It was the year 1990 and the month was July. That was when my husband and I performed our first Haj. Our daughter was only 6 years old and Azman was 3. It wasn't easy to leave our little kiddos behind for 53 days but we did and it's not easy. Thanks to my sister in law Shamsiah for taking care of our children. Without her, it will be difficult for us. She is such a lovely and caring person.
July is the draught season for Mekah and Madinah. I remember getting off a fully air conditioned bus which stopped for a break at an R &R. It was like someone just opened an oven door in you face!! MasyaAllah the heat, no words to describe it. But we survived. Mostly because we were young. In fact we were one out of three young couples in the Muasasah group! The rest were pensioners ages from 50 onwards and of different backgrounds. Some were rubber tappers, fishermen, farmers and so on. That time it only cost us RM5000 each and upon arrival at Jeddah, they gave us RM350. But look at the price now,,,double!!.Wow.....just imagine how many years the people with the mentioned background need to save to perform haj. Unbelievable!!
Despite of the heat, we still managed to fulfill all the obligations without any problems. We were happy and proud that we managed to help others whenever needed. In 1998, when the economy was down, my husband and I performed our 2nd Haj. This time only 2 weeks. Alhamdulillah we did it. We were thinking of going again for the 3rd time in 2007 to experience the cold weather in holy land but we had to wed our daughter. So we have to put it off and still waiting patiently for a chance to revisit. We miss Mekah and Madinah very much. May Allah invite us again. InsyaAllah.
