To be in a state of Ihram means conducting yourself a certain way before undergoing the pilgrimage; no cursing, quarreling, etc. Men wear Ihram clothing made of two pieces of towel-like material. In the Ihram clothes one cannot distinguish a rich man from a poor man, an educated man from an uneducated man, everyone stands equal before God.
Makkah is the holiest city in Islam and the most sacred site in Makkah is the Masjid al-Haram, the world's biggest mosque, and the Kaaba built by Abraham (yes the same Abraham from the Bible) and his son Ishmael
King Fahad's Gate - Yeah I don't know who he is either.
Minarets
Left Side
A front view of the Kaaba. As you can see it's big.
The three lighted horseshoe area is the al-Hatim. We prayed here after performing Tawaf.
The little gold canister looking thing in front of the Kaaba is called The Station of Abraham and holds his footprints.Look at all the people. I can't imagine what it's like during Hajj.
A classic pic. The Kiswah is the black covering over the Kaaba. It's made of black silk and the embroidery is done with gold plated thread. The estimated value of the Kiswah is $5,000,000 (yes MILLION) and its replaced annually! I want to know what they do with the old ones.
You can feed a lot of people with that money.
Across the top is the Shahada and other text from the Koran.
All those columns and arches and that's just one little side.
The back of the Masjid.
You can find Zamzam water throughout the mosque, but people take gallons of it from the back. Notice the guy with two huge blue jugs. My parents and I only took three water bottles, one for each of us.We don't need a year's supply of Zamzam.
Do you know the history behind Zamzam water? I know it's holy and respect it but I'd like to find out more.
ReplyDeletei mentioned the history i knew about it in my makkah entry when i wrote about performing sa'i.
ReplyDeleteother than that it has continued to flow after thousands of years and there's no signs of it drying up anytime soon. its well water and unfiltered and said to have healing properties.
I love the pictures....
ReplyDeletedid u take them?
also, the piece about the bengali workers was very interesting, i didnt even know that. My dad went to hajj, for the second the past year, and i never asked him about his trip. will do now!
it's funny because he brought back so much zam zam pani. for family and friends. Is there a different taste in the zam zam water after u bottle it?
:D
thank you. i did take the pictures. wow you father went for hajj twice! we have the bottles above our refrigerator, but i haven't drank from it since we bottled it. i think zamzam pani has a diff taste in general. from the well it's so cold and refreshing.
ReplyDeletethe history is, one of the prophet (forget the name right now, sorry. i will find out soon), as a kid was crying for water in the dessert. his mom was running back and forth btw two mountains to look for some water for him, but couldnt find ne. and the prophet started stomping his feet and water started coming out of that place. and now its zam zam well. our holy water. the is the only well, in a dessert, that hasnt dried and probably wont ever. supposedly the water is a bit salty, and has more mineral.
ReplyDeleteammu says every muslim should hv some zam zam water in their house. dont know the reason....
just read the next part. ur wrote it. hazrat Ismael :)
ReplyDelete