About a Week Left!

On Sunday, my husband and I traveled to Brooklyn to cross off some errands on our Hajj list. These included the ever-important meningitis vaccine (I know, I know, we’re cutting it close), stocking up on halal meat for the family we’re leaving behind, and getting some work done on our car.

Now multi-tasking is the name of the game, so, as we drove around doing our errands, I used those popular free weekend minutes on our cell phone to dial all our relatives and inform them of our impending religious journey. I asked for prayers, for forgiveness, for support.

I spoke with relatives I haven’t contacted in months, if not years. It was great. Trust the Hajj experience to teach you all sorts of lessons in life, including the importance of keeping in touch and respecting our elders. I also called two cousin-in-laws of ours who are also going for Hajj.

We traded preparation stories, hopes, fears, and other feelings. And again, I realized how individual the Hajj journey is to each pilgrim. My preparations, though in some ways similar, are also extremely different from those of my cousin-in-law. And I’m not just talking about the preparations of getting my house in order and fixing up everything my kids will need while we’re gone.

This isn’t even about the preparation all Hajjis do in regards to reading, research, memorizing Ayahs of the Qur’an, learning proper rituals and such. This is about the individual feelings and emotions, the personal line we throw to Allah for Him to catch and pull us into Himself.

How singular that individual struggle is to cast that line towards Him for every Muslim going for Hajj. And how remarkable and wonderful it is that when you make your intention, no matter what obstacles are in your way, Allah Most High smoothes your path and gives you His invitation to come and visit.

Case in point: It’s a week to go and I still have not been able to nail down all the details of how my son will get to his various important after-school activities. It is important that he not miss these activities—they are vital to his learning process. And though we are fortunate to have his grandparents here to care for him and his sister in our absence, they are unable to do the chauffeuring.

So tonight, my husband and I interviewed two college students as potential drivers for our son. I, who quit working full-time to stay home and take care of our little ones, am about to entrust my son to the driving abilities of college students I met today for the first time. But, you know, I feel okay with it. Allah will take care of things—I know this. It is what all my elders tell me. When your time comes to fulfill that fifth pillar of Islam, it’s amazing how Allah Most High takes care of all the details of your life.

Here’s a new one. We have agreed to give an interview to CNN about our intention to do Hajj. I, the experienced journalist, will now become the subject of a journalist’s story.

It happened like this: I received an e-mail from my father originating from the Adams Center in Virginia. It was a request from CNN looking for journalists going to Hajj to give some interviews on their experience. I jumped at the chance. (I’m always eager to do something to keep in touch with my profession.)

My husband and I joked about it. Let’s see, we told each other. Well, CNN responded back, and we began talking back and forth regarding what it would entail. The idea evolved to a situation where they would come into our home, interview us, and film our family in regards to our Hajj preparations and how we came to make our intention. Then we would hook up in Makkah after the Hajj was complete to talk about how the experience was.

It’s a Muslim reporter and a Muslim crew running the show. This makes us feel good. But I’m a journalist—I know how the game is played. You can give an hour-long interview only to have four sentences spliced together into a story you didn’t mean for. Things can unintentionally, and intentionally, be taken out of context. If you’re a good, professional, ethical journalist, you try hard not to do this. But you are still always searching for the exciting story.

So we debated back in forth. Here was a chance to do some da`wah. But we would also be putting our family—our children, to be specific—in front of the camera. And I wasn’t comfortable with that. But in the end, we decided to do it. I figure since I’m a journalist, in sha’ Allah, I will know how to handle myself and how to field questions that I may not want to answer regarding family issues that haven’t been divulged in this Hajj diary.

So they’re coming tomorrow. Let’s see how it goes! With all that’s going on, with each day getting busier and more hectic then the last, I wonder sometimes why I’ve taken on this extra project. I hope it’s worthwhile. I hope I grow as a journalist by becoming the subject of the story. I hope it adds to a positive Hajj experience.