How it Began - Journey to Hajj

I think Jemaah Haji 1441H would be receiving their invitation letter for Hajj sometime this month. I say 'I think' because we (well actually Ibrahim) got his invitation letter 3 days after the official deadline to respond whether to go to Hajj or not (hence our Hajj journey did not begin with the same timelines as other jemaah) Why is this? Panjang ceritanya..but here goes because this is ultimately the beginning of our Hajj journey.

It was the 3rd week of Feb 2019. On the way to solat jumaat Ibrahim gets a call from Tabung Haji. It seems that Ibrahim & my in laws turn for Hajj was up but TH had not received a response from anyone. The TH officer actually went to my in laws' house to personally pass the offer letter & get a response (we were not home then, hence the call). Kudos to TH for their effort, if your name is due, they will surely make sure you are made aware of it. Sebenarnya, in our early years of marriage we did check when our giliran was - I registered when i started working & was scheduled for 2050++. Ibrahim's account was a child's account, dad-in-law registered for him & we found out then that his giliran would be in 2019. But we never really prepared for this i.e. did not go to any kursus haji/regularly update our TH account. As far as we knew, if a husband was called for hajj, it was not a sure thing that his wife can successfully appeal to follow but if a wife was called, the husband can automatically go as mahram. So I had a dedicated Takaful plan for Haji (Mabrur by Etiqa Family Takaful) which would give me enough cash value for the both of us to perform haji via a private travel agent in 20-30 years hence we always assumed that if Ibrahim was called for Hajj in 2019 we wouldn't go if I could not go. We mentally prepared ourselves to go later (20-30 years).

But since Ibrahim got the call (perhaps both literally & spiritually), the feeling to go for Hajj became really strong. As the call came after the official deadline had passed, Ibrahim had to send an appeal for his giliran to be reinstated - if his appeal is approved, only then will TH consider the appeal to bring me along! We submitted the appeals immediately & anxiously waited for an answer. I still remember clearly getting a call from TH Damansara not even 3 weeks after that Ibrahim's appeal was approved (he did not pick up his phone so they called me). I asked them 'Bagaimana dengan rayuan saya, bila saya akan dapat jawapan?' They said just wait, if I dont hear anything by end of Ramadan (early June) it means my appeal is unsuccesful. Two days later they called me and said come and pick up your offer letter, your appeal is approved.

The feeling was indescribable...so began the butterflies & excitement :) Okay this post is long enough & walaupun takde sangat tips/benefit I feel its important to share this because believe it or not, when I told some people about my Hajj invitation - they had the audacity to ask me 'Macam mana boleh dapat? Ada family ke di Tabung Haji?' 🤬So untuk yang tertanya-tanya, the answer is simple - it was Ibrahim's rightful turn & I was lucky enough to be able to leverage on it :)

I will share in my next posts what was stated in the offer letter & what had to be done when choosing to accept or decline the offer (medical check up, payment etc).

Till the next post. :)

With Love,

Azreen

The Heat Is Making Me Miss Mekah!

It's been a pretty hot couple days recently and I was reminded of the first night/day of being in Mekah during Hajj last year (magad dah jadi cerita tahun lepas!).

Hajj season was in August - peak of Summer with temperatures expected to be as high as 50 degrees Celsius. If you read up on former jemaah's haji experiences, the hot weather equals to hot water from the taps/shower/bidet especially in Arafah/Mina camps, 'barely there' airconditioning in the room etc. I take my showers cold so Ibrahim would tell me to 'prepare' by taking 'hot showers' in the months leading to our Hajj journey. My mom in law also reminded me to not be bothered by the heat too much i.e. jangan sebut panas/dont complain.

One of the many contraptions we brought..really helped when it was stuffy

On the night I arrived my hotel in Mekah (Room 1009, Amjad Al-Bait 😍) it was so hot! And when I showered, the water was scalding hot! At that moment I was like, oh no, all the accounts of former jemaah haji were true! My room mates & I (4 of us in total) were just settling in, it was almost midnight so we all just slept without any complaints. I remember telling Ibrahim that my room was hot & considering the reminders that one should not complaint while you are there, I was resigned to the fact that I would be sleeping in sweat for the next 35 nights.

The next morning we performed our umrah/tawaf qudum & I wore a white jubah which meant I had on many layers of inner/leggings & tudung & telekung. After the umrah, I had a shower (again with hot water, it was around noon), and was preparing to rest before lunch - then I had a nose bleed. The heat was getting to me!

Finally one of my roommates spoke up, questioning why was our room was so hot when our husbands' rooms (next to ours) was cold. So we asked the front desk to send someone to check our aircon. Turns out it was out of gas, they filled up gas & voila - we had a cool room the entire stay :) And the hot water in the bathroom - turns out the heater switch was on (it was not in a visible location). I switched it off & yes, we had cold/room temperature shower after that. 😂 (On my flight back home to Malaysia I did learn that other jemaah had the same hot water issue & most likely were not aware that they could switch off the heater).

Apart from this first day experience our living conditions were smooth throughout the entire trip. Don't complaint or be open to challenges/difficult/less than favourable situations are standard & good advices for anyone going to Hajj..but it doesn't mean that everything has to be taken as it is. The hotel staff are generally very helpful & love Malaysian jemaah so if there are any issues, you can have them addressed accordingly. If you have room mate issues, you can also have counselling / mediation sessions with counsellors provided by Tabung Haji.

In front of our Mekah Hotel

Okay that's all..I hope i can document my Hajj journey before the Jemaah for 1441H depart ..😅

With Love (ifyouknow,youknow :D)

Azreen