A journey to pilgrimage

On November 2008 I traveled to Mecca in Saudi Arabia in order to fulfill hajji or pilgrimage which is a religious duty that must be done once in lifetime by Muslim people who can financially afford to do so. Mecca is a place that is holy to many Muslim. When I got to al Masjid al Haram “the holy mosque” and saw the spirit of millions of Muslim people from the entire world praising the one “Allah” god, chanting in unity and walking in circle with two white pieces of fabric which strips them off any title designation, I have felt emotionally drawn to the whole event. In Mecca no matter what class, culture, and race you are everyone is equal.

People go there for one and only one reason, to worship the one Allah “god”. And by just looking at the people who left their homes and some of them their children just to pay their respect, show loyalty and how much faith they keep in god left me speechless. When I was inside the mosque and going around the Kaaba 7 times which is something that everyone in there is supposed to do, there was nothing in my mind except god, love, hope, belief and confidence. It was an experience of a life time for me.

Everything about the city was beautiful and overwhelming the dessert, the houses that made out of dirt, our prophet’s birthplace, my god it was beautiful. What is most interesting was sometimes when it gets very late and we couldn’t go back to the hotel we used to camp out in the dessert with a millions of people with different culture; race and language yet felt like we were brothers and sisters and understand each in some ways. It was a very moving a spiritual and a journey of a life time for me. I believe that there is no other place even the most beautiful place on earth could give me that kind of feeling and I hope I could go back there one day if god wills.