Thursday, March 16, 2000
Loveland couple join hajj pilgrims
Ancient annual rite draws thousands of devoted to Mecca, Saudi Arabia
BY RICHELLE THOMPSON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The glare of a clock's 3:30 slices the ink-black night, a spotlight on the worry that wakes Shaheen Toor from sleep. The mail to her Loveland home has to be stopped. Lesson plans written. Plants watered. Luggage packed.
In four days, Mrs. Toor will leave for Mecca, the holiest city of her Islam faith. With 2 million people from around the world, Mrs. Toor will perform hajj, a pilgrimmage to holy sites in Saudi Arabia that all Muslims must take once in their lives if they are physically and financially able.
While her husband, Fasih, sleeps next to her, Mrs. Toor remembers the tale of her great, great grandmother traveling by ship, then atop a camel to perform hajj in the early 1900s. Memories of celebrating the return of hajj pilgrims in her native Pakistan flit into Mrs. Toor's consciousness.
This ancient rite practiced by ancestors for centuries is a moment 49-year-old Mrs. Toor has waited for all her life. She closes her eyes and prays, turning the stomach gymnastics of worry and anticipation over to God.
“Allah, protect me. Allah be with me.”
The prayers are a pacifier, lulling her to sleep.
Once in a lifetime
Pilgrims from around the world are completing hajj this week in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. For most of the world's 1 billion Muslims, hajj is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Some, because of ill health or limited resources, are never able to make the pilgrimmage.
“It's a very exciting time in people's lives,” says Ibrahim Hooper, communications director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Washington, D.C., advocacy group. “It's understandable people would have trouble sleeping.”
A fast-growing religion in America, Islam has an estimated 6 million U.S. followers, up from 2 million listed in the 1982 World Almanac. There are an estimated 10,000 Muslims in the Tristate.
More than 6,000 Americans applied this year for hajj visas, special permits issued by the Saudi government. The visas restrict travel to Mecca and Medina, where the Islamic prophet Mohammad is buried.
The restrictions are in place because some hajj pilgrims in the past have tried to stay and work in Saudi Arabia, Mr. Hooper said.
At least six Tristate families, including Shaheen and Fasih Toor, planned to perform hajj this year.
Considered a time of spiritual cleansing and rebirth, hajj is one of the “five pillars” of the Islamic faith. Others are faith, daily prayers, offering regular charity and fasting during Ramadan.
Hajj “is a dress rehearsal for judgment day,” Mr. Hooper says.
"The same God'
After the night of fitful sleep, Mrs. Toor explains hajj to the second-bell class of 18 drowsy students at North College Hill High School where she teaches home economics.
“Our God is the same God you believe in,” she says, dressed in a traditional Pakistani outfit of a long cloak and loose slacks. “Allah is the same God.”
Animated, she puts on special clothes she must wear during the pilgrimmage. Similar to a cape, the clothes are simple and plain. That's for a reason, says Mrs. Toor, 49. There are no name brands during hajj.
People value money and status; God does not.
“You could be praying next to a princess” and never know, she says.
Sixteen-year-old Andray Alexander listens from the back of the room. “I tell you the truth, I wouldn't mind going myself. I like learning new things,” he says. “I know she's a teacher and stuff, but she has a private life, too. I think it's good she is going.”
Preparing for hajj
The decision to perform hajj was not made lightly. It is arduous and expensive. A trip costs about $4,500 per person. Each year, some people die from the effects of 90-degree plus heat and physical activity. A stampede in 1998 killed 180 people.
Tradition calls for Muslims to be able to pay off all debts, including a house mortgage, before performing hajj. The Toors checked; their finances were in order. If necessary, they could pay off the house and clear up other loans.
Their three sons are grown, although the youngest, at age 20, is in college.
Still, the time seemed right. After all, they weren't getting any younger.
“Make hay while the sun shines,” says Mr. Toor, 55, an engineer with International Paperin Cincinnati. “When the opportunity comes, you'd better take it. You never know when it will come again.”
The Toors decided in December to perform hajj. Mrs. Toor kept her sons, scattered from Los Angeles to Memphis, Tenn., updated through Mom's Hajj Preparations e-mails.
They signed up for a hajj tour through a Washington, D.C., travel agent. A guide will take them through the religious rites, showing the Toors and other Muslims in the group, how to dress, what to do and where to go.
The Toors applied for hajj visas and took cholera and meningitis immunization shots. They bought fragrance-free soap, shampoo and deodorant; pilgrims are not supposed to wear perfume.
Prescribed outfit
They also made a stop at Jo-Ann Fabrics & Crafts, where they bought white cotton and terry cloth material. Mr. Toor, like all males on hajj, must wear a special outfit of two pieces of unsewn white cloth. One piece is wrapped around his waist; the other over his shoulder and across the chest. The material can have no stitches and generally is white so there is no difference between the outfits of the rich and the poor during hajj.
“You may be a king or you may be a beggar,” Mr. Toor says. “Everyone is equal in the house of God.”
There is not a specified outfit for women, but they must completely cover the body and hair. Only the hands and face can be exposed.
Mrs. Toor expects to don the traditional clothes of Pakistan underneath a long cape-like cloak.
By last Wednesday, Mrs. Toor had double-checked the bags and crossed everything off her list.
“I'm becoming impatient with all this waiting and preparations. I'm anxious to get there and feel that feeling of humility.”
Mrs. Toor prayed. Months of preparations and a lifetime of waiting were about to end.
Performing hajj
The Toors know the schedule of events during hajj. They watched a 45-minute video about the pilgrimmage five times. They read books and pamphlets. They talked to friends.
From their research, they pieced together what they expected to happen. It will be much like this, they said:
After nearly 12 hours on a plane, the pilot comes on the intercom, announcing they are nearing Saudi Arabia.
The Muslims on board proclaim their intentions to perform hajj, saying together a phrase like, “Here I come, Allah. God, I am here.”
Then the passengers change clothes. Mr. Toor washes his hands, face and feet and puts on the two pieces of white cloth. He can wear nothing else. Mrs. Toor pulls a cape-like outfit over her head, tucking in her chestnut hair.
During hajj, pilgrims may not shave, cut their fingernails, wear jewelry, argue or have sexual contact. Nothing should distract from striving for purity of mind.
A rush of pilgrims
Upon arrival at the Red Sea port of Jidda, they wait five or six hours at the airport. Two million people are descending upon this country of nearly 20 million, and customs is slow. Hajj is determined by scripture and cannot be staggered in time to accommodate the pilgrims. They complete the rites together.
With the roads clogged by hajj pilgrims, the 45-mile trip to Mecca takes hours.
The Toors go straight to the mosque and circle seven times counter-clockwise around the Ka'ba, a stone building Muslims consider the first house of worship. They believe it was built by the prophet Abraham and his son, Ishmael.
Next, they hurriedly walk seven times back and forth between two small hills. This commemorates the search by Abraham's wife, Hagar, to find water to offer Ishmael.
The next day, the Toors go to Arafat, a field outside of Mecca where Mohammad delivered his farewell sermon. This is the climax of hajj, where “people cry like a baby,” Mr. Toor says. From early afternoon to sunset, people pray in the parched desert under the blistering sun.
“This is the time when God is listening,” Mrs. Toor says of the period considered practice for Judgment Day. She reads prayer requests from family and friends and asks for forgiveness and grace for herself.
The Toors throw pebbles at three pillars, symbolizing Satan and the temptations faced by Abraham after God ordered him to sacrifice his son. They also sacrifice an animal, probably a lamb, in remembrance of God giving Abraham a lamb to slaughter instead of his son. Although pilgrims long ago slaughtered their own animals, a meat processing center now handles the meat.
Pilgrims pay for the animals to be slaughtered in their name. Most of the meat is distributed to Third World countries, Mr. Toor says.
End of the pilgrimmage
The Toors cut off a small piece of their hair as required by tradition, signifying the end of the pilgrimmage.
After celebrating a feast day, the Toors will travel to Medina to pray at the tomb of the prophet Mohammad. Then they will come back to Cincinnati, having made a journey in body and in spirit.
Hajj “is a journey of leaving the preoccupation of material things, of leaving everything behind with one purpose in mind,” Mrs. Toor says. “That is to seek the pleasure of God.”
ABOUT ISLAM
Muslims believe in the same God as Christians and Jews. Muslims consider Jesus a prophet, along with Adam, Noah, Abraham and others. They believe the prophet Mohammad in the 7th century revealed God's final message. The Islam holy book is the Quran, which Muslims consider the record of God's exact words.
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