quietly weeping with my hands cupped toward the heavens, a woman comes by like a shadow and drops a date into my waiting palms….like manna from heaven.....Alhamdulillah…..
Observing the pilgrims, it strikes me; at home I am accustomed to seeing people in a rush for many things…rushing to work, to the store, to the bank…but now for the first time in my life I see people rushing to pray…dropping everything and hurrying with an eagerness and urgency I had previously seen reserved for happy hours and sidewalk sales, and running to pray, running to God…
Soon I find myself running with them to the Dhuhr prayer…rushing across the brilliant white paving stones to the welcoming shadow of the entrance…at the moment I mount the steps, brothers rush up beside me, holding aloft the body of a believer wrapped in an iridescent brown shroud….and together we all hurry inside, one believer ending their spiritual journey on earth, while another’s begins…
Making my way through the throngs that filled the Masjid, a Sister I have never met in my life randomly embraces me…uttering “Asalamu Alaikum, Alhamdulillah”….Allah’s welcome takes many forms…approaching the Kab’bah I see people cling to it as to the only rock in a stormy sea…I join the pilgrims making tawaf in the blinding sun, and thousands of voices making du’a mingle and envelope me…. As we perform this ancient ritual, I imagine the millions of feet who have tread this path before me, the millions of foreheads that have touched this sacred ground, and I realize time does not exist in this place, the individual does not exist….only God…only God…Allahu Akbar….
Eden Judith Gass
New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
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