Haj Mubarak 1430

 

“I am here, O Lord, I am here!” 

Approximately 60 days after the end of Ramadan, Muslims from all over the world repeat this chant as they enter the holy city of Mecca to begin their pilgrimage, the Haj, one of the five pillars of Islam.

In the days that follow, these pilgrims participate in ritual actions and ceremonies re-enacting and commemorating (symbolising) key religious events. There’s the seven times walk to commemorate Hajar’s frantic search in the desert for water for her son Ismail; throwing stones at the 3 pillars as they symbolically reject the Satan and spending a day at Arafat, a reminder of the Day of Judgement.

It must have been an awesome experience of 2 millions pilgrims praying together as equals, entering into the divine presence, connecting to something greater than themselves.

At the end of the 5th day, which was last Friday was Eid al-Adha or the Festival of Sacrifice.  A commemoration to the willingness of Ibrahim (SAW) to sacrifice his son Ismail (SAW) as an act of obedience. This is marked by the sacrifice of an animal to the will of Allah. This sacrifice, called kurban, is usually a sheep, goat or cow and a significant portion of the meat is distributed among the poor'.

I could not join the students for the Eid prayers because they started at 8am which was too early for me.  I made a special Malay delicacy called Seri Muka for my colleagues. It is steamed glutinous rice topped with a pandan custard. And I’m pleased to say that they thoroughly enjoyed it.

Later that night, I went for an Eid celebration at Lyanna’s. Her husband, Hafiz,  and his two siblings had arrived in the UK. We’d a lovely time catching up and enjoying the delicacies that Hafiz brought back from Malaysia. 

They later gave me a lift home and we spent the night posing for pictures. Hafiz  and Babe are fans of Nokia and had plenty to talk about. They left early cos they were driving up to Bradford the next day. Have a safe trip.

On Saturday, Babe and I made our way to our usual playground. Big mistake. Cars were parked all along the road. A Xmas fair was on!!!We were greeted with these carol singers as we entered. I bet that really scared off the natives :-)

Due to the heavy rains, the water level was quite high. The lapwings and the gulls were squabbling for space on the tiny island. I enjoyed observing this beautiful Great Crested Grebe in its winter colour paddling across this lake.

As we trampled through the sodden grounds, the smell of rotting wood and fallen leaves hit us. There was also the familiar smell of fungi. There were lots of them, mostly soaked and rotting. We also spotted these redwings making themselves at home on the tree tops.

Then it was a frosty start to December with  Jack Frost making an early appearance. Benzy’s windscreen was white with frost, glittering white and sparkly under the streetlights. It took Babe a good 5-10 minutes to scrape the windows and windscreen clear. Back to getting to work in the dark and coming home in the dark, again.

But then it is December. About 3 weeks to Xmas!!! I’ve made all my X’mas cards and will spend the weekend writing them up and posted on Monday (fingers and toes double-crossed). I’m off tomorrow to Touchwood in Solihull to raid Lakeland, John Lewis and Mango!!! Then put the Xmas tree up and pile the decorations all over everything…that’ll be fun.

December is going to be a very, very busy month. There’s the X’mas lunch, 2 retirement parties, 2 days of workshop, an away day, an after office trip to Birmingham German Xmas market and a Xmas dinner planned at Cosmo with x-colleagues. A Xmas dinner for Hafiz and Lyanna is also in the cards. I’m also hoping to attend the post-Eid party organised by the Malaysian Coventry Society on Saturday. Phew!!!

Just found out from Babe that my sister-in-law, Fran, caught swine-flu. Prayers for her to get well soon.