Visiting the serene cities of Madina, Mecca

It was on March 23, 2016. The time was 3pm Nigeria local time as the Boeing 737-700 Egypt Air took to the sky from the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja. The final destination was Saudi Arabia.
Cairo, Egypt was our first stop. Local time: 8pm. For the next six hours, we waited for the connecting flight to Madina via Saudi Airline. 

In the belly of the huge Airbus with a sitting capacity of more than 700, we left Cairo at 3am. The journey to Madina lasted only one and half hours. At 4.30am local time, the Airbus roared to a stop at the Madina Airport. Upon approach to the city, my tiredness quickly disappeared as I heard the call to prayers for the first time in my life directly from the prophet’s mosque. I counted myself lucky when I remembered how long and difficult it used to be to travel to the holy land before the invention of airplane.

I was a member of the 250 delegation from 10 African countries, including Nigeria on umrah and visit under the auspices of the Saudi Arabia government. It was a 10-day programme involving visits to the prophet’s mosque in Madina and the Ka’aba in Mecca.

In the Prophet’s mosque in Madina
Our hotel accommodation was some three-minute walk to the prophet’s mosque. At every prayer time, we thronged the mosque to join the congregation.
The colourful rendition from the Glorious Qur’an by the imam reminded me of “the rhythmic cadence” and “incantatory quality” of the Qur’an in the words of Lesley Hazleton, an agnostic Jew.

Pilgrims return from the prophet mosque in Madina after prayers

In one of such visits, in the magnificent and beautiful mosque, as the imam recited Fatiha (first chapter of the Qur’an), a man standing beside me who had the looks of a Turk, recited aloud along with him.  In the second raka’at (unit of prayer), the same fellow went a notch higher by placing his right hand in his mouth in the shape of a microphone. With a decibel increase, he recited with the imam, alas, aloud. He was supposed to recite silently along but the ecstatic looks said it all.

The imposing mosque, part of which houses the resting place (due to constant expansions) of the prophet and his foremost companions, Abubakar Sidiqque and Umar Alkhatab, exemplifies serenity, splendour, and above all, spirituality.

The beautiful rendition of the signature call to prayers (adhan) could be heard in the corridors of the ubiquitous hotel accommodations surrounding the mosque through speakers.
Indeed, the speakers are not connected to the hotel room, respecting your individual privacy, but close enough in the adjoining corridor as a gentle reminder that it was time to hasten to prayers.
People walk about their normal daily businesses without hindrance. Policemen are on the lookout but not in their multitudes. No handheld scanners. Smiles and sobriety permeate the faces of the faithful.

A few women are seen in their full niqab (veil) displaying some wears on the way to the mosque. Occasionally, the police come by and they take to their heels, sometime abandoning some of their wares behind as they flee. Berger junction in Abuja quickly comes to mind.

There’s an orderly arrangement of the mosque. There’s provision for everyone; chairs for the aged, the physically challenged, the kids and women and the ventilated alleys and  copies of the Qur’an surrounding every pillar, 10 meters apart (aprox), enough to go round for the entire hundreds of thousand worshippers at a time.
“Allah made a promise that He will protect the city,” said Mallam Abdullah Abubakar Lamido, a member of the Nigerian delegation and lecturer at the Bayero University, Kano.
“A fulfillment of that promise is what you see manifesting in Mecca and Madina.”

Imam Al Budair receives guests
An imam at the Prophet’s Mosque in Madina, Sheikh Salah Al Budair, received the delegation where he urged Muslims across the world to be united and shun extremism and religious innovations. 

Imam Salah Al Budair recives a guest
Visit to mount Uhud
Then came the visit to Mount Uhud, located northwest of the city of Madina. It is famous for hosting the second battle the then polytheists from Mecca waged against the Muslims who had taken refuge in Madina.
Beside the mountain which is fast reducing in height due to human interaction is the resting place of some 70 companions of the prophet who earned martyrdom on that day March 23, 625 C.E.

Mount Uhud

As we approached the site in a bus, the long mountain range reminded me of the Katampe New Extension landscape on the Abuja-Zuba expressway.
The valley beside the mountain where the real battle took place is now home to traders who sell assorted wares and goods to visitors who come around all year round. There are people around who volunteer to explain to visitors the history and significance of the place.

The valley of Uhud now hosts traders selling differents wares

History has it that on that day, before the battle, the leader of the Muslims who were inferior in number compared to their adversary from Mecca, Prophet Muhammad ordered 50 archers to keep guard at the mountain pass.  Unfortunately, they disobeyed the firm order not to leave their position no matter the outcome of the battle at the valley. As the Muslims pushed the polytheists back to a crushing defeat, the archers descended and an opening was created, through which some enemy soldiers launched a counter assault on the Muslim troops.

Journey to Mecca
After spending five days in Madina, we left for Mecca on road, chanting Labaika Allahuma Labaik! (Here I am oh Allah, here I am). It was a five hour journey, where as a first time visitor to the oil rich country, I saw the massive waste land and desert dunes that lie across the country.
 
In the Ka’aba for circumambulation
We went straight to the Ka’aba, where we did the traditional seven circumambulation round before proceeding to perform the Safa and Marwa walk.
Muslims all over the world face the direction of Ka’aba during prayers. Here, I was right in front of it. The feeling was awesome.

The Grand Ka’aba Mosque

The grand mosque, which is the holiest in the Muslim world, receives millions of worshippers who come from all corners of the earth to worship Allah. It is the first place of worship on earth as testified by the Qur’an. It has been rebuilt, at least 12 times, from time immemorial.

As beautiful as it is now, the surrounding of the Ka’aba remains work in progress. Apart from the ground were endless stream of worshippers who came to join the seven circuits round; two more layers have been done upstairs to decongest the crowed. Even that is still not sufficient. A fourth and bigger layer is under construction. 
To the northeast of the Ka’aba, you see dozens of huge cranes, a testament of ongoing expansion project of the mosque. It was in that axis that some pilgrims, including Nigerians, died in 2015 when a crane came crashing down during a storm.

Mecca as a whole could best be described as work in progress as you see workmen on the roadside, most of them foreigners from Bangladesh, Indonesia, Ethiopia etc, fixing bad portions, making new ones, and on high rising buildings, raising the bar in modern and contemporary housing.

The ingenuity on display in the management of space for house construction is awesome. The engineering skills are ingenious as can been seen on their good handle of the gigantic rocky mountains that dot the entire city. To me, these engineers and workmen are the unsung heroes. 

Story of Borno man in Ka’aba cloth factory in Mecca.

In the city of Mecca is located a factory which is solely dedicated to the manufacture of the Kiswa (the Ka’abah’s covering cloth). The Kiswa factory was one of the first few places we visited in Mecca after the lesser hajj rites.

Isa Usman (right) with a guest Idris Abdullah is from Borno state. He has been working at the Kiswa factory for 17 years

The uniqueness of the factory, among others, is that the huge clothing is made manually from the scratch. With legendry dexterity, the workers dye, yarn and weave the treads into beautiful patterns, using gold plated materials to knit the affirmation of the supremacy of God and the date of the work into a befitting cloak for the Ka’aba.

The staff members work diligently every weekday for eight months to deliver a new covering for the Ka’aba. It costs R25 million (N1.3 billion) to produce one, which is changed once in a year.
Among these diligent workers is Isa Usman from Borno State, Nigeria.

Usman’s job is to pick the white treads using a manual wheel. He has been picking the tread in the past 17 years. 
Speaking in Arabic, he told Daily Trust on Sunday: “I am a Nigerian from Borno State.”

Usman appears to be in his 70s. The thought of staging a return to his home may be very far from his mind as the state has largely been destroyed by Boko Haram elements. Using a manual wheel, he delicately picks the white tread with his hand and rolls them straight into format that are weaved into the cover cloth.

A Saudi national, Sheikh Abdullah, has worked at the Kiswa factory for the past 29 years.  He said he derived special pleasure from being part of the team that produces a befitting covering for the Ka’abah every year.
“The cloth covering of the Ka’abah is replaced every year on the day of Arafat when the pilgrims on hajj have gone to the plains and mountain of Arafat. That way, there will be no crowed at the Ka’abah,” Abdullah, who spoke in Arabic and translated to this reporter said.

Sheikh Sudais speaks in Hausa language

Ka’aba Mosque Imam  Abdulrahman Sudais when he visited the delegation at their hotel

Renowned scholar and imam of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Sheikh Abdul-Rahman Sudais thrilled the delegation with beautiful recitation from the Glorious Qur’an which he is known for worldwide. That was after he had exhorted human kind to do good acts that would foster unity and peace in the world. He particularly praised Africa as the green continent and the future hope of the community.

Guests struggle to take selfie with Sheikh Sudais

The icing on the cake was when he ended his speech in Hausa language, saying, “Na gode,” meaning, Thank you. He was greeted with a standing and loud ovation.

The learned imam was practically mobbed by the guests as everyone wanted to have a personal photo shoot with him. He was smuggled through the crowed by some youths who kept guard. As they formed an artificial barricade using their body and hands, I saw an elderly man force himself through the little gaps with his hand stretched, yelling, “I am the former minister of hajj…” He shook his hands eventually.