ARAFAT, 20 January 2005 — Most visiting pilgrims take a souvenir or two home from Haj, but one Nigerian couple are going to take home a three-kilogram, kicking, gurgling newborn baby girl with them to commemorate a Haj they’ll never forget.
A 35-year-old Nigerian woman gave birth to a baby girl at the Arafat General Hospital yesterday.
Aisha Yaqoob Hussain immediately named her Arafah, after nurses who delivered the baby insisted that she name the baby Arafah.
Aisha works in Makkah. She came for Haj along with other pilgrims from her native Nigeria. She was helping them with sundry tasks.
“This is like a dream come true,” the proud mother said from her hospital bed when this journalist visited her along with her husband Yaqoob Hussain.
The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), who delivered a much-revered sermon here in Arafat, laid special stress on the safety and honor of Muslim girls. Baby girls born on the plains of Arafat are considered special.
“She is a lucky girl,” said a beaming Yaqoob Hussain. “For fathers, daughters are a special treasure.”
Arafah is already proving to be lucky as is her mother.
Aisha in fact took a great risk. Her expected date of delivery was Jan. 24, but she decided to walk all the way from Mina to Arafat to advance her delivery.
“We would not have advised her to do that,” said Dr. Omaimah Salem Tafran, the attending physician. “But then everybody is happy, and, as they say, all is well that ends well.”
And the physician says Arafah is doing well, and she seems to be pretty happy for a newborn.
Arafah kept smiling all the way as the chants of talbiyah reverberated.
“I hope she will bring us a lot of good luck having been born here in this holy land,” said Yaqoob Hussain. “Mashallah, I have four kids. She is the fifth one and the luckiest one.”
