Mina: Melontar Jamrah – day 1 of 3

4:30 ~ 6:45am
Fajr, ta’lim.

6:45 ~ 9:00am
Rest, borak (not really borak kosong).
My place in the tent is beside ustaz wan nik and ustaz daruddin (UTAS).
Ustaz wan nik is a long-time resident of Makkah for about 40 years, from Pattani.
Frequently people would come up to our side of the tent, to pay them a visit. Mostly concerning religious questions. And lucky for us sitting nearby them, we get to have a
continuous majlis ilmu, rather than borak² kosong.

9:00 ~ 11:30am
Breakfast, sightseeing.
I stayed in Maktab 105, which is (alhamdulillah) very near to the jamrah – only a few hundred meters away.
Went outside and took photos. The sun is bright and the streets are bustled wth activities.
People selling stuff – toys, food, skullcaps, razors, tasbeeh, slippers, and lots more that I had never thought people would even need.

There are lots of people erecting their tents, together with their small families – babies included.
The tents are of those dome shaped (easily erected and mobile) for 4-6 people types.
You can see this in one of my photos.

11:30am ~ 2:00pm
Got back to tent to get ready for zuhr.
Settled for solat zuhr (tamam) instead of solat Jumaat.
Followed by tazkirah.

2:00 ~ 4:00pm
Lunch, rest. Asr.

4:00 ~ 4:30pm
Another small historic point of my life – shaved my head bald.
Asked Hj. kassim Zainal of Padang Jawa the favour of doing it for me, as he did quite good shaves for a few of us.
Being bald is quite cool I might say. For over 20 years of my life, no hair on top of my head.
My head feels a bit ‘tight’ from the shave. No olive oil (even better, gamat) available, so I just leave it like that.
It’s kinda feel nice to play with my shaven head, stroking it back and forth. Haha…

7:30pm
After isya, went out to jamrah, for melontar the 3 jamrah.
Started out from jamrah al ula, followed by wusta and qubra.
Jamrah al ula is marked as ‘sughra’, thus leading to a slight confusion to the hajjs. So we had to ask around and make sure that it is the correct jamrah (al ula).

As the night before, after isya is not quite busy around the jamrah. It is just that to get to the jamrah is quite tough. People (thousands of them) are sitting outside doing their mabit.
Mabit in Mina is a must (wajib) for hajj works. It is required for everyone to be in Mina for half a night, every night during the 11th, 12th and 13th of zulhijjah.
Melontar can only start after fajr, so, these people outside are doing their mabit and waiting for fajr. After that, they’d scurry to the jamrahs for melontar of the next day.
Many I know also do commute from Makkah to Mina everyday.
They’d go back to Makkah and stay there for the day after melontar, and come back to Mina at night for mabit, wait for fajr and melontar for the next day.

Naza had gastric since we were in Arafah. Still she did her melontar, although with her condition, she could opt for having me doing it on her behalf. After melontar, I and Naza went to Tabung Haji mobile clinic at neighbouring maktab 103. Naza got her zellox for her gastric.