Picture Taken after fajr and sunrise in Muzdalifah, before leaving back to Mina; more than half the crowd left back already.
‘Enjoy’, my father in law told me.
Physically exhausted from our stay in Arafah, although we were quite ecstatic and energetic due to the rain; we were cold and shivering and tired, and that’s how we got off the bus in Muzdalifah. Only to be told to find a spot over a blank plain expanse filled with stones to sleep for the night. While I found our spot, and began setting the place for prayer and sleep, quite amazed at how am I going to lie down here in front of everyone, “enjoy!”, he told me.
Men, women, wealthy or poor, children, aged; no matter who it was, all had to sleep on a blanket of stones (whatever bed sheets we managed to take in our backpacks were soaked from the Arafah flood).
No roof above us, no bed underneath us. No walls besides us. Just the plain vast land surrounded by mountains afar.
And we slept.
Under the beautiful starlit sky.
Actually it was such a good sleep! Even my husband admits to that. Maybe we were that exhausted.
I look back to that day and remember the words of my father in law. Enjoy; Every moment of Hajj.
It struck a little chord in me; enjoy? But yeah! Isn’t it such a beautiful feeling to endure all that pain and struggle only and solely to seek the pleasure and acceptance of our Lord? When you seek Him in all your life’s struggles, they become purposeful and meaningful.
And so, enjoy every phase of life, it meant. Even the testing times when the sun shone hard, enjoy seeking Allah. Or when the rain sank deep and still you sought your creator, enjoy looking for Him in every phase of your life; whether you’re physically, mentally, spiritually sinking low or floating high.
Rejoice in every kind of moment by seeking Allah’s love and and life’s going to be as beautiful as that sleep on a stoney surface of the plain vast open ground. And add to that a beautiful starlit sky 😉
Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) said: “Strange are the ways of a believer for there is good in every affair of his and this is not the case with anyone else except in the case of a believer for if he has an occasion to feel delight, he thanks (God), thus there is a good for him in it, and if he gets into trouble and shows resignation (and endures it patiently), there is a good for him in it.” [Muslim]
Sameera Hameed 