Alhamdu Lillah we arrived home safely from our hajj. It was a very quick journey for us as we didn’t want to leave the children for too long so we wanted to get back to Riyadh quickly. We left the older children in Riyadh and just took the little one who is 17 months old but still breastfeeding.

What with the long drive to Makkah, the ten hours spent waiting at the checkpoint queue to get into Makkah and all the walking involved in hajj (carrying the little one)  it was quite a gruelling journey but alhamdu Lillah – Allah subhana wa Ta’ala made our journey easy and blessed with ease us in so many ways.

Hajj was a wonderful experience. It was amazing finally to be there reciting the Talbiya (Labbaik Allaahumma labbaik, labbaika laa shareeka laka labbaik. Lahul hamda, wa ni’mataka laka wal mulk, laa shareeka lak.) and performing hajj for Allah subhanahu wa Ta’ala. I went with a Saudi hamla of course and had a wonderful time sitting with the Saudi ladies in my tent and talking in my terrible Arabic! It was good to practise my Arabic and found that I can keep up some kind of conversation. I found the ladies to be so warm and friendly and we really enjoyed eachother’s company.

I came home feeling ill – caught the flu at the last minute (just as we were leaving Makkah) and just felt overwhelmed by everything.  I felt elated to have performed hajj, relieved, happy, tired, aching all over, feverish… and now I feel ready to go all over again!

The second floor of the sa’y; this is the Marwa end.

The Ka’aba, at last, to perform 7 tawaf, followed by 2 raka behind the Maqam Ibrahim and then Sa’y.

The hajj trains operate between Arafat which is one end of the line through Muzdalifah, Mina and end at the Jamarat.

The days of tashreeq come after eid and the jamarat are all stoned on 2 or 3 consecutive days. 21 stones are collected on each of those days and 7 are used to stone each of the 3 jamarat from smallest to largest.

Today we took the train and went to level 4 of the jamarat and it was considerably less busy. I was able to get close to the jamarat and throw the pebbles with ease.

Al Khaif Mosque in Mina close to the Jamarat. It is 25,000 square meters in area and can accommodate 25,000 pilgrims.

Here you can see the multi levels of the jamarat almost like a multi-story carpark.

Jamarat al kubra (the largest jamarat) now with 4 or 5 levels and each jamarat is extended into an oval shape.

Still very busy though and hard for children, old and weak people!

Sea of people proceeding to the jamarat.