Photography courtesy of Rumaizah Abu Bakar.
The Haj pilgrimage is familiar to most Malaysians who would have seen photographs of the millions of Muslims who make their way to Mecca to pay homage. But how does it really feel to actually be one among the millions there?
“I would say it was the most significant journey in my life, the Haj,” said writer Rumaizah Abu Bakar who was just 34 when she went on this journey with her parents.
Given her youth, it was spiritually challenging. But it was also physically challenging. The massive crowds meant that it could take six hours to travel just a few kilometres, and many long waits. In Mina, her group of 20 women slept shoulder to shoulder in big tents, lying on carpets laid over lumpy sand which Rumaizah and her mom tried to soften, only making it more uncomfortable for themselves, it turned out!
The sights, sounds, smells and spiritual elements of the Haj have been vividly recorded in meticulous detail by Rumaizah, now 43, in her travel book, A Call to Travel: Muslim Odysseys, published by Silverfish Books in February.
