Where's The Love?

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My turn for Hajj insya Allah will be in 12 years, performing Hajj is something that generally every Muslim yearns for; explaining the increasing amount of time you have to wait for your turn. Though I had not experienced Hajj yet alhamdulillah Allah had blessed me with the chance of performing umrah a few years ago with my parents. Every year when hajj season approaches, I will keep updated with any related news. When I read the news about the recent stampede tragedy, somehow it reminds me of an incident during my visit to Madinah.

I remember visiting Qubaa Mosque when I was in Madinah. When we arrived, the mosque was not crowded; we could enter the Mosque with ease. Finding a spot to pray Sunnah was also not a problem. After praying we headed to the exit, and much to our surprise it was crowded. People were pushing each other, some aimed to leave and some aimed to enter. It was such a chaos. Mind you the entrance cum exit is quite spacious. Somehow no one wanted to give way to each other. I tried to get pass the crowd, there’s no way I could leave it seems if I don’t push my way into them. I held my stepmom’s hand to avoid being separated. My body frame is considered big for a Malay woman, but I found myself being pushed and almost fell to the ground. I tried to maintain my stability as I believe if I did fall, people will step on me. Anyhow, alhamdulillah we managed to get out. My hijab was almost pulled to the back. Fortunately we did not lose any belonging during the incident.

We shook our head in disbelief as we walked towards the bus. I really can’t comprehend why people would go to such lengths to grab the fadhilat of Sunnah yet putting other people in danger. Is there any way I could avoid pushing my way into the crowd as well? Am I partially responsible too? How and who should start fixing the mess? So many unanswered questions going on in my mind. And it still remains unanswered until today. Small incident maybe, yet it reflects the situation of the whole ummah I think. Maybe it’s about failure to weigh the priorities, maybe. Which I myself am still struggling with it, miserably.