..the plains of Arafat..

....by the sun and its morning glow

by the moon as it follows in tow

by the day as it reveals its glory

by the night as it conceals it totally

by the heaven and He who built it

and by a soul and He who proportioned it

inspiring it with depravity or piety

he who purified his soul has succeeded

and he who stifles it has failed....

surah Al-Shams

..on the 4th of November, 2011, the 8th of Zuhiljah, 1432 we left for the plains of Arafat...towards the Mount of  Arafat, Jabal Rahmah...it was a Friday... some walked the distance..some took a ride on the roof of a bus, in the cargo hold, as it were...but for pakmat and wife, it was a comfortable ride in one of the Muassasah air-conditioned buses...bus no. 16...

..for some, the journey was on top of a bus..

..we left the comforts of hotel Luat Al-TawHeed, Misfalah, with its attached bathrooms and hot water on tap, for two nights under tents pitched together to house more than a 100 of us per tent, with bedding of carpets spread on sand and communal toilets built on a rise, right on the septic tanks, where we lined up and waited our turns...it was one of haj most important rituals - the wukuf...and pakmat savoured its moments and the opportunities it brought...

..silhouetted in the evening sun..

...and it revealed pakmat's defects and weaknesses...as a muslim and as a man...but the moon that peered unhesitantly through the gaps of the tent bore witness...that the nights pakmat sat with those who read His Book...and solat with those who solat those additional solats...and the days he walked the plains of Arafat...mixing freely with his fellow pilgrims, trying to bridge differences in languages and cultures...and always, always, Jabal Rahmah as a backdrop....

..'by the moon as it  follows in tow'..viewed from
within the tent of Arafat as pakmat pondered...

..others before him had made this journey...clutched the same sand he clutched in between the carpets...looked up the same sky...others before him from amongst his family, his kin and kindred...they were here before there were airplanes....braving the waves for months on ships...bringing along stocks of food, budu and salted fish....

..pakmat with his brethren, all in ihram..

..as there will be others after him...his children, of which and of whom he fervently prayed...his grandchildren and great grandchildren...they will wukuf the same plain, look up the same sky...for the haj is His Gift...an opportunity...

..missus with her sisters...pic taken upon their request..

...he who purified his soul has succeeded...