Pilgrimage to Medina, Mecca was a life-altering experience 

In June, The Observer’s Hajji HASSAN BADRU ZZIWA and wife traveled to Muslim holy cities of Medina and Mecca for their first hajj.

It was a grueling and surreal three weeks there. In this first of two-part series, he shares his pilgrim’s experience from preparation to life and rituals in Medina. For decades, the dream of embarking on the hajj had been constant in my heart but I always kept postponing it. That’s until I broke the jinx behind me a few weeks ago.

Hajj is a significant pilgrimage in Islam that is considered one of the five pillars of the faith. It is an annual pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, and is obligatory for all able-bodied Muslims who can afford it. It is a challenging experience meant to cleanse followers of sin and bring them closer to Allah (God).

It is generally an expensive sojourn whose cost is more than Shs 20m per person for the three weeks there.

THE IDEA

So, planning for the hajj all started on April 1, 2020 during the Covid-19 lockdown. Like many Ugandans, the lockdown caught me and my family unprepared, and many things changed in our lives. It was around that period that my wife, Hajati Sauda Babirye, suggested that we intensify our prayers and get closer to God.

She suggested that we should pray together as a family during the five daily prayers (salat). From then on, we drew up a programme for how this was going to be conducted, especially for our young children, who should be taught the religion.

Of the many things we prayed for, what stood out was seeking Allah to give us financial support to perform the hajj. This looked like a dream, but Sauda believed in it and encouraged the entire family to continue praying. We started saving money, and she was the treasurer. She also spoke to our adult children about her vision.

In 2022, we had almost got half of the money in spite of the other basic costs such as school fees. I told her we might raise the money in 2024, but her target was 2023. In April 2023, she told me; “we are almost there,” and advised me to keep praying. It was around May, 2023 when we managed to get more than Shs 40m for both of us.

PREPARATIONS

We both celebrated, but we kept it a secret until we finally registered for the hajj. That’s when we whispered to close relatives about our intention to perform the 2023 hajj. There are more than 50 companies that register pilgrims, but I picked Swaffa & Marwa Hijja and Umrah Services Company, which is headed by former supreme mufti, Sheikh Silimani Kasule Ndirangwa.

We were given a list of the requirements, like a valid passport, Covid-19 vaccination certificates, and a yellow fever vaccination certificate. After registration, we were asked to go for hajj classes every Friday at Swaffa and Marwa offices in Mengo.

In these classes, the sheikhs basically talked about the dos and don’ts during the pilgrimage. Here, the sheikhs taught about what to pack in the luggage, the obligatory Islamic rituals, the abnormal weather and what prayers to recite in some of those holy sites, among others.

Unfortunately, I did not attend any of the above classes due to my tight schedule, but my wife did, and she used to brief me on whatever transpired there.

MOMENT OF TRUTH

Come June 14, 2023, we were set for departure for hajj, and we spent almost the entire night preparing for the trip. What surprised me were some funny things that my wife packed, like cooked cassava, plates and plastic mugs. I would later discover she was right. We were driven to Entebbe international airport by one of our children and to see us off were some close relatives.

At Entebbe, the atmosphere was enough to tell you what was happening right away from Kitooro. After going through the rigorous roadblocks at the airport and the heavy traffic jam, we went to the airport terminal; it was 4:30 pm and time to check-in. After going through the security details, the next hurdle was the weighing session.

Though only 46kg were allowed for each of the travelling pilgrims, many had more than 50kg. The airline handlers advised the pilgrims to leave out some of their belongings in order to meet the airport requirements. This is where the problem started: choosing what to leave out and what to take.

There were pilgrims who had parked things like maize flour, millet flour, saucepans, beans, avocado, raw cassava and gnuts, among others. There’s one who had gone with a suitcase full of her attire, which she had to send back home. Inside the departure lounge, we waited for over an hour because our flight with Ethiopian Airlines was delayed.

However, it did not affect a section of the pilgrims, who admired whatever they were seeing at the airport. After a while, we were asked to board the waiting vehicles, which took us to our flight. We were about 256 passengers. Trouble started when the majority of the pilgrims did not care to look at their boarding passes.

They rushed to sit in comfortable seats. There were three pilgrims who were comfortably enjoying the business class until they were advised to look for their seats in the economy class. The good thing is that the plane delayed again for some minutes while waiting for food for the passengers. So, the hostesses used that time to guide pilgrims to their proper seats.

When the flight finally took off, some pilgrims complained about the coldness as a result of the coldness from the flight’s cooling system. The recitation of a couple of prayers (Dhua), which were led by Sheikh Ndirangwa, looked like a sigh of relief, which restored the confidence of the
pilgrims, some of whom were visibly frightened.

The journey took about three hours and 45 minutes to fly from Entebbe to Prince Mohammed Bin Abdulaziz International Airport in Medina, and when we landed at the airport, we were all excited and praised the Almighty Allah. It was in the wee hours of Thursday, June 15. Finally, my dream was turning into reality, my heart pounding with a blend of exhilaration and reverence.

We spent more than one hour going through the immigration process. Originally, the migration officials had advised us to pick up our luggage,
but they later changed their minds and asked us to wait for it. This again took another hour while trying to sort out our luggage. We were later driven to our hotel in the heart of Medina city.

LIFE IN MEDINA

The process was easy here. Officials of the Uganda Bureau of Hajj Affairs had booked us in a relatively good hotel. Five pilgrims of the same gender occupied one room and each room had five beds. Besides accommodation, we were asked to cater for our feeding. I later found that a section of pilgrims had travelled with their raw food, which they cooked and served some of us during the four days we spent here.

Even when we decided to eat out in restaurants, food was relatively cheap. A plate of rice and a piece of chicken went for a maximum of 25 Saudi riyals (Shs 25,000). On Friday June 16, we had our Juma (Friday prayers) in the giant mosque. This is a gigantic mosque with a capacity to host one million people. This is the second mosque built by Prophet Muhammad after Masjid Quba, which he had also built in Medina.

Incidentally, Masjid an-Nabawi is in the process of being expanded due to the influx of people who use it. It has more than 42 gates, and you can easily get lost if you don’t mark the gate that you used while entering. Inside Masjid an-Nabawi, the eyes go straight to the golden designs, which were made from expensive materials. If you are to pray inside the mosque, especially for Juma prayers, you need to be there before 10am, almost two hours before time for the prayers.

Saudi Arabia has the same time zone as Uganda. Here, the magnificent courtyard is covered with large umbrellas, which protect pilgrims from the harsh summer temperatures during prayers. Fans spraying water are also attached to each umbrella pillar to keep the square cool for pilgrims.

This mosque is also known as the Prophet’s Mosque. Prophet Muhammad and two of his successors (Abubakar and Umar) were buried adjacent to the main mosque. Hundreds of pilgrims line up to see his burial site, but only if you are lucky, because many fail due to long delay to reach there as well as the hostile weather, while others prefer to go there at night when the place is decongested.

Masjid an-Nabawi also houses Raudah; this is a holy area between the tomb of Prophet Muhammad and the masjid. Muslims believe that if you hold a salah (of two Rakah), you are rewarded abundantly by Allah. The allure to achieve this attracts a lot of pilgrims and makes it a difficult place to reach due to the hundreds of people who converge in this place.

On a sad note, because of the harsh sunny weather and other conditions, a number of pilgrims die, and as a result, the Imam holds funeral prayers every day after the obligatory daily prayers. The bodies of the deceased are buried in a public cemetery. But those who have the financial means return the bodies to their respective countries.

Besides, Masjid an-Nabawi, Medina, is a big city and well-built with well-constructed roads. The people in this city are friendly and eager to know the countries pilgrims hail from They are always ready to assist, just in case you have a problem.

They give out free drinks, and sometimes bread, biscuits, and grilled meat. People with disabilities are catered for with free wheelchairs, and some are moved around in electric cabs. On the business side, the city is flooded with five-star hotels and according to the locals, they are always busy during hajj or umar sessions. There are also big shops selling all types of merchandise. Most of the merchandise is imported from China and Turkey.

The traders are usually targeting West African pilgrims, especially those from Nigeria and Senegal, who buy in bulk.

MOUNT UHUD

On our third day in Medina, we embarked on a tour of historical Muslim sites. We started with Mount Uhud, which is located on the outskirts of Medina and is the place where Muslims fought their second battle with the polytheists of Muhammad’s Quraysh tribe. Here, Sheikh Ndirangwa narrated the story of the site and why all Muslims should visit it.

At the slopes of Mount Uhud, we were guided to a reserved area where more than 70,000 Muslim fighters were buried after the war. At Uhud, the locals sell all types of local herbs and other drugs to pilgrims; in fact, most of the drugs I saw are also scattered in most drug shops in Uganda. I was told it is imported from Saudi Arabia, especially by the pilgrims who usually travel during the hajj and umra period.

After Mount Uhud, we were driven to Masjid Quba. This is thought to be the first mosque built in Medina by Prophet Muhammad after leaving his native Mecca. Over the years, it has been expanded and we held prayers inside this mosque, and afterwards we were given free drinking water.

We were later driven to Masjid Qiblatayn, located in the northwest of the city of Medina. According to Ndirangwa, it is the mosque where Prophet Muhammad received the command to change the Qibla from Jerusalem to the Ka’aba in Mecca.

DATE PALM FARM

This is a big farm believed to have been owned by Uthman Ibn Affan, one of Prophet Muhammad’s companions. It is a farm that produces several types of dates. First of all, we were allowed to eat any type of date we wanted. A kilo of dates goes from Saudi riyal 10 to 60
(Shs 10,000 to Shs 60,000), and Ajua is the sweetest, and a kilo is the equivalent of Shs 60,000.

This farm is well attended to and has a modern irrigation system. Medina basically has Islamic sites that any Muslim needs to visit. Unlike Mecca, where the Islamic rituals are done and obligatory, here you just visit those ancient Islamic sites as you so wish.

hluzige@gmail.com

In the second and final part of the series coming up in the next edition, the author goes to Mecca. He describes the rituals performed by the pilgrims