Makkah Day I - Shadada (To Witness)

"There is no God, but Allah and Muhammad (pbuh) is his prophet."
I first said these words when I was eight years old in my American accented Arabic. My declaration of faith to Islam, Shahada, little then did I know the magnitude of these words.

I performed the first part of Umrah, Tawaf, circling the Kaaba seven times. I felt a sense of unity circling the Kaaba with hundreds of other Muslims. A pocket formed in the crowd and I moved closer to the Kaaba. It seemed small to me in pictures because of its relation to the surrounding mosque, but standing in front of it, I felt this big aa*aa. I touched the Kiswah and one of the corners.

Papa almost touched the Black Stone, but ma pulled him back because of the unruly crowd around it. The reason why everyone wants to touch or kiss the Stone is because the Prophet(pbuh) kissed it. A "police" hangs suspended from the Black Stone corner like a monkey and tries to keep the crowd under control...unsuccessfully I should add.

Then, I performed Sa'i. I walked back and forth seven times between the mountains of al-Safa and al-Marwah, a reenactment of Hagar's search for water between these mountains for her baby, Ishmael. Hagar's search ended when the crying baby kicked the ground with his feet and water miraculously gushed out. This water continues to flow today and is called Zamzam and I drank it after finishing Sa'i.

I finished the last part of Umrah by getting a tiny bit of my hair cut, Halq. My mom cut my hair and I cut her hair and because the scissors were in my hand other women flocked to me to cut their hair. I cut blond hair, red hair, black hair, gray hair. The diversity of people astounded me. I was in awe of Islam's reach.

I sat out in the courtyard with my parents wallowing in the completion of our Umrah. I looked up at the Kaaba and saw the Shahada written across the top in Arabic calligraphy. It's cliche, but this was my "full circle" moment with Islam. The Kaaba is the tangible representation of the Shahada. Muslims don't worship the Kaaba, but what it represents, one God. The words I uttered as an eighth year old kid appeared in front of me now as a 22 year old woman.

To see the Kaaba up close, to witness it, was overwhelming, amazing, satisfying...beyond anything I could say or write. Like pi, it's difficult to express the infinite in the finite.