My trip to Makka this year so different to all the ones I did before. Maybe because I was totally on my own! Maybe because I did the processions at night and when I finished by three in the morning I was too tired to sleep so I got to thinking! I should be stopped from thinking these days as I go so deep into the matter like the mind of the researchers or even deeper.
I need to provide you with some details on what we do when we go for pilgrim. We start with the "neiah" which is the intention to go for pilgrim. Then we must do a special shower and read some sort of prayor. Thirdly when we reach we must do seven rounds of walks around Kaaba followed by a short prayor then seven rounds of long step walk between the two mountains Safa and Marwa then we go again for seven rounds around Kaaba and a prayor and that's it. No big deal. No fuss. After that one can either stay there or go to the hotel.
Even before I went to pilgrim the first time which was many many years ago I was always wondering about the number seven. I didn't know why in Islam number seven is so unique. We have seven heavens and seven earths. Seven rounds for everything that we do in haj and seven of many things that it's not enough to talk about in this short blog. But for the keen researchers I am sure it will be a very interesting find.
I went deep into finding out more about the pilgrim and not only in the processions themselves. And what I found is so romantic.
Prophet Ibraham took his wife and son Ismail and left them in a valley with no plants and no water. The wife was stunned when she saw him going on his camel and turning back to Palestine. Are you leaving us alone in this valley? There is nothing for us here? He kept quite and prayed to God to keep them safe and bring to them lots of people.
So Hajar (the wife) felt sad and worried about the little child who was screaming of hunger! So she heard a voice coming from one of the mountains. She ran to it then she heard the echo from the other mountain and she ran to it. She did that "seven" times and while she was running back and forth and again checking on her son who was kicking the ground with his little foot while crying and the ground burst with water. So she washed his face and drank from the water which made her be able to breastfeed him. She stayed there for a while till the tribes of that area who commute between Syria and Yemen for trade passed by and started to stop there and feed their animals and the valley was inhibited.
Years later Prophet Ibraham was visiting the wife and the son who by that time had grown to a nice young man. They started to build Kaaba. One night came the dream. Prophet Ibraham saw that he gives his son as a sacrifice to God. And when he wanted to tell his son satan was stopping him so he took stones and hit him seven times to push him away. Then again satan came and so the seven stones continued the second time and the third time. When the prophet reached to where the son was and told him about the dream. The son said that Ibraham must concur to the dream. Then when he was going to sacrifice the son God stopped him and said that I know that you are a believer and here is a goat to sacrifice for me instead of the son.
Basically millions of Muslims around the world go to Haj each year because of a woman and a dream.
God almighty is telling us something here. We Should never underestimate women nor should we underestimate our dreams.
But number seven is still a mystery to me