In the year 1423 Hijri (beginning 2003), I had been blessed with the opportunity to travel the Hijjaz with my wife for hajj, alhamdulillah. It all started during a weekly mesywarah (consultation) for the Kuala Lumpur region at the dakwah and tabligh centre, Masjid Jame' Sri Petaling, Kuala Lumpur. Towards the end of the mesywarah, a senior person of Tabung Haji (Malaysia's Pilgrims Management and Fund Board) stood up to give a short announcement. He announced that Tabung Haji had been given a substantial extra quota for pilgrims for the forthcoming hajj season. Those who wish to perform hajj were required to write to Tabung Haji expressing their interest including those who had not even register or not in the waiting list.. He said we could open an account for registration with Tabung Haji with minimum amount of RM10.00 and top-up the account to the required amount later. I was very excited with the news.
I told the good news to my wife and she was overjoyed with it despite she was heavily pregnant with our fourth child, Muhammad Talhah. I felt her joy since a few days earlier she had told me that she wanted to perform hajj. All these happened despite the fact that we both had no accounts in Tabung Haji and we did not have much in our savings. The next thing I knew we were queuing at Tabung Haji counter and paid RM10.00 minimum payment each to open up an account. On our payment slips, it was written the year 2012 as an auto-run queue that notified us the year that we were supposed to perform the hajj. It was indeed a long queue!
Despite a little savings that we had, my wife remains optimistic that Allah Most High would make it easy for us to perform hajj in that year. We started going for Hajj courses conducted by Tabung Haji at the nearby masjid. Soon we went for injections, medical check-ups and before we know it, it was already time for us to make the special hajj passports. All these activities went on while we did not have any idea how to raise enough fund for the journey.
Then it was time for the hajj jord or assembly in the dakwah and tabligh markaz. It was only for menfolks. We were requested to assemble from morning till zuhur for a muzakarah or discussion briefing on the effort of dakwah and tabligh during hajj at the Hijjaz. By then I had already knew my flight group - KT82 - among the later batches, and the second last group scheduled to perform ziarah first at Madinah al-Munawarrah, before going to Makkah. The muzakarah was very comprehensive and clear. I've not heard anyone talk about the real meaning of hajj as the khudama' that had been tasked to conduct the muzakarah. Unlike the courses conducted by Tabung Haji that only talked about the manasik of hajj, the muzakarah focused on the meaning and spirituality of hajj and the hajj of the Prophet sallalaahu alayhi wassalam.
And then it was time for us to settle all the RM9,500 each for the hajj cost imposed by Tabung haji for everyone going for hajj by mu'asasah or general hajj package. It was also the cheapest among the hajj packages. Truly, we managed to pay for the cost only by the grace of Allah Most High. It was inexplainable. Suffice for me to say that when Allah Most High wills, then nothing could stop His will.
