This is the second of a three-part article detailing the experiences of a pilgrim from Nigeria during the 2018 Hajj.
Immigration check at the arrival hall of the Prince Muhammad bin Abdul-Aziz International Airport in Madina was another exercise in patience-building. It took forever for the female pilgrims to be processed. The immigration procedures included among others cross-verification of pilgrims’ international passport, biometric data capture and in some cases, physical examination. In fact, one woman was nearly denied entry for the Hajj on the ground that she was pregnant. It took the quick intervention of the Chairman of the Kogi State Hajj Commission, Sheik Luqman Imam and an on-the-spot pregnancy test to clear up the mystery. It turned out she was only slightly overweight!
Meanwhile I sat, stood, paced and glanced intermittently at my phone’s clock display. It was still reading the local time back in Nigeria. 22:12PM. it was 01:12AM here. I readjusted the clock setting and chose Riyadh (the Saudi Capital) as my home city. Needless to say, I over elaborated this simple task all to kill time. It was futile. The Saudi immigration officials were taken their sweet time on the exercise. An interminable amount of time was to pass (I’d at that point stopped looking at my watch) before I found myself on a queue of some seven or eight male pilgrims waiting their turn to be processed. It seems the long wait was finally over. It was however another thirty minutes or so before I finally presented myself in front of a Saudi immigration officer whose name tag in Arabic identified him as “Tahir Suhail”. A pleasant fellow, he smiled cheerfully and requested for my passport. This was followed by my biometric capture and finally, I was stamped into Saudi Arabia.
I was escorted by an official from the Nigerian Hajj Commission (NAHCON) out of the Arrival Hall into one of a long row of luxurious coaches that would take us to our designated hotel in Madina. I was very tired but the thrill of seeing as much sights as possible of night-time Madina prevented me from nodding off once seated on the couch.
Madinat al-Munawarah is located in western Saudi Arabia. In pre-Islamic times, it was known as Yathrib but the emigration of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and some early Muslims from religious persecution in Makkah to Yathrib was to change the city’s history (and name) forever. From thence it became known as Madinatul Nabawi (City of the Prophet) or Madina for short. At the city’s centre was the majestic Masjidul Nabawi (the Prophet’s Mosque), one of the three holiest mosques in Islam. This was our destination as the long convoy of coaches carrying the first batch of pilgrims from Nigeria for Hajj 2018 hurtled through the Madina night.
We arrived at the grand “Funduq Darul-Taqwa” (Darul Taqwa Hotel), one of a series of majestic 14-storey high hotels ringing the perimeters of the Prophet’s mosque. We alighted out of our coaches into the waiting arms of another set of NAHCON officials who immediately arranged us into groups of eight, and hotel room keys were handed to two random individuals per group. Pilgrims accommodation at Darul Taqwa was done by NAHCON on the basis of eight pilgrims in a suite, four persons per room. It was almost 3:30AM by the time we rode the elevator up to the 11th floor where our assigned suite was. My three roommates, practically dead on their feet, all dropped off to sleep as soon as we are settled in. I was the last man standing though standing on fumes! Just as I was about to join my roommates on snooze island, I heard for the first time in real time the Adhaan (call to prayer) from the Prophet’s Masjid. It was already 4AM. Nothing to do, I thought, but to go down and pray the Fajr (Dawn) prayer in Masjid Nabawi with all the spiritual rewards that comes with it.
I rode the elevator down again and joined the throng of thousand of devotees from various races and nationalities making their way to the Masjid. My first sight of the sacred Masjid raised spiritual goose pimples all over my arms. This is where it all began, I thought reverently; first Capitol of the Islamic State, burial place of our noble Prophet (PBUH) and two of his most esteemed companions and successors; Caliphs Abu Bakr As-Sidiq and Umar bin Khattab, May Allah be pleased with them.
The Masjid itself is an architectural masterpiece. It has, of course, undergone various renovations and expansion since the time of the Prophet (PBUH) and today bears little resemblance to the humble place of worship that the blessed Prophet and early Muslims in Madina made the centrepiece of the then nascent Islamic Faith. The architectural style of the present sprawling Masjid is a mixture of both classical and contemporary Islamic architecture-reflecting the influences of Islamic Caliphates and dynasties like the Rashiduns, Umayyads, Mamlukites and Ottomans who’d at different epochs, held sway in the Islamic world. Its most notable feature, aside the towering minarets (each stands at a dizzying 344 feet!) is the Green Dome located in the south eastern corner of the Masjid. Underneath it is the tombs of the Prophet and his two aforementioned Khalifas.
Stepping into the Masjid Nabawi through the King Fahd Gate has to count as one of the most emotional moments of my life. The realization hit me with suddenness that this is the very place the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) lived and worship with his companions. I was awestruck at the thought that I was in effect treading the same hallowed grounds that these holy personas once trod. No words, no words.
After the Fajr prayers at around 5AM, I went back to the hotel where my jet-lagged body finally gave in to exhaustion. I slept for ten hours straight! It was a most needed therapy as I woke up around 3PM feeling extremely refreshed.
One immediate task I had to do on arrival in Madina was to convert some naira denominated currency to Saudi Riyals, the official currency of the Kingdom. This I was able to do inside the lobby of our hotel through the agency of a local Askari Bureau de Change operator. The official exchange rate of the Naira to the Saudi Riyal is 1 Saudi Riyal/100 Naira but my Askari money changer was selling 1 Saudi Riyal for 115 Naira. I mentally kicked myself for not changing some Naira at the Hajj camp in Abuja where the operators were selling a Saudi Riyal for 110 Naira. I just assumed it would be cheaper here. It was the first of many wrong assumptions on my part.
For starters, I’d assumed that the people of Madina would show the same love to us pilgrims that their ancestors had shown to the noble Prophet and his band of emigrants from Makkah. Ok, they are warm, friendly and absolutely gracious hosts the Madina people but that’s where it ended. Their gracious courtesy didn’t extend to their business transactions with the pilgrims as like most business owners, the profit motive took overriding consideration over all else. On more than one occasion, I had to express outrage in ‘broken’ Arabic at what I perceived as deliberate fleecing of the pilgrims. The shop owners though, safe in the knowledge of high customer demand typified by the multitude of pilgrims streaming in and out of their business premises, named their prices and stuck to it. Take it or leave it, they’d shrugged at my futile protests about the high prices of the fancifully displayed goods and items.
Word of advice to those who intend to visit Madina: travel with a very deep pocket. The quality of goods there are comparable to those in Dubai but twice as pricey!
Shopping aside, the main purpose of our week-long stay in al-Madina was to perform Ziyarah (visitation) at the radiant city of the Prophet (PBUH). The Kogi State Hajj Commission came with a team of knowledgeable Islamic resource persons from the three senatorial districts. They organized series of enlightenment seminars on the various acts of worship expected from the pilgrims during the Ziyarah. On the scheduled day for the Ziyarah, the State Hajj Commission provided coaches to take the pilgrims round notable landmarks in Madina from the time of the Prophet like the Quba Masjid (the first Masjid the holy Prophet prayed in on arrival at Madina after emigrating from Makkah) and Masjid Qiblatayn – Mosque of the Twin Prayer Direction- (The mosque where the Prophet received divine instruction to take the Kabba as Islam’s Qiblah; hitherto, the Qiblah was Jerusalem). Also on our itinerary was a visit to the Uhud Mountain, scene of a famous battle between the early Muslims and the Makkan polytheists wherein the Prophet’s uncle, Hamza bin Abdul Mutalib and some early Muslims were martyred.
However, the most important part of the Ziyarah was the visit to the Prophet’s tomb located beneath the famous green dome of Masjid Nabawi, and the Rawdah – the space between the Prophet’s Minbar (pulpit) and his room- notably described by the noble Prophet himself as “one of the gardens of paradise”. Muslims believe that prayers and supplication to the Almighty are answered there and because of this reason, the Rawdah is always crowded with thousands of pilgrims waiting their turn to spend the ten-fifteen minutes allowed in the small space by the Mosque’s attendants. It was obviously the most stressful part of the Ziyarah because of the huge crowd and the inevitable jostling by people to get inside the blessed sanctuary. You need patience and stamina, plenty of it to accomplish this part of Ziyarah.
On the whole, the week-long stay in Madina was idyllic as both NAHCON and the Kogi State Hajj Commission made first class travelling and logistic arrangements for us, from the luxurious four-star Darul Taqwa hotel down to the meals we were served twice a day (breakfast and dinner). One complaint though was the NAHCON clinic at Madina that was located some fifteen minutes walk from our hotel and the absence of a field ambulance to ferry some very ill pilgrims from the hotel to the clinic. Also, the refusal by the commission to allow State Hajj Commissions travel with their own medical team (there is only one centralized NAHCON medical team for the 2018 Hajj) was puzzling to some. We had a case of a male pilgrim in our group with cerebro-spinal problems who couldn’t even walk at all due to the severity of his condition and it was tough going for two medical doctors who were part of our group to manage due to the lack of drugs and prompt ambulance service.
Madina Al-Munawarah was truly radiant in beauty and spiritual atmosphere. One never felt, throughout our stay, far away from home. Such is the welcoming ambience of the city of the Prophet (PBUH). No wonder the Prophet of Islam chose Madina, out of all the cities in the Hejaz, to be his city of refuge and abode. I was a little emotional on Sunday the 29th, our departure date from Madina to Makkah for the Umrah. I was loath to leave this beautiful city that gave her all, not less the lives of her very best sons and daughters, in love and in the defence of Al-Islam and its Prophet (PBUH). The most radiant of cities, is Madina Al-Munawarah. “I’ll be back, Inshaa Allah” I thought as I took my seat on the coach carrying me and the other pilgrims on the six-hour journey to Makkah.
– Din Shehu is a writer and Public Relations Practitioner from Kogi State. He tweets from the handle @dinstots
