My Hajj Story
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A Seed of Inspiration | #MyHajjStory
Ustadha Lobna Mulla looks back on life-changing moments during her Hajj experience.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. Bismillah, wassalamu ala rasulullah, assalamu alaikum and welcome to these beautiful days of Dhul Hijjah. I want to share my Hajj story. I had many memorable moments during Hajj, but I wanted to share three specific moments that I had. One that affected me in the moment, really broadened my horizon. One that affected me shortly after Hajj and one that kind of put a seed of inspiration for a little bit later after Hajj. Hajj is so beautiful and it's very transformational and I remember one moment that I had was when we were leaving Arafah. And as you know, during Arafah, you spend a hot part of the day making du'a. We were in tents. This was 20 years ago. So in our tents, we didn't have AC. So I remember it was very hot. And as the day ended, you know, Maghrib happened and we were getting ready to leave, board the buses so that we can go to Muzdalifah. And I remember that my husband and a couple of other people, they came up with this idea to walk. They wanted to experience Hajj in a different way. We had been taking buses from here to there and he wanted to get a more personal feel to Hajj. So he suggested that we walk to Muzdalifah and then walk from Muzdalifah to Mina eventually. I remember he let our group leader know that we were going to do that. He gave us permission. And we had some family members in the group and they were very apprehensive about us going. We didn't have cell phones. This was before cell phones were very common. And of course, it's getting dark. But we went, alhamdulillah. And I remember being a little bit nervous. Maghrib had well passed. The last light of Maghrib was definitely leaving. It was very dark. And I remember we were just kind of walking on the bridge and just starting to walk down into the shrubs.
And I remember asking my husband, like, how do we know where we're going to go? It's dark. How are we going to be able to see? And I think after just about a minute of him consoling me, saying, don't worry, don't worry, all of a sudden, like this massive lit up walkway just kind of appeared out of nowhere. I mean, it was there, but I was just so focused on the ground and how dark it was. And just when we walked, maybe for a few minutes, all of a sudden, this massive walkway, it looked like, in my mind at the time, I, you know, if those of you familiar with Southern California, the 405, it's like, wow, it's like both sides of the 405, like you could say a 10 lane highway, you know, five lanes going each way, all filled with only people. It was mind blowing. I had never seen anything like that in my life. And I had never seen anything like that during Hajj up until that moment. No bicycles, no automobiles, no buses, nothing, just masses and masses of people walking. It was such a beautiful sight. It was so inspirational to see how much Hajj meant to everybody, that they had their children on their shoulders, they were carrying their cooking equipment with them. People had their flags, different ways of kind of, you know, letting the rest of the group know where the leader of the group was. Some people just carrying sticks with a bag on it or a bottle. And it was beautiful. It was absolutely beautiful. Saw people from all different countries. And it reminded me of my grandmother telling me about my grandfather, how he made Hajj by riding camel, leaving Egypt and making it to Mecca via camel. And it just reminded me that, you know, all this modern transportation of planes and buses, and sometimes you feel a little bit removed from the process. And so that was absolutely very, very touching to be able to walk with the masses of people and to experience that moment of Hajj. And what was beautiful that I remember, we had a very humbling experience, you know,
with Muzdalifah just sleeping on one little mat. I remember, I think, I don't know what type of dinner we had, but I remember just having an orange before going to bed and our hands were sticky. You know, bathrooms are crowded far away. And it was interesting, alhamdulillah, we made it to Mina the next day and it was a beautiful journey. We were very happy that we had chosen to take this path. And it was interesting that we heard from our group that they had some crazy, you know, dinner buffet and a tent with all kinds of food. And we missed out on that. But really that journey that we had experienced in person, walking from Arafat to Muzdalifah and Muzdalifah to Mina was absolutely amazing. And I wouldn't trade it for any dinner buffet or any comfort that we might have missed out on. Another experience that was very touching to me was when we were waiting in the Haram in Mecca, waiting from Masr to Maghrib. We decided to stay there. We were on the roof, on the top floor of the Haram. And I remember meeting a Malaysian sister and she was reading Quran very, very beautifully. And she noticed that I was paying attention to her. And so she put her finger in the Quran and was following along with her finger as she was reading. And I remember being so inspired by that because I didn't know how to read Arabic, you know, barely at that point and definitely did not know any rules of Tajweed or anything like that. So I was mesmerized by how beautiful her recitation was, how she was able to go into the A and then come back and then and go again. And I had no idea. And I remember trying to ask her because we started talking to each other after she was done, how she knew where to go back and repeat and how she knew. And I think she tried to explain, but with limited ability on both of our parts, be able to communicate. I didn't get the answer, but definitely it touched my heart. And I remember we, you know, she told me she was from Malaysia.
I told her I was from California and we talked about basics of how many children we had. And it was very touching. It was very beautiful. And I remember it planted the seed of inspiration and love for the Quran, even though I really did not have the skill set at all, barely even knowing how to read. But Allah SWT blessed me with that opportunity to learn, I think just a year later. And that was very beautiful. And finally, the whole experience of Hajj was absolutely transformational. It was beautiful. It was very touching. And I remember a family member had come along with us and she told me that she wanted to wear the hijab after Hajj, that she was going to continue. And we were both working. I was working in corporate America. And I remember telling her, oh, I wish I had thought about that earlier. This was on the airplane going for the journey of Hajj. And I told her I wish I had thought about that earlier because I had already been contemplating putting on the hijab, understanding that it was far, that I had not known that before. And I said, you know, I didn't prep work and I wouldn't want to just walk into work with hijab on. So I was like, darn, oh, well, I guess I'll just have to do it later. But of course, you know, we wore hijab the whole time during Hajj. Of course, completely inexperienced of the best material to use and how to wear it in the most comfortable way. But we did it. And I remember at the end of two and a half weeks when we were entering the airport again or before we reached the airport to leave and go back home, I remember thinking to myself, I love it. It became a part of me, this hijab. And there's no way that I was going to take it off now. Who cares at work? Did it? No. And so I made the intention that I was going to start wearing hijab. And I remember when I was ready to go back to work, I was very apprehensive. You know, what was everybody going to say? How would I, how was I going to explain? Should I send an email? And I said, you know what? I'm just going to walk in and just people ask and I'll just answer. It's not going to be a big deal. And I remember my heart was pounding as I entered the elevator
and one person was in the elevator with me. He didn't react. He didn't even look at me. I didn't know who he was. But then when I walked onto my floor and I saw my co-workers, I just walked in with confidence, even though I was scared inside. And I remember my manager just saying, oh, what's this? And I said, oh, this is a part of my religion that I adopted now. You know, after my journey to Hajj. And it's like, oh, cool. And that was it. That was it. SubhanAllah. It was really amazing. And Allah SWT blessed me with that Hajj experience to make that transition that much easier, even though I got flak in different areas for the hijab. Alhamdulillah, in the end, it was a beautiful transition in that part of my life. And Allah SWT made it easier, much easier than I expected, at least when it came to work. So truly, those moments were very transformational and very inspirational for me. And I hope that all of you who are planning to go to Hajj this year, that Allah SWT rewards you immensely and grants you the best journey to Hajj, inshallah. And all of you that have been hoping and planning to go and have not had the means or the ability or the timing to be able to go, may Allah SWT grant you the opportunity as well. Jazakumullahu khairan. Wasalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.
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