8th Dhul Hijjah 1432 (Friday 4th November 2011)

I was sitting next to Uncle Mohammed Asim Khan, a beautiful brother with great stories to tell MashAllah. Uncle first went to Hajj in 1964 he recalls at the tender age of 22, and this was his second time 47 years later, SubhanAllah. He was telling me how Makkah was so different, less people and people used to sleep outside, with their washing and all things for all to see. It was very very different to now, where there are millions of Hajjis, with all types of accommodation right on the doorstep of the harem. Even though I went in 1995, this was in itself a big change to what Makkah was like now; I could only but imagine what it was like in 1964.

We got to the Mina camp at 2.30am and with the Azziziyyah apartment roommates we managed to find a good spot for ourselves, away from the majority of the camp but still in close proximity.
See the my-mini-mina-mattress-map below:

There was an Algerian contingent too where we had camped out. And this brought much fun to the next 6 days of proceeding in Mina. There were 12 sofa beds in our quarter and all 12 of us became pretty close over the course of the next 6 days in Mina.
Over the next 6 days we had:
- Algerian visitors from all over the Mina Camp visiting Zim Zim and Company.
- Our quarters became known as “Internet City” as it had the single main mobile charge outlet for the Al Muntada group – this was being orchestrated by Zim Zim (who I am sure had a mobile exchange outside his bed post - ;-))
- Stone collection site – this was hilarious, as I pulled back the rug we had our sofa beds on, I found much stones and pebbles, and little did I know but the word spread and Al Muntada Brothers came wide a field to come and gather their stonage from our quarters.

It was beautiful praying Salaat with the brothers in Mina. This was the true essence of brother hood. We would encourage each other to wake up for Fajr. Some required more pulling then pushing I must add, no names!


After Dhuhr salaat, we had a Dars given by Shaykh Abu Hanifah on the Day of Arafat.
We went to visit my Mother in Law who was at a nearby Mina camp site. My mother in law came with the eldest brother in Law with a Bangladeshi UK based group, called Hasan Travels. It was a little weird her being in another group, though she was adamant that she wanted a Bangladeshi group so in order to be comfortable with her Hajj, which is the most important thing. My mother in law was in Makhtab #29 and we were at #38 so ideally should not be too far.We managed to go after Dhuhr and saw her and my dulabhai, it was good seeing them, they both looked well, Alhamdulillah. After a short visit we made our way back to our camp and prayed Asr.

There was a good Dars given by Shaykh Abu Hanifah on the Miracles of the Sahaba and pious predecessors such as Abdul Qadir Gillani and Abdul Mubarak.

In Mina, breakfast, lunch and dinner had been provided by Al Muntada, and MashAllah unlimited tea and coffee from the nearby breakout area, which was really nice. The breakout area was decorated with plastic plants and leaves all across it. This was pleasant entrance coming into our Makhtab 38 after looking at the condition of the streets and decor on the streets of Mina.

Breakfast usually consisted of bread roll, cereal, milk, cheese, biscuits and the infamous cheese croissant (there was plenty of this going around).