Haj 2015 - Part V Nafar Awal and the Ministers from Malaysia

Just to be on the safe side, we left Mudzalifah at 12.02 am. 

The road was still empty. The pilgrims at Mudzalifah have still to get onto their buses when we left. We have no delayed reaction - there were only five of us, seven if you include the ustaz and Zaki. Many had started walking. May Allah bless them. We breezed through the highway heading to the Aqabah for our first date with the Jamrah. 

Until we reached the main street of the Jamrah when we were not allowed in -there was a roadblock. The officer manning it would not let us through. Our car has the sticker and yet he would not yield to us.

"If we were to use another route, it would be quite a walk for us," Zaki explained. "Let me try and talked to the security officer, and see if he would let us through," he said.

It was quite a conversation. At times I thought it was like a verbal fight between Zaki and the security officer manning the roadblock. It went for quite sometime too. In my mind, I was thinking, it is ok Zaki, never mind. We have come thus far and a short walk would be fine. 

After all, we were delivered right to our (tent) door step at Arafah, and then again at Mudzalifah. Technically we didn't walk at all. So what if we need to walk now? The clock showed 12.30 am. Most pligrims were still in Mudzalifah.

Suddenly the officer walked away and opened the barrier.

He was letting us in!

"Yay, what did you say to him Zaki?" we all chorused. We were very curious.

"Well, in the end I just told him that you are all ministers from Malaysia!"

We all burst into laughter. It cheered us up. Zaki can now parked the car very close to Aqabah and again we need not to walk far for our first Jamrah at 12.45 am.

Alhamdulillah.

The midnight throw of the Aqabah. You can do it right at the edge. But I am not sure how many of the pilgrims can beat us at the Jamrah or Kaabah that morning.In any case, it was a breeze.

There was a slight jam in Mina when we headed back to Makkah. I guess many were doing what we were trying to do. Complete our Nafar Awal before subuh.

By 1.30 am we reached our hotel, did the needful and I guess we went out for our tawaf by 2,30 am. There were already many people there, but the tawaf would still take about 1 hour and then the saei would take a little bit more than an hour. It was like a normal tawaf and saei.

We completed our nafar awal 10 minutes before dawn prayer! We are done - the rest of the jemaah did, but I was not technically done as I wanted to go to the barber and do a crew-cut hair cut for my Nafar Awal. I want to max out all my sins' being forgiven by Him and started afresh. The more hair I can cut from my head, the merrier. It was worth the weight in gold - definitely more.

Yes, we can now wear our normal clothing, and can now get ready for our Raya prayer at the Haraam!

But we were not thinking of ketupat, lemang and rendang at all that morning.

EPILOGUE

Just to recap our Haj journey thus far:

Left Makkah on 9 Zulhijjah at 10 am
Reached Arafah by 10.45 am
Left Arafah by 6.15 pm
Reached Mudzalifah by 6.45 pm
Left Mudzalifah by 12.02 am
REached Jamrah by 12.30 am
Left Jamrah by 12.45 am
Reached Makkah by 1.30 am
Went for Tawaf at 2,30 am
Finished Saei by 4.45 am
Nafar Awal by 4.45 am