The Fortunate Few of Hajj 2020 #3 – Dreams Do Come True!

Salam Alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh Masha Allah, Baraka Allah, my brothers and sisters. Firstly, we must reach out to those who were affected by the blasts in Lebanon. May Allah subhanho wa Taala grant forgiveness and gentle to the more humane and those who have passed on And may Allah subhanho wa Taala make it easy for all those affected apparently the damage is really really big. And similarly anyone and everyone who's struggling across the globe, no matter what it is, no matter where they are, may Allah make it easy for everyone and grant us all goodness so this evening we have part three of the fortunate few where we are going to be meeting with a sister who Mashallah

went for the Hajj as well it's the third person it might be the last on my own

lives but I'm sure others would be doing lives with some other brothers and sisters perhaps and who knows if we have anyone else that comes up we will still do that inshallah life so I have sister neuron with us Mashallah from South Africa, living in Saudi Arabia. She's going to join us to tell us how her experience was Bismillah R Rahman Rahim and here I am trying to apply if you have any questions, guys, you can ask them there and Allah make it easy.

I like

it, how are you? I'll handle a very, very well Mashallah. Mashallah. We're all very excited to hear from you. Alhamdulillah. And, you know, strangely, I was following from before you went to the Hajj, and I was I was waiting for this day when I could talk to you and find out how it all went. So Mashallah, Mashallah, firstly, how are you? Well, I'm really happy to be back home said to have not not been the head of

Russia, Mashallah. Mashallah Pasha. So, we want to know, from the very beginning about your journey. And you know, I always believe that the people who went this year, obviously, were very special, somehow Allah selected them, there must have been something and what you felt was probably impossible, became possible. So if I'm going to title this video, you know, dreams do come true. So tell us Mashallah.

So to be honest with you at the beginning, when the registration came open, I think everybody knows by now, it was through the Ministry of hygiene O'Meara. And I didn't think that I would go because I have two small daughters one year and three, so I always wanted to go from Saudi Arabia. And but I didn't think that this would be my year, not at all. And the link came through and it was circulating in WhatsApp groups. And I just forwarded it to the people that I thought wanted to that I know, wanted to go. And I had a call with my friend letter Sheena's. And she said to me on the phone, she said, Why don't you register to the second day of registration? Why don't you register

just fantastic. She knows how I have two small kids to turn up.

To say to me, you know, how many people in this world are crying or got accepted or credited this year? And you have the opportunity to at least register? Why don't you? And then I said, Okay, Harris, he said, I'm going to register you, okay. And I said, Okay, I'll ask my husband first. And he's been unhedged before so he would, he didn't feel part of the criteria to be able to register the car handed love that he was unhatched before. And she didn't even wait for me to respond. And she, they just did for me, but she's a really good friend and nafsa if you're ever in my life, from Good luck, she just did for me. And she just asked me, what's your ID number and etc, in any case, a

week later, and she the results come out. So that day, I remember it was like a Sunday, I think, and I was laying on my bed and I took an afternoon nap, which I usually don't do. And in that time, I have a dream. And a dream that I'm in my mother's house in South Africa in Cape Town, and I'm running through the house frantically looking for something but I don't know what I'm looking for. And I come to my mother's room. And this this massive could on laying on her recent table on a on her. Would you put this thing with a murder is, you know,

put on lengthy, it's Maroon with gold that I think on and I will never forget. And I came in I said this is the thing I'm looking for. But in my mind, I don't know what I'm looking for. And when I see this good, honestly, this is what I'm looking for. And I look down and I'll tell you my list and I have something in mind, but I don't know what it was.

And it turns into a small gold could in my life then and I find this massive crime in my mom's room. And I wake up from the and I think this is a very weird dream.

Okay, and I don't know the dream. And then my daughter on at that same time, I'm trying to forget the fact that today the results are coming out because I'm nervous. I'm so nervous. My daughter has a toy. And when you place the toy, it makes the law bacolod topia, malefic. And the story broke about six months ago, it was a favorite way she played with it all the time. It

don't tell me Don't tell me on that day it started working again. Well lie He must be she says. So we put the story on top of the cabinet. Because we like Arya Was it your idea the two is broken. And they I don't know how it's worse. But Hannah, she spotted the toy on top of the cabinet. And she said Daddy, please take my tree down daddy hammock microwave, I saw my green tea on top of the cabinet. She takes him for attic sit down at night. And he says to her, if the stew is broken, she presses the thing and super handle to start making the topic loud and clear. And this Delphia is in my house the entire day. And I'm thinking Allah, I don't know what to make of this. And now I'm more

nervous and the story starts working on that day. And okay, I'll tell what happened with the toy further on in the story. So then the night the evening, Raisa, and Chanel, two of my good friends here in Saudi Arabia, they call me and they said Nandan did not check the results, but is also out and I'm cooking. So I said, Okay, I'm going to check my results now. And I go on to the hatch website. And honestly, move to I really out of all of us. And I think they would agree. I thought that I thought that I had the least chance of getting it. I applied late, I applied without the mammogram. And I was just, you know, I really didn't think. And I open it and I say and we I'm

speaking I say you have been selected for Hutch this year, I'm reading it out loud. And they are screaming on the phone. And I sit in you guys because we were partying things were applied. And you guys and I'm excited because I'm thinking they must be accepted as well. And they say you were the only one in town. Citizen Guy sybilla. Are you the only one we didn't get you when you forwarded the WhatsApp message earlier to everyone? And

probably did it last? And you got it?

Yes, my handle that I was. And at that point, I just cried. I didn't know what I could I didn't I didn't even realize that. I was feeling that I yearn for it that much. I think I can I can play it as if like, you know, it's not gonna happen for me and I just cried

for a second, that, you know, you can obviously that a person who's made Hutch before they didn't qualify because we know that from the others as well. It was one of the criterias Was there an age sort of restriction or age limitation as well, someone was saying that if you're too old or too young.

He was mostly the age distinction was between 20 and 50 years have been between 20 and 50. And

20 and 50. And, you know, I was just saying to McLean's on a call before this, as it is it the the who judge this year was so young. And everybody always said to the same to us? What have you done to deserve this, you must have done something good in your life. You must. And I thought about it. And I'm reflecting and thinking, I can't say that I've opened a charity organization, I can't say I've done something extraordinary that I can remember. And I just say to my friends, I think you know, if I looked at the crowd who judge this year, it was there were a lot of answers. And we know that the if one was selected by all those will but not because of they weren't selected by any man. Right?

And I said and maybe it wasn't of what we did before, maybe it's what we need because almost please and because this youth that when it's like Allah gave the youth a chance to connect to get closer because what you're saying so what you're saying basically is it's more of what perhaps allow once from you to come. Yeah.

Definitely. And I and I thought you know, it's not necessarily what we've done, but what do we what Allah wants from us. And because I know that

you know in today's day and age because there's so many distractions out there. You can feel the

disconnected, you can feel very neglect leg negligent as youth. And so behind Allah, it was beautiful to see the youth actually sitting here we see a lot of our elderly people older people performing hajj was the first Hajj with mainly the young people, people between the ages. I mean, we know that we're 20 to 50. But I think the average age was around like 5051.

Actually, what they said is they needed young and healthy people, so that they could, you know, keep up with the pace and they could, they could be healthy, if they had elderly people, it may have slowed them down, and they were more vulnerable, and susceptible to probably, you know, the virus and so on. But so Allah, amazing. So the application procedure was quite simple. It took about five minutes, 10 minutes to apply.

And I have to ask Chanel.

But when when we got the message to say that we we were accepted that it was strange to me, because then they asked us immediately after Can you give, we had to choose our meals, they didn't have anything else, just choose your meals for breakfast, lunch and supper, and emergency contact. And it was the meal. So from the eighth to the 13th of the future. And I was confused. And I said I don't know why they ask us the meals I'm really confused. And at this point, I think all the things you ask why the meals and okay further a lot further down the line. About a week later, I get a call to say that the logistics of explaining the logistics of how things will work and that I need to go

through the COVID please thank you the tracking bracelet etc. So I asked the lady on the call and I said to her

so we do we pay for the package out of the choose our package, you know, and she says to me, what package package

and then she said

I just booked your ticket to Jeddah because I'm from Maria I'm based in Riyadh. She says kitty kitty, Geeta Hollis will will give this and I just put the like, Oh, you see this? She said he'll be up beside everything. Everything else will suit it up. Yeah, Mashallah. I heard that yesterday as well. The highlight of it was that you know, I mean, everyone was prepared to pay there was nobody on the was not prepared to pay. But what happened is it was just fully sponsored. That was something amazing. And would you say five? Or how would you rate it?

You've can't even put a star on

TV because it's, it's not it's not just about the hospitality, it was everything. The journey, the feeling

together.

And everyone always speaks about the rituals of the performance of hygiene like the gym rat, the

caveman, I think that connection is lost with the RFID too. And for me, it wasn't

Yes, we did the rituals and everything but the feeling that you have for performing hajj, I said, it is something that I cannot compare. Yes, I have two beautiful children, Mashallah, and grateful for them. I have my peers, I have a family, and I love them so much. Even my wedding day is perfect, but on the Hajj, it's a completely different feeling of love. It's a completely different feeling of sitting there. Because

it's something I cannot compete and it's undescribable. You know, it's just to listen to it. So I can imagine how you must have felt when you will be at every stage, it must have been, you know, excitement with anxiety at the same time and just this whole, you know, this beautiful feeling. You know, so tell us when you prior to you going they gave you this tag and all of that was that before you went to the tag that they have they had on the end with with the app.

The app the bracelet? Yeah, we did they give that to you.

They gave it to us at the hospital in Riyadh. So in our home city. When you did the COVID kiss, you got the bracelet that attract you. And then we had to do a quarantine. I think it was like one week for the team.

And there's an app on your phone that's linked to the bracelet. Yes, yes. It's amazing how well organized that was. I mean, you must have been Wow, what's going wrong here? SubhanAllah. You know, honestly, I did not expect it to be that this well organized. I mean, I think everybody thought that even when they watch the tawaf and I think by now people

Got it an overview of what happened during the hatch. And when they watched the tawaf They must've good videos. This, this was this week like it was really like

it looked like it looked like, you know, schoolchildren who went on an outing with their teacher that you just walk in the line you come up to walk in the light, right? The teacher teacher says Move your movie stop, you stop. It was cooking so uniform, and I was thinking over years in kindergarten must have come in handy, did

you and it was it when I watched it looking back as I think, wow, you know, it looks like this was serious. And it was just a matter of I think that I don't know how many months of preparation went into this. But Mashallah, Mashallah, Mashallah, they've repeated so well to a point that even with the when we started laughing, right, so the main event saw that women were in the inner circles closest to the carpet in the main and the outer circle, they actually started first and I think the campus didn't capture this. But on the right, the circles right outside, they started before us, because they have a bigger distance to complete. And even that was through through that was thought

through. And at a certain point, the group leader would actually slow them down. I don't know if they're communicating with the walkie talkie, I think they were, but would slow them down so that the gap opens when we are doing our final round of Ottawa, that a gap opens and we just smoothly the woman pauses out of the tower without time I'm gonna ask the same question I asked the others as well, throughout your days of harsh Did you bump or Did anyone bump into you? Or did you bump into anyone throughout your day? So

never.

We never we think of hedging the normal yours jostling and pushing and shoving and people bumping into each other and women complaining and so much so. So So how will I think this will be a point of learning as well? And Mashallah, really, really amazing. So, your two little ones? What happened to them?

After them when you decided that Okay, there is

a teddy daiki.

He said, When I asked him, is it okay, if I go into sit? Yes. By all means. I mean, if you're going to register and at the time, he thought we will group and he.

Sorry, can you hear me now? I can hear you. Can you hear me? Yes, I can. I think

it's okay. It's okay. Yes. So you were saying that you can you can go it's fine with your group, but you didn't realize no group?

Yeah, you didn't. And you know, that made it all made sense. At the end. We were able to apply to register without a mammogram,

which is really strange. And I realized why often the men and the women never saw each well with maybe from a distance but never interacted never past one another, only like, even in the tawaf is a gap between you and the male. On Me Now we in separate buildings, I mean, sit on separate floors, even in the quarantine, if you came as husband and wife, the quarantine that we had in Makati Sheraton, the wife goes to one room and Aspen goes to the fitting room. And the who judge the female at the hotel, we're all on a separate floor to the male.

The rooms

and even even the interaction with the females as well was very limited and my rights extremely limited.

I saw people on the first day of Hajj and then I saw them again like the last day of Hajj and the nightspot was and I was just saying to a friend of mine earlier actually to my sustained or I say to to sell cute because at on the after that after we die, we sat and waited for mastery and the capitals Sue each other for the first time as within the workplace to each other for the first time after that there was a widow and you could see when we were sitting where people market they were looking for each other across the across lamotta. So they can they united again and it was so beautiful Mashallah because

we saw a picture of you on the

screen on the previous screen with your mask and all that making a draw. I'm sure you saw that. When did you? When did you find out? It was you?

Um, someone actually said that to me. Another one is the advocate judge seated to me, and I sit and I think the

Oh, she took the photo, she took the foot she was sitting and she took the photo and I think because so many of us were alone. We depended on other people like if you can get your picture for me,

and I didn't know when she I think this woman was from Turkey. I can't fit to go Hello. It was so nice. We were all from different countries, but we were united and we became friends in our own way, even if we didn't speak the same language. Yeah, I don't know if you realize that you know, when you later on in the years you're going to be known as the one who went for Hajj during in 2020 You know, that's you're going to be known for that because there were so few people and they will know you so so just for that for the viewers sake. How many years have you been residing in Saudi Arabia?

Okay, so that was the start of my fourth year.

So you've been around before but

not so much you can

think of and you are from and you are originally from Cape Town, right? Cape Town Mashallah. I'm sure Cape Town is so so excited because there were a few people from Cape Town who were so lucky. I wonder what it is in Cape Town that the kryptonians were when the fortunate ones who went across what Alhamdulillah that's really really nice. And then and then when you landed in Jeddah How was the feeling

when we got the we we walked out and as we're walking out of the terminals

we will discuss with Ministry of Hajj and Umrah face on and at the time I didn't know what does this look like? You know we just got the the Cisco brand new to us. And they have like flags and they finish they come come this way this way. And they think my daughter's knocking at the door. Come inside area.

Okay, he or she coming? Hi.

No, no, it's okay.

Mommy will need to study when I come inside. Is that okay?

Okay, come on. Sit.

Yes.

Thank you.

They must have missed you. They must have missed you big time. Nice. Cheers. She actually asked me when I came home. Why would you so late? I was waiting for you and I pride

myself

on the love

is so

okay, it's okay. It's okay for people. So there we go. So when we got to Judah, so they exclude that and he has come this way Come this way. So we go through and I had such a shock the password aligned app and it was released they and i i think said my my family chat and I said feels like I'm part of the South African rugby team that won the World Cup recently you know like he

won the World Cup won the World Cup

really something I

didn't expect I honestly didn't expected so they probably took you from Gita to Makkah it was police escort right police a school after every third pass if the fourth pass was a police car. So it was good and then they closed the one lane of the highway was complete because and I will say to my husband so even if we went on the fly overnight with the top bar they close the bottom part of the highway as well so that no cars are driving underneath Billy

it

or not the 2 billion Muslims alleged selected a little few. And then you guys would like even vvip treatment so can Allah Allah grant that to us on the day of judgment? I mean

yeah.

Sitting in the bus, like did they make you like you know, there's two seats and two seats was it just you on the one seat and the other one empty?

If I could show pictures, and I wish I could show the picture so it was like there were two seats so you sit in the seat next to you there's a sign that says nobody should sit on that seat. And then they have like a snack box for you on the next few on the seat next to you and they had they even had your name

I saw the bands were color coded. And they had two or three names on your tag, and two or three numbers on your tag your number, where you're going to sit and where you're going to stand and things like those all on your tag, you know, the text. Oh, I don't even know which car we were in Mina. Which that was different because it's solution for me I packed according to what are the who charged suggested and advise and because, you know, I didn't think I thought between the things in mina ittf at this minute house, but I didn't give it much thought.

But in any case, they had like on our court, exactly which tile we were on in Mena your room, even though your bed number in bathroom, so you know,

exactly where to go. And it was set, so two through one through through 100. And they did an absolutely amazing job. Mashallah, with the organization with the planning, and I think if they, because of that, everything and of course, because of all the other, everything went off very well. So everyone is rod had, right, so there was no need to sacrifice animals. So that was one thing. And secondly is use you went straight into your office to do if I'm not mistaken. First of all, he threw me straight into the topic.

Yeah, so basically, just for the viewers, the three types of Hajj one is where you do Amara come out of the harem and do the Hajj after that from the eighth, which is known as tomato. The second is Karen, where you go and do your homework and you don't come out of the house and you continue into the house. So you did both a general law in one journey. For those two, you have to sacrifice an animal or if you can't afford that you're going to fast three days and then seven days later, and the one that was done by everyone this year was the same one that the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him did for your information. So when he did his heart he did.

So it's just you go in, you do your offer to do and you continue into the Hajj itself. You come back and do the office era and the site and you have not done an MRA only the Hajj and you go back so there's no need to do a sacrificial animal. So Han Allah Mashallah, that's amazing. Usually from our part of the world, we do too much to it, because it makes it easier for us to come out.

But yeah, so they kept you well, and the boxes I heard were in your rooms at New Times, and they really took care of yourself. If you handled that they clearly took care of us and

yeah, it is I can't complain about anything. They made it easy for us but but at the same time, even the quarantine period was a blessing in Makkah because there was nothing no distractions, and you could get yourself mentally physically ready especially for the fact that we only had two weeks notice prior to the hatch starting. So you could use those four days to decide. Go over everything you know, get yourself mentally

amazing. I clicked on something. Yes.

So everything is such a blessing. I don't think I can ever be thankful and grateful enough to Osbourne tada and everyone was a tool involved that they fought to get into this hedge

and what was the highlight you highlight?

Wow, they were so many but if I could say three arches the top three okay.

Out of prefer Firstly, of course I prefer I I can you know, I was only one I refer obviously Mattila they say you cuckoo on it for the time overcoat you have you they you please and but I felt like my body was present. But I was I was to set out to experience my body was the fact you know you so deep into your two hours into into reciting anything that you actually, you feel like, I'm standing here this media does everybody but I'm not here. I'm feeling so connected right now.

And I heard that there was like a miraculous cloud cover that came about you obviously notice that I did and especially because we I made to add the night before for rain to gather data gathering on artifact. But I didn't necessarily see it on Java rahama.

We I wish we were an hour faster than the things and I saw the I saw the star cloud coming over and I didn't know honestly I didn't know about this doc lab. It was nothing to notice even mentioning that to catch clauses before. But nobody mentions this dark cloud from lean.

One of the other ladies from the hat she was telling me about the dark cloud system azeema

I said, Well, I think you know, I didn't know about it, but I saw, I mean, I thought I saw the stockout coming over. But then the crowd burst when we were on Metallica in the open, he

usually, usually would be like, you know, we Yeah, we it's raining. But it was an absolute blessing, Mashallah to Savannah that was that my father said to me, he went on Hajj in November 2013. And they had rained on either the day or the night. And it's amazing and it's just one of the medicals regardless of what man a hedge is, in what which season is in Undertale edify either the night before the day or the night.

It rains

a lot of the times Yeah, a lot of the times you know, the funny thing is, it's not the rainy season at the moment. Normally Saudi Arabia has winter rains. And this is the middle of summer. It is unusual but so Angela, did you get a chance to climb up that mountain or no? I did but I didn't go all the way to the top because they were just mean on top and

so that was the two was the alpha the feeling of being an alpha the Mr. Alpha brain and Mr. Alpha thing and Mr. Alpha it was at 2:35am in the morning so be sleeping in the open a and I don't know why my screen is dark is it

just tap it with your finger and

if you tap it with your finger or you do have enough battery power in your phone

I'm not sure

charging Okay, I'm not sure what's happening but I think it's

so it was was sleeping and we fell asleep probably just like before midnight and we started finally sleeping in the open a and it was raining just before that so be sleeping with our traders and you put your bag next to you so that nothing gets weak.

And when it stopped raining as soon as it stops raining, stopped raining, we all closed on traders and then we now went to sleep to 30 5am affiliate unemployed and I'm like okay, I adjust myself and all of a sudden it starts storming and it's done like it was just maybe three four minutes but Subhanallah it was

the time waking you up for Salah for dad to drive us behind Allah It was exactly like that it was as if it was an alarm from this stretch literally like an alarm that just woke us up because the brain three minutes everybody woke up we made a joke because it was that time and then at the end I said hey you know I'm just thinking about this like no no

no know it reminds me reminds me of the Battle of better way Allah says we sent rain to refresh you and strengthen you Those were flash floods just like what happens in the desert a lot of the time it's hard it's very short. And it wakes you up it refreshes you

exactly like

a con it's something I struggled to explain to people and I surprised them even speaking this much about it now.

Yeah, you know you were you were saying that you're not a public speaker and so on. Today you spoke more than me Mashallah.

And I wanted to ask you also about the German art so they apparently from what we've heard they gave you these sanitized pebbles right? Yes. I was joking with my wife yesterday I was saying these sanitized pebbles must have stung shape are much more than the usual

Yeah, so I was

I was actually really keen to see what the sanitized people are going to look like. But that just is I have a photo of it that's gravestones basically.

What the first day when we did this I'll activate it. So we pull that and I because it is my first hatch. I don't know where the democrats are, I don't know what to expect. And the past and everybody always speaks about the walk the previous which has to walk to the gym rat. The bus pulls up and we get out and they tell us a unique lineup of course and then they are like stickers on the ground. It's a way each person should stand. And I'm looking on the ground to see where I need to walk and all of a sudden ideas. Okay, through

and I look to the top right at the camera. So you guys we didn't do the walk to the camera. Not the first but not for nothing. It was just the first the first nothing we did

Just Cobra.

I could not that day that day the past stopped like 20 sips before the jump. I was caught off guard. I won't lie. I expected to walk up it. So it was like, Okay, yeah, see Nyala and then it was okay.

And then the next day, I was very glad on the first day of Dairy Queen, they said, We are going to walk from Mina cow was going to walk to the chamara. So

Mashallah, I was, I will, in fact, all of us, we were very happy because I think because we were young, we didn't want to walk up. And they let us walk the two days of tertiary, from the to the gemera. Yeah, Subhana Allah, that's amazing. So usually every year, we witnessed people throwing those stones so hard, and you know, like, we've seen people as though they're playing cricket there with that big, you know, pillar, I'm sure this time it was very orderly, very simple. No, it was just just

very orderly, very conservative.

And, you know, when we were done, it was the system, there was a there was a man who eats there was two flags, the red flag and the green flag. And when you said your line and Beanie Babies flag to say, Okay, you go, and when you are done, they take you in a very orderly fashion to make to our, and also to the red and green flags, like how they like how they actually, you know, like the traffic wardens, when there's a detour, and they put the red light and then and then the guy stop at the green light, and then they go, so that's how they from a distance they were giving you these snacks during the week to go and then your group leader is always in front. And you just find a

group leader. So she's you she's actually looking at the flags and reading when to go and when not to

handle that was very, very well organized and plan. And yes, and in each person. In each person, there was two people from the hygiene minister, Hajj and Umrah minister, the one is a group leader and the one was like an assistant to her. That helps to just take the eight count every time. And then it was adopted. Each person was assigned a doctor and two people from the Hajj

a doctor and two of the officials. And you know, if you're telling me that they were it was one person and one seat empty a bus, I'm calculating a bus has a capacity of 48. And if you leave one and have one, you're probably about 20 in a group. And I heard that they were approximately 50 just above 50 groups. So you will probably more than 1000 people. But I don't know you probably wouldn't be able to tell that. But I'm just doing my own calculations to work it out to say yeah, it was probably more than because if they were 57 groups, each one had 20 then you can do the math. But Mashallah, it was still very well organized.

Yes, and she the person, the doctor on your bus. So when you come from even if it's you coming from the tawaf when you leave the bus and you come back in, she will come around and say, remove your masks. So we have to, they were extremely pedantic about the house, of course, because so you'd have to remove our mosques at time and put a new mosque on, even if

you have to take your mask off and put another one, a new one on, and she'd come in and put in a in a tag, the old mosque, and she takes the temperature every time when we go and when we leave the bathroom, we come back in, they take our temperature. So somehow the question another question that comes to my mind now is, you know, you did a few COVID tests, a few tests, through your journey, and temperature and so on. Do you know of anyone who was sick or anyone who might have at some point tested positive? No, they were

at party I would say fit as a fiddle, have littler. Mashallah, that was really, that doesn't mean because how was the anxiety with a DD artist? And you must you must have been thinking it's normal. It's human to think, oh, what if I don't make it here? I did think that for this brief moment, I was like, you know, what, I think every judge felt like that.

Yeah, and then as I just said,

you know, it's a good lesson to learn because in life there are so many things that we we become a little bit anxious about and the only time we achieve that contentment and, and comfort is when we just leave it in the hands of Allah look, or Allah, whatever you've decided I'm happy with it. If I got to go back, I gotta go back, but I want to go but if

I think I lost you for a moment. Can you hear me now? Yes, I can. I'm not sure what that could be.

No, I know what happened. I come from Zimbabwe. So we basically like a fourth world country Alhamdulillah. So we just have these you know, we thank Allah for it, we enjoy the the jumps in the network, it's actually about one or two megabytes per second. I think that's the maximum that we can get right now. Maybe a little bit more or less my children know how to work that out. But I just enjoy it. That's all we got such a lovely conversation. must thank Allah. So yeah, I think it was a lot giving us a chance to digest what you said before we hear more. So.

Yes, and then and then tell me more about like at the end. How was the feeling when you were now when you when you were going like you had to leave the house a farewell tomorrow.

It was so hard. And I think more breaking because of the situation that we are in. And you know, I said we came the night we came and we fought the matter of and it was as if the Kaaba was smiling. And I said this to my father actually. And when a video called him understanding of acid, acid daddy when we came in as we came in, and the Kaaba was in Iran, and we came without him and refilled the matter. And it was as if there was this wholesome feeling again, in the harem. And then when we finish out the work, we lift the hat up, and I turned around and I took a photo and it broke my heart at the Kaaba was still inherent but not set well none of us nobody was on the matter in

intimate with the cabinet.

And that to me it was the simplicity of at that point

of what the situation that you are in and

you know something also that came to my mind is when you when there comes a point every time for Hajj when you feel like this thing should carry on you know, it's I shouldn't I don't want to go back. No.

I understand now why people want to come every year. I am that completely understand. And I can't even say it's greed. Because you you were greedy for Allah's mercy. You're greedy for all of this and being greedy for that. It's okay.

I understand why people say they want to return every year. I mean, I can't compete at oma is really also really good feeling. And it's something I'm glad that we are lucky to to be able to experience because at any time base except for the COVID being in Saudi, but had I hope inshallah, did you manage to talk to them every day or when you're phoning them? or How did it work?

I call them but my husband said that he thinks that often. When I'm done on the call, they will get restless. So I didn't call too much. And it was okay mistake. I missed him. But

um, any other journey. I think if it was any other vacation or journey, I would be calling them more. But I seem to my two eyes than that is I remember them all the time. So when I think about it, I like to ask

instead of

Panama, and another trick thing is, you know, I noticed and I asked this to the others as well. No one was busy with their phones. That's something unique and it was your own decision or was it just that you didn't want to distract? Or were you told that don't people your phone's

not there actually, they didn't stop us at all. If we wanted to take a video whether you are free to take a video of soldier or picture. They didn't stop us it over and I think it was just the People's Choice because like your people chose

Not to be on the phones in seat because you know, that's amazing because I think we all need to learn a lesson that rather than capture a moment, you must live the moment. You know, there's a difference between capturing a moment and living the moment many of us today have become people who don't live it because we want to capture it. And so we don't experience the proper feel of it.

That's amazing.

That's actually my bio on Instagram. It's a teaser, to busy living the unedited moments to capture it all.

Yes, yes.

So

tell us about your journey back home.

Well, okay, so after the tawakkol with that, we had mastery pictures amazing, Mashallah, to have one factor like this. On the harem, we went back to the Sheraton Hotel up to the harem. We went back to the Sheraton Hotel because some of the who judge who drove to Makkah there because for the some of the family members were pitching them at the Sheraton Hotel. And then there was a bus that went to Medina, for all the people from Medina, they could take the bus to Medina. We were to get into it if we change passes, we went for in a pass to to Jetta, but to another hotel in Jeddah, so handle that is actually unexpected. We went to another challenger, then we got there at about 10:30pm tonight.

And that was the spirit that was waiting for us at the hotel. And men with one side and the women went on another side. And was started Maine's deserved. And it was just like sexual, everybody was discussing and reflecting and was your last few moments with your hedge friends that you make.

And then from there, they took us to the airport at about 1230 just after midnight, we went to the airport. And we only and at this point, I didn't even know if I had a ticket to Riyadh or not, I just been lifted in the hands of Allah in the ministry. So we go to the airport and you're not sure there were two flights to Riyadh either three in flight or 6am. Flight. So when you get to the airport, you have to give them your ID. And then they will tell you which flight you want 306. So behind the lamb On the sixth day, in fact, just you know, but I was okay with it. And I sat on the on the input for five hours again. It was nice because I had my hedge friends. We we were all on the

same flight. So we were having coffee, and we were just reflecting. And you probably between screens at that point more like you got acquainted more with each other. Definitely, because this is the first time we actually got to socialize is when you meet each other. But you know, you sell

you and your journey, you are so focused that you do tend to you're not adding you're making small talk with anyone, if it's anything. And you know, I was thinking about this Murphy, my room in Mena right. And so it was myself and two other women. The one was from Libya. And she was very excited because we like African sisters, African sisters, and the other was from from Jordan. But they didn't speak English as the only one spoke English and I didn't speak Arabic. But it was amazing how we communicated. It was really I can't explain it to anyone. We add our own conversations in our own way without speaking the same language. You know, when you value a journey, so much a spiritual

journey, I'm sure there's no gossip. There's no backbiting there's no deception, there's no nothing. And I'm just thinking it must have been so unique. There's no even waste of time. I mean, I imagine you know, people have had and they sitting there chatting, gossiping, creating, killing time. And this particular habit, it was amazing because here's a small group of people, every one of them they didn't even want their phones to distract them when they went for that a laugh in the camera and that was something that was so so loud and clear for us to see. Mashallah. So you caught your flight then going for yourself to react and I think a message in my I seem to miss each on one of my group

chats. And I said

I'm landing at this time nobody knows what time I'm landing they don't know what flight time on speaking different obviously to leaving from South Africa. And I just

do my thing she knows and I say to her I'm I'm leaving. I'm landing in Riyadh at 7:30am just letting you know ashtech adient in at least can pick me up

She woke up, and she saw a phone. And when she came to pitch me at the airport

Mashallah, actually she sent me a message telling me, I'm going to pick up the hajia. So I said, Wow, that looks good. Bless you guys. And it was really nice talking to you. Well, it was so nice to hear what happened. Is there anything that I might have forgotten to ask you that you want to share with us? Or you want to say,

I can't think of anything now, maybe I would remember after but I can't think of anything. Now. That's just the one thing we made.

for everyone.

One thing I one thing I've learned from everyone is, you know, dreams do come true. And don't don't ever give up Don't you know, that is nothing impossible for a lot to kind of hold on to Allah. And no matter who you are, a lot can choose you. Even if you think there's nothing so special about me. One thing that's outstanding about all the three of you who I've had the opportunity to speak to is you can see the heart that comes through the discussion. It looks it I mean, unless the judge but it looks like it's a good heart. It's a heart that is a perhaps made of gold, perhaps it's a heart of sacrifice. Perhaps it's a heart of love and care for everyone else. Perhaps perhaps these are people

who haven't harmed others because for me, one of the biggest impacts that you know, after the orphanage and so on is another fallacy known as not harming others in the Quran tells you that you know, so I think it comes across loud and clear. I'm not gonna ask you if I'm right, because it's just a point that I noticed.

When you said that dreams do come true. These two dreams are two significant than I think I could share this now.

When I was younger, I was about 12 years old, maybe 10. I always used to dream that I am driving to Makkah at the time. I don't know where maca is. I mean, I live in South Africa. I know my parents went on Hajj and Umrah but I don't know, way the distance, etc. And I'm Tabitha, Martha, and I keep having this dream constantly. When I reached maybe 14, when I started knowing geography, and asked, What do you really mean to put Elizabeth from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth. And

so behind a lot and i when i 2011, my induce lived here in Riyadh, they stayed here for 20 years, and we came to visit them. And I said, when the one day they said to me, okay, we're going on over the weekend. And this was something very new to me, because coming from South Africa, we don't do impress over weekend, you know, and we got in the car, and we drove to Makkah, and it hit me, I always had this dream when I was pretty young. I'm driving to Makkah. And I thought, you know, silly girl you are, do you know, you don't know, geography when I got older. This is not like a drive to pee. And that's exactly how my trips and most of my trips to Macau been growing up. And that was the

first arena to significant.

And panela the second time, in 2017, we had just moved to the art.

For us, my husband has this dream again, and lucid dreams to come through. And so I'm sharing it love

the dream that he woke up one morning and he said to myself and his parents, you know what I can't, I dreamed that in the place from within. So man, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia for those who don't know, I said I said, I agree that he took us to the helm. And he was opening a pathway and people move to the side not even a kit for trains or one of the ships camdeboo he said they were moving them aside and he was leading us to the Kaaba on the matter. And again, we did not think anything like what what is the theater?

Very nice dream, Mashallah. And this year, we did not go here goes I mean, everyone made space for you guys to actually go through so Allah it's amazing, you know, I'm not a person who I meaning I do dream interpretations at times, but I'm not a person who's really obsessed about dreams and I'm sure most of us are not but sometimes there's a dream that sticks and it states and it leaves us with a bit of a you know, a feeling that wow, what was that and sometimes I love the bits it happened exactly as it was later on. So dreams do come true, Mashallah. It was

it was significant to the capturing of dreams to come true. So So

how was it when you met your children finally on your husband?

I came home I couldn't be on this movie they were sleeping.

And, but when the out my eldest daughter, she's three

When she heard me she, she came out of the room. She shared my voice. I was on the phone. She came to the lounge and she said, Mommy, you so late. You were so late. They said Aria, what do you mean? I was so late? She said, we took so long, I was waiting for you. And I cried for you. And I told y'all when to mock me to ask. She asked me if I asked Allah to get it for tea pot. How many days was that? What was the whole journey? Eight days in total? Alhamdulillah only eight days to be with my family. Eight days? Wow, that's

beautiful. I think everything about this journey was a blessing. Everything I think of every part is I just make sure Korea Allah and to if you want to play the part, every part was a blessing with the I can't even say, you know, by the attack happened, or why did that happen? I'm just so grateful for everything, that may Allah bless you. And really, I feel very privileged to be able to speak to those who went for Hajj this year, and just to listen to the experience. And the main reason why I was so excited to do this was that, like I said, in my previous interview is, you know, every year we have had you come and go, and every year we visit and we meet and we hear what happened and how

it was this year, most of the people across the globe do not have access to those who went for Hajj. So they don't know what happened. I thought because I have access to a few and because I know of you let me try to at least talk to the guys so that the whole world can hear what happened and I believe it was so so positive. The last thing you guys got you guys got some souvenirs and gifts. Can you tell us about those souvenirs and gifts? Mashallah. Not sure that it was

like it was a pre Mac in the one it was pre made that look to be each quarter three part the one part that I looked at the the kiswa of the Kaaba and if I could get it, I can show Mufti, how it is. And then some of some of the people some of the who judge got

a pot that look like the door of the Kaaba. And it all was decorated prison part of parts of the Kaaba.

Okay, possible that it's possible that those are real pieces of the keyboard.

It's possible, there could be another dream come true. But

yeah, in fact, I have a few pieces and you know, some halala if I if I saw a lot of people, they see them to tell this is the real thing. You know, I mean, I'll be honest, I don't think it's the real thing. But it's beautiful. You'll be surprised, you might just be having a goal of mine, right? meaning something big, you know, handler, it's a good thing. It's actually more, you know, it's something that's worth keeping as a memory of what happened and so on.

And we got,

we got mugs, and a couple of things, even on Alibaba, which some of my aunts and uncles that I spoke to, and I said, No, no, we know we got this GIF in my Masjid on a mirror and this and mash it on the mirror, you know, as it hits the mosque, the mosque, and Fatima say that answer. And they, and they said to me, You, you got to make salein the masjid because I didn't think that, you know, they don't get to actually take inside.

I want to tell you from two and a half million to 3 million people in Africa, and the capacity of the masjid is 10s of 1000s. But the number of people who get to read it, they're very, very, very few. I've been on Hajj seven times and I have not yet made salah and mustard no Mila, and during the Hajj, I haven't actually kissed the black stone, obviously, with you guys. There were restrictions because of the situation but certain things that during the hatch, it's, it's very, very difficult. And you know, it's amazing. I want to tell you, I've been inside the cabin four times. And it's amazing how you feel that allows you to really, really privileged giving you this privilege and you

feel a responsibility when you come out, you know, you start thinking to yourself, but you know, I've got to improve my act here. I've got to become a better person, how can I win unless given me a chance to go in and inshallah who knows you guys, you may get a chance to go in. And it's not just males who've been in males and females so it does happen. May Allah take us for Hajj and May Allah give us the opportunity of going in one day

and that same I feel that even

Coming from

that I feel that same responsibility. It's like, you know, now watch. If anything you say, in some, is it something at all I would be pleased with everything you do.

I mean, it's, it's amazing, I think and I wish and pay for every single Muslim to perform this journey and

I took time and shukran for everything and you know,

we had I mean, I was waiting so patiently for this and Camilla we really got it done. And it was very beneficial. I'm sure the viewers and the public really benefit from what you said today. May Allah bless you, your loved ones, your family and grandchildren.

Thank you so

much

Mashallah, my brothers and sisters, you heard it all. And I'm not going to say much about you know, I'm not going to add to that because it was a long session. But it was very interesting. That was part three of the fortunate few, and I've called them the fortunate few because indeed they were very few people went for Hajj this year. And I pray that you guys have benefited from what what was said the idea of going live was in order to bring to the public and to the Muslims of the oma firsthand.

You know, accounts of what happened this had, how it was arranged and organized and well done to the to the

authorities who actually made this happen in such a beautiful way by the help of Allah subhanho wa Taala. So Jazakallah fame my brothers and sisters and see you again perhaps tomorrow salaam aleikum