SaqibSaab

Recounting Hajj pt. 2 – What Makes Hajj So Unique?

When people you know come back from Hajj, you notice them talking about how much they “miss” Hajj and how they can’t wait to go back. There are many possibilities for what exactly each person misses from their journey, but what’s common between them is the reason why they would say that and feel that way.

At Hajj, you go through certain experiences that you cannot and will not find anywhere else. It’s simple the nature of Hajj. It has experiences that are unique to it, and those experiences make Hajj itself a unique wonder. That’s why you hear people saying, “I miss Hajj.” It’s like they’re going through withdrawal, knowing that they won’t get what they felt except for at that same place and time.

Here are three things that are exclusively unique to Hajj, and perhaps another piece of the puzzle for those who’ve never gone for Hajj in understanding why it is the journey of a lifetime.

1. Fulfillment of an ancient Prophetic legacy

The rites of Hajj are more than just completing the fifth pillar of Islam. It’s about fulfilling an entire ancient legacy of worshiping Allah (SWT). From the earliest generation of mankind, we know that the Ka‘bah existed as the first house built for the worship of Allah. So the land has been sacred since the beginning of humankind during the time of Adam, peace be upon him.

But all of this was intensified during the time of Prophet Ibrahim, peace be upon him. Allah told him to raise the foundations and rebuild what was once already a sacred and holy site, and then urged him to call the people to Hajj. While Ibrahim was worried that no one would come to such a place in the middle of the desert, Allah told him to do his part and leave the rest up to His Lord.

Since then, hundreds of generations have passed with people answering the call, from the followers of Ibrahim, to the pure worshipers living amongst the polytheists of Quraysh, until the time of the Prophet, peace be upon him, performing Hajj near the end of his life. 1400 some years later, we have 3 to 4 million people going for Hajj and answering Ibrahim’s once desolate call, each and every year.

The Ka‘bah in 1880

A 1953 Photo

The Ka‘bah, November 2009

At Hajj, you get to be one of the people that answer the call of Ibrahim. And when you get there, Read more »

Recounting Hajj pt. 1 – Explaining The Unexplainable

Whenever someone go through a major life changing experience, people tend to ask common follow up questions. If someone gets married, they’re always asked, “How’s married life?” It’s the standard things to ask someone, almost like some sort of customary greeting. The person responds that things are going well, the honeymoon details are such, and life is good.

When you come back from hajj, the same thing happens. Everyone asks, “How was it?” Only, you can’t really answer the question.

The hajj journey is really the strangest thing in the world. It’s an intensely exhausting and difficult journey that you want to go back and perform over and over again. It’s a test that pushes you past your physical, mental, and spiritual capacities yet you leave devastated you have to go home. It’s something that has no parallel in anyone else’s life.

So what are you possibly going to answer the question with? It was amazing? It was a life changing experience? It was the best thing that ever happened to me in my life? You can say a lot, but it’ll never really hit home. That’s hajj, an unexplainable wonder, and everyone reading this that has gone will definitely agree.

Yet, here I am trying to recap hajj in blog post form. Why am I going to even try?

Read more »

Coffee Chronicles pt. 2 – 15 Things Worth Knowing About Coffee

Abu Hafsa tweeted an interesting link from The Oatmeal, a “internets” humor type website, called “15 Things Worth Knowing About Coffee.” The comics says a lot about coffee in what Abu Hafsa described an, “interesting way to present facts and information.”

Check it out.

Coffee Chronicles pt. 1 – Falling In Love With Coffee

Coffee Chronicles is be a series of posts about, well, coffee. Here’s part 1.

The first time I willingly tried a cup of coffee was on a sleepy morning in the early days of my college internship. The area between HR and the main entrance had a widely used coffee machine where I had been trying hot cocoa and tea to give me a kick. But the hot cocoa wasn’t doing it and the Desi in me didn’t click with tea that wasn’t boiled in milk. It was time to consider another elixir.

Admittedly, I wasn’t too eager to drink the dark brown-black liquid. The smell isn’t very kid-friendly so I never grew up too fond of the idea. But the drowsiness was getting to be too much. I needed something. So I dared to ingest what a hundred million Americans (nearly one third the population) drink everyday in one way, shape, or form: a cup of coffee.

Success, the hot liquid worked! I was wide awake and ready to audit payroll processes.

But the taste was hard to swallow, all puns intended. It was everything I feared it to be: bold, brute, and bitter. It needed some help. Read more »

Khana Korner #007 – Stuffed French Toast

Check out what I had for suḥūr (sehri) this morning.

Stuffed French Toast. The homemade kind!

The pic shown here was taken on a camera phone before dawn in a low lit kitchen so it may look a bit blurry, but seriously, this stuff is awesome. It’s sweet, it’s gooey, it’s creamy, it’s everything you want in an indulgence breakfast item. And it’s actually really easy to make. Read more »