PELT THE SATAN
May 21, 1994 (10th Zul-Hijjah):
Eventually Fajr time came.
I did Wudu with the water from plastic bags. I did not go to the 'bathroom' even though I felt the need for it.
An old man did it behind the bus. I had taken an extra Imodium for my diarrhea just to be sure under such conditions.
I was very thirsty but was careful not to drink too much.
After praying Fajr, we collected small pebbles (70 or more) to be used for Rummy in the following days. Close to sunrise we got onto the buses.
Someone argued that we had to wait for the sunrise, which was wrong, but we did. That delayed us for a long while. We encountered a traffic jam and were at a standstill for a few hours.
More than two million people were trying to get out of Muzdalifa valley to go and pelt the
Satan at Jamrat ul Ooqba. We eventually got there and parked on a roadside.
We had to walk a good bit. We got a free water bottle on the way. We braved through the thick crowds going in and out. We went to the second level, threw seven pebbles with the slogan of "Allahu Akbar" and came back with push and shove through the crowd.
We then went for Zabiha (sacrifice) to a farm owned by Ismael Farooque. It was so nice to be able to do our own Zabiha. I ate some crackers and drank a lot of orange soda. Then we went back to our Makkah residence.
There we tried to find a barber. The barbers were only doing head shaves, which is what most people were getting. There were however a few like me who only wanted a hair cut.
We picked up the scissors and cut each other's hair and even paid for that self-service. We paid three riyals each. I then took a shower, brushed, shaved and got out of Ihram garments.
The Ihram garments were quite dirty by now. It was a highly relaxing moment.
The most important event, [the] stay at Arafat was over.
I tried to sleep for a while. I was so tired that I did my Zuhr and Asr in the room and got out of the bed close to Maghrib time.
After Isha we went to [the] Kaba for Tawaf ul Ifada (Ziyara) and Sai. (The Tawaf ul Ifada, which is also called Tawaf uz Ziyara, is performed by the pilgrim on the 10th of Zul -Hijjah as the last formal rite of Hajj in Makkah after changing into street clothes).
It turned out that after Isha was the perfect time to be there. The crowd was smaller than the one I had encountered during the Umra. Close to the end of Tawaf, however, the crowd had started building up. I suggest that one go to Kaba right after Isha to avoid [a] large crowd.
I prayed two Rakas, drank Zamzam [water] downstairs, splashed Zamzam on my body and did Wudu with [it]. Then I came out upstairs and [made] Dua facing [the] Kaba. Then it was time to do Sai.
I should have done Sai on the second floor. It was very hard to walk and [I was in] constant fear of stampede. It was eventually over.
We finished [at] around 2 a.m. We had to wait for everyone to come to the bus area. The buses departed around 3:00 and we got to Mina [at] around 3:30 am. We prayed Fajr [at] around 4:30 a.m. in the tents.
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