“Words cannot describe our experience”

(Amy, Malaysia)

My Hajj trip last year was ‘overwhelming’; even I’ve been for Umrah many times but Hajj is different. For those who want to go for Hajj, it would be great to do so, especially if you are already married. Just need to do your homework & preparation about your hotels, food, etc. when you are there.

I would advise to get a good package from a good travel agency. And when you are there: Ladies, be extra careful when you go out on a taxi ride & also in the hotel. Make sure you get into the taxi after your husband and get off before your husband. Trust no strangers as it is still a foreign land and people are just people, no matter where you are!

(Hussain, UK)

I didn’t decide to go on Hajj until last minute, it just came to my mind when I was talking to my wife. So we’ve joined a group from Blackburn without really knowing them. We didn’t know anyone from our group so as soon as we reached Manchester airport we had to sort out some troubles with our visa, but thank God it all went well.

We took a flight to London and during an overstay of four hours we could get to know each other much better. Soon we felt to be one big family going on Hajj. When we arrived in Madina we helped each other wherever we can and soon became a great community. I got close to the leader who used to take me to the Mualims office each night to chill and talk about the Hajj. So I got to see how it was all planned etc. Leavin Madina we went to Mecca and did the Umrah. Our hotel in Mecca wasn’t as good as the one in Madina so a few people were talking to the leader about it but some of us got on with it as we knew we weren’t on holiday.

Each day again we used to eat, pray and chill together doesn’t matter if you were old or young. We did Ziarah together as well in the Haram and outside. Hajj time came closer we were getting prepard, we had a choice of doing walking hajj or going by coach we all young and few elders did the walking hajj and again we all worked as a team.

Words cannot describe our experience honestly. At the time of Arafat was the best sleeping in the open, pick a spot or where ever you find a space. It was class and the toilet lines were massive. I was sleeping next to a guy who was snoring load I mean load but eh it was only a matter of one evening we didn’t sleeping that evening as there was thousands of people and so many people to talk to time fly by the time you knew it was morning time to get back. My wife fell ill, it was that bad she couldn’t walk but she still insisted she walks with all of us so I didn’t argue with her. So we did our Hajj tawaaf really slowly and it took age’s

It was time to come home to the UK. We really were going to miss our group so we all swapped numbers and we all stay in touch regular we also meet up near hajj time to catch up and a get together. I still cant explain what kind of experince we had but this is nothing compared to our memories.