Arafat has subconsciously been on my mind since I woke up this morning around 2:15am. Today we would prepare and depart for the Plains of Arafat.

This morning’s experience at the Haram was unique and one that I will cherish always. We performed a Mustahab Tawaf and had some time before Fajr prayers. I was adamant in having the opportunity to touch Hajr-e-Aswad, the black stone.

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Waking up at 2:00am was working out really well. I guess because we wanted to maximize our time in the Haram and perform Mustahab Tawaf, we both motivated each other even though we were getting only a few hours of sleep each night.

I met Asif in the lobby and we made our way to the Haram. Today, the crowd at the Haram was significantly less and performing Tawaf was much easier. We decided that because we would have quite a bit of time before Fajr prayers, we would sit on the Mountain of Safa and recite Surah al-Baqarah as it was highly recommended.

We stayed near the Mountain to pray Fajr, as the Haram was filling up quite quickly and we weren’t sure if we would make it up to the rooftop. Some days the security guards would switch off the escalators going up, or switch them so that they would go down instead, and other days, entrances that were previously open would be barricaded. I didn’t quite understand what they were doing and why each day was different, but I’m sure they had an overview of the crowds and the flow, so they knew what they were doing. However, we never knew where and when we could get stuck!

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Today was going to be quite an interesting day. The group had arranged for local walking Ziyarat in Makkah and Hujjaj had been given an option to either go yesterday or today. We chose to go today. I felt like we had been in Makkah forever and it was like a very homely feeling. I had totally forgotten about life otherwise!

Asif and I decided not to go too early to the Haram as we wanted to pace our journey and not overtire ourselves. The heat was going to be intense later in the day, and as we were going to be walking quite a bit, we wanted to be prepared. We went to the Haram at 3am this morning, giving ourselves enough time before Fajr to engage in doing whatever Ibadat we wanted to do personally. It was such a wonderful feeling to just sit and recite Qur’an, and even rest a little under the shade of His Holy House. There were others who had pillows and were quite comfortable in deep sleep, but I meant more along the lines of closing my eyes and reflecting on where I was, physically, and spiritually.

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Alhamdulillah we were blessed today with another opportunity to perform a Mustahab Tawaf. Today we gifted this Tawaf to the Imam of our time, his 4 key representatives, and the Maraja’e today and over time.

We left the hotel at 2:00am and managed to finish the Tawaf and the Salat of Tawaf within 40 minutes. There wasn’t much crowd and Makkah still seemed relatively empty. With so much time to spare, we sat with the Holy Ka’ba in plain sight and recited Du’a-e-Jawshan Kabeer. It was so peaceful, and nobody asked us to move as there was still quite a bit of time until Salah. As people were less, we had a clear view of the Holy Ka’ba, the whole time.

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