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Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
| Got a Hajj story you'd like published? |
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| sofia |
| 01/08/03 at 12:33:42 |
| From an email list: ------------------------------- As-salamu alaikum wa rahmatul-lahi wa barkatuh I am compiling an anthology about inspirational/emotional experiences that people have had while performing Hajj, the Islamic pilgrimage. Picture something along the lines of Chicken Soup for the Hajji's Soul (although we can't use that copyrighted title, so please feel free to make title suggestions!) I'm looking for Muslims who have done this pilgrimage to submit short essays (100 to 800 words) about their experiences, by March 1, 2003. The essays can be in first person or in third person. Essays will be edited, so don't worry if you find the writing to be a bit of a struggle. The most important thing is to find out what your experience was and how you were moved by it. The book will Inshallah be published by Dar-us-salaam (the organization that runs Al-Huda school in College Park, MD) and the proceeds will benefit them (therefore contributors will not be paid). But the real beneficiaries will be those who have not yet gone on Hajj and will be inspired to do so after reading the positive experiences of others. (Imagine the rewards you would get if your words inspired somebody to do Hajj!) Please send your submissions to HajjStory@aol.com by March 1, 2003. Please include your full name, city/state, daytime/evening phone numbers, email address, and year that your Hajj experience occurred. Please forward this email to any and all Muslims or Muslim organizations that you know. Below you will find three short sample essays, to give you an idea of what we're looking for. Sincerely, Reshma Yaqub 1. Medina, Saudi Arabia, 1999 At 2 a.m., at 3 a.m., at 4 a.m., I watch from my hotel window as worshipers float through the streets toward the Prophet's Mosque. At 5, I walk the two blocks to join them for the dawn prayers. When I arrive, the mosque is already full with several hundred thousand worshipers, so I pray outside on the cool marble. I am touched when the woman next to me turns her prayer rug sideways and pushes half of it in front of me. This happens every time I pray outside. I'm moved to tears a few days later when a stranger praying next to me and and my sister in law quickly shoves her prayer rug in front of us and proceeds to pray on the bare ground herself. That, my heart tells me, is the spirit of hajj and the spirit of my religion. That is the kind of person I have come here to become. 2. Mecca, Saudi Arabia. When I first see the Kaaba, it doesn't seem real. It looks as if somebody has taken the picture of the Kaaba on my parents' mantel and flipped an "on" switch, turning it into a living diorama. In the picture, the worshipers are still. In this diorama they are circling the Kaaba, gliding barefoot on the marble floor. In the midst of this surreal scene, I catch two glimpses of home: a man in a blue Hechinger T-shirt and a teenager answering his cell phone. 3. Arafat, March 26, 1999, evening. This night is spent in the valley of Muzdalifah, five miles north of Arafat. The pedestrian traffic from Arafat to Muzdalifah is horrific. Two million people are moving on this path in one unending wave. I peer out the window of my air-conditioned bus. People who don't have $5,000 to pay for a tour like mine, people who have spent their whole lives saving for this trip, are crammed into cars, vans, buses. And on top of cars, vans and buses. Rooftop luggage racks have somehow become seats. Those who can't afford even that luxury are walking. As my bus lurches forward, I count 30 human beings inside and atop a nearby minivan that would normally seat nine. I watch their lips move as they recite the Talbiyah. Somehow, through the closed window, through the congested traffic, I can hear their recitation. It's some time before I realize that the voice I'm hearing is my own. |
| NS |
| 01/14/03 at 12:21:26 |
| sofia |
Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board |