It was the 28^th of June, and my worldly explorations were about to be embarked upon.

I was about to start a trip which consists of the most manic 10 days ever; 5 cities in 10 days. By this point, there will be some readers who will have come up with an average of 2 days per city, but not this time, here things were slightly different, and plans were to be made after landing.

My first stop was Cairo, Egypt. As I landed on Egyptian turf, I could already see the beautiful pyramids right before me, and this was just the beginning.

We got out of the airport only, attempting to speak our little bits of Arabic, in order to seem like we’re locals. But soon enough, we realised that our attempt failed and taxi drivers ripped us off!

As many of you may have experienced when travelling either alone or with one other person, you always fear the worst possible circumstance in a foreign country. This brought about the illusion of doubt, many events led to this, for instance stopping at a petrol station just one minute away from the airport for over 40 minutes, he must have told us why, but we lost track of his words as soon as they got longer than 4 letter words.

We were soon on the five lane highway in Cairo, which had conveniently been extended to 8 lanes by most motorists. Upon arrival at the hotel, we spent our first night in eager anticipation of what to expect in the forthcoming days.

It was now our second day, and the plan was to fly off to Saudi Arabia in the middle east. Normally, this would be simple, but we decided to complicate ours with a coach to Alexandria, and a cab to one of the worlds tiniest airports (Borg el Arab, Alexandria).

At this point you should be aware of the purpose of our visit to Saudi Arabia.

Most of you will know that Muslims from all over the world face a certain direction during their daily prayers, this is called the “Qibla”, this is the Kaaba which is based in Mecca, Saudi Arabia; built by Abraham with the command of God, there is a great significance to this “Kaaba”, which you will find out by reading the rest of this article.

When Muslims have the privilege of visiting the “Kaaba”, and the mosque which accompanies it in the holiest of lands, Mecca; we take it as an invitation from God, for us to visit his Holy House. Therefore just as anyone would prepare themselves before visiting any royal figure, you aim to be in your most humble of states, and try to be yourself. This journey has a great significance in Islam, and I will dwell into this shortly.

You should also be aware that no planes are allowed to fly through Mecca, which explains why I travelled through Jeddah, around 70 miles away from Mecca.

There are two types of visits one can have at this holy land, the first being “The Hajj”, a journey which is obligatory on every individual at least once in their life, as long as it is affordable. The second is “The Umrah” which is optional. There are substantial differences between the two, however I will explain my visit (The Umrah).

After leaving Jeddah, and before entering Mecca for the first time of that particular visit, every individual must ensure that they are clean, both spiritually and physically. Another requirement is that each individual must be equal. To promote these values there are two guidelines set for muslims.

One is to take a shower, with the intention being for the Sake of Allah. The second is wearing two pieces of white cloth (for men) which covers your whole body. Although some people may not be able to picture this, a google search of “ehram” might suffice. There are several reasons for wearing this, one as mentioned earlier is to promote equality, this is served by every man wearing the same two pieces of white cloth, therefore you cant tell the difference between rich or poor, royal or layman, everyone looks the same. At this point you should also be aware that once these two pieces of cloth are worn, 25 things are forbidden, again I won’t dwell into this but a google search may be sufficient once again.

This marks the beginning of “The Umrah”, which can take around two hours to complete. As you enter the main mosque called the “Haram” you begin by circumambulating the ‘Kaaba’, the reason for this is to show that Allah is our main focus, therefore by revolving around the same cube which we pray towards, we are emphasising its spiritual focus.

Next we head off to the hills of ‘Safwa and Marwa’. The Qur’an (holy book of Islam) explains the story of this great place. It is said that Abrahams family were once in a dessert where they were struck with hunger and thirst. As Abraham continued praying for relief from this, he was called by Allah, to which he questioned how he could leave his wife and child all alone; God reassured him, saying that he will protect them.

Abrahams wife and child were now left in the middle of the dessert, and in order to quench her thirst, she ran between ‘Safwa and Marwa’, she did this for 7 consecutive times, on her 7^th run, God made water flow out in the middle of the dessert, this continues to flow today and the water is called ‘ZamZam’. We therefore perform this act again showing our humility and inadequacy, this is called the ‘Saiee’; Once this is complete, the main ‘Umrah’ is complete.

The journey continues.

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