MINA, 13 February 2003 — After complaining about the cold and wind for three days, the inevitable has happened and the pilgrims are now broiling under hot, sunny skies. This is especially difficult for the men with their newly shaven pates. To protect their naked scalps from sunburn, the male pilgrims are wearing head coverings of every imaginable type. The Afghans have black turbans. The Asians are sporting skullcaps. Fez, chapeau, tarboosh — whatever one wants to call them — are everywhere. While the hats are a pleasing sight, it is disgusting to see hair and razorblades littering the ground around the area where the barbers have been practicing their trade. This is also extremely unhygienic, as most pilgrims are wearing sandals.
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Although the pilgrims are more relaxed today, they are still quite caught up in their own business. In fact, few of them heard about the deaths at the Jamarat on Tuesday. Most have no access to television or newspapers, so the tragedy has not spoiled their joy. Today the authorities have been brisk and firm in their requests to pilgrims to keep moving. No one is allowed to squat on the sidewalks or the roadsides. Tuesday’s terrible incident created gloom among the journalists covering the Haj and the diplomats tasked with assisting the pilgrims from so many lands. Already overcome with worry about potential adversity to come, Arab News Haj team became caught up in a more personal misfortune.
On Tuesday evening, a telephone call from Jeddah informed us that the aged Indian mother of a senior Arab News staffer had gone missing in the crowds.
Fearing the worst, the team began searching for the woman, but no trace of her could be found in any of the obvious places. At 12 midnight a good Samaritan telephoned the woman’s son and she was able to tell him that she was well, but the rest of the message was garbled. So the search continued.
At 2 a.m. Wednesday, returning to the headquarters of India’s Haj Mission at Mina, we were impressed to see that India’s Consul General in Jeddah, Syed Akbarauddin, was still hard at work trying to solve the pilgrims’ problems. This gentleman has endeared himself to a vast number of Indian expatriates in the Western Province with his no-nonsense, helpful attitude. Now he has become the darling of the Indian pilgrims as well.
Dispatching aides left and right to handle paperwork and make telephone calls, Syed Akbaruddin looked as though he hadn’t slept in days, but still he soldiered on. We were informed that he has been present round the clock since the Haj began. Sadly, he had no news of the woman we were seeking, but he took down her details and promised to liaise with the leader of her pilgrim group.
Finally at 6 a.m. the call came, which we had been hoping for. A Syrian pilgrim, Dr. Abdul Moeen Al-Khawamy, who works as a dentist in Taif, telephoned and said that the woman we were seeking was with him. He gave us excellent directions to his location and promised to stay with the woman until we arrived. The scene when mother and son were reunited was touching, to say the least, and all were pleased with the happy ending. The small acts of kindness done by one pilgrim for another embody the true spirit of Haj and distinguish the pilgrimage as a gathering of goodwill.
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We were grateful for the moment of happiness before attending to a sad task. Stopping at Masjid Al-Qaif, I went inside to pray for the soul of Mahmoud Kahil, our star cartoonist who died in London. We are all very shaken by his death and my thoughts were with the members of the family as I sat quietly in the mosque remembering all the good things this man has done over the years for those without a voice. I will dread opening the Opinion Page in Arab News. Kahil is simply irreplaceable. I went out into the sunshine and back to the job at hand with a heavy heart.
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I needed something to lift my depression. It, or I should say he, marched right past me, with, to my amazement, a cricket bat held high. Mudassar Sultan, from Lahore, was leading 22 Pakistani pilgrims to the Jamarat. I asked him why he was hoisting a piece of sports equipment in the air. “When I was trying to decide what to carry as identification to help keep the group together, I hit upon the idea of holding up this cricket bat,” said Sultan. “There are already so many flags here and bamboo sticks with slippers or other objects tied on, that I was searching for something unusual, and this is it. It fits nicely in my hand and we have found that if someone gets separated from the group, all they have to do is ask if a pilgrim with a cricket bat has been seen. Not surprisingly, pilgrims notice the bat and can often point out our direction.”
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A very nice service provided by the Saudi government is the temporary post office opened at Mina. The post office functions for these three days of Haj only and it has become popular for many reasons. It is important to remember that many pilgrims are very poor and cannot afford to make telephone calls to their families. So they are sending letters and postcards to their near and dear ones.
However, Western pilgrims have found the post office and think it something of a novelty. They are sending letters to their own addresses and the addresses of others back home as a form of souvenir. The post office provides stamps issued to commemorate the Haj and then the postage is cancelled with the postmark of Mina. As the post office is open for so brief a time, letters sent from Mina make nice collectibles. We sent one to our correspondent in Washington, D.C.
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Despite the babble of so many languages one stands out — Arabic. In other places English has become the global tongue, but at Haj, Arabic prevails. Some of the pilgrims have been in the Kingdom for weeks and they have picked up useful Arabic words, which they use with delight. “Shoya, Shoya” (easy, easy), “Sabber ya Haji” (patience oh! pilgrim), and “Ya Haji tareek” (pilgrim, move out of the way) are just a few of the Arabic phrases that the pilgrims say to each other and all seem to understand. These phrases are used in a very lighthearted manner and seem to dispel tension, especially in crowds. So from me, until tomorrow — “Maassalama”.
