A R C H I V E S
Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
| To mecca by way of madison ave |
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| lala |
| 01/14/05 at 11:48:24 |
| http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/09/nyregion/thecity/09hajj.html January 9, 2005 MIDTOWN To Mecca, by Way of Madison Ave. By JENNIFER BLEYER t a time of year when many travel agents are busy selling Caribbean getaways, Moustafa Ahmed is similarly occupied. His Madison Avenue agency, Dar El Salam Travel, was buzzing late into the night recently, as clients arrived to confirm their bookings on tours that ranged from $3,500 to upward of $7,000. But Dar El Salam is not your average travel agency. An enlarged photograph of Mecca shares wall space with a flurry of Post-it notes. Gold-embossed Korans lie beside the fax machines. Dar El Salam sends people mainly to one location - Saudi Arabia, for the annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca known as the hajj. Able-bodied Muslims are expected to make such a journey at least once in their lives, and this year, three million pilgrims are expected to converge on Mecca on Jan. 20. Mr. Ahmed, who is Egyptian, founded Dar El Salam in 1989, when he took 20 travelers on the hajj. The company's reputation spread by word of mouth, gradually establishing it as the city's biggest hajj tour operator. For the 2005 hajj, 1,800 people booked trips through Dar El Salam, many of them well-heeled Muslim professionals who live throughout the United States. (About 10,000 Muslims living in America go on hajj each year, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations.) Mr. Ahmed stressed that the hajj is a test of spiritual purity, including a person's attitude toward the trip itself. "Sometimes you tell a person his flight is changed, and he will say, 'O.K., alhamdulillah,' " said Mr. Ahmed, using the Arabic phrase meaning "Praise God." "But some people say: 'I must have my room cleaned. I must have this and that.' At hajj, he may not pass the test." As Mr. Ahmed spoke, a customer named Mosad Abouelrigal stopped in to collect travel kits for himself, his wife and his son. He was handed detailed itineraries for a two-week trip, beginning with three nights at the luxurious InterContinental Hotel in Medina. "This ritual represents the most austere part of Islam, so I feel a little ashamed that we're staying in a five-star hotel," Mr. Abouelrigal admitted. "But there is one part when we all stay in tents. For me, three days of austerity will be nice." Most of the challenges Mr. Ahmed faces are those that confront any travel agent. "Everyone likes a different kind of food," he said. "The Pakistanis need it very spicy with some kind of sauce. The Egyptians and Syrians eat dry stuff, like shish kebab. The Americans need their fried chicken. And some are vegetarian. We have 20 kinds of dishes at each meal. I try." Still, some of his offerings are quite specialized, like the option to prepay for the $100 ritual slaughter of a lamb or a camel. He also provides free ihram, the plain white shrouds all men must wear while in the vicinity of Mecca. For Mr. Ahmed, who sees his work as an expression of his own religious devotion, the best part of the job is witnessing the transformation of the returning pilgrims. "When people come back," he said, "they say how important it was for them. They return as if just born. It isn't like, 'We had a good time in Orlando |
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