New York

Final Hajj Seminar

All payments have been made...and we are all excited. The final Hajj seminar was to be held on Dec 10th 2006, however, we were contacted and asked to convene for an emergency meeting on Dec 3rd - lunch was to be served!

We all met at about 10am at Chateau Royale. The weather was mild for December, however, it was somewhat windy. We arrived on time and spend the beginning minutes mingling and getting to know some of our new friends and who we will have to spend the next three weeks with. Most of us choose the 4-in-a-room package and as such we needed to select our "family" for the next three weeks. I did not have to go through this selection process, since we were a family of four!

The Imaam arrived and began to address us. He would spend the entire day with us if he had to to get things all clarified since this will be the last meeting.

Unfortunately, he relates, we have a big problem with the visa allocation and as such, due to resulting flight cancellations, we will no longer be traveling on Dec 15th as was originally planned but we will now travel on Dec 10th!

School vacations will have to be adjusted; work vacations will have to be adjusted; Letters to employees may have to be issued.

What to do? We all looked at each other searchingly to find some acknowledgement for going forth with the change of plan.

We decided to bite the bullet and make the necessary changes and travel on the 10th as well. After all, we will have several more days to spend at Masjid-al-Haram in Makkah!

We prayed salaatul Zuhr, had lunch on Rice, lentils, chicken curry and kebabs and my family and I stayed back and assisted imaam with odds and ends till late. We prayed salaatul Asr and salaatul Maghrib and left all excited about the upcoming trip.