It's that "preparing to meet the King" thing. Here's the deal, ihram is bit like reaching sea level from a submarine. If you just open the hatch, you'll explode from the pressure changes, so you really need to decompress first. Or maybe it's like working in a toxic area and then coming out—you have to decontaminate.
Anyway it feels to me like it must be a BIG deal. Not just a bath and intentions for ablutions. Then there's the dreadful dreadlock wash. This will be my last time. After seven years of growth, I plan to cut them off after hajj.
Normally they only want women to cut off a symbolic few centimeters, but I wanted to let them go anyway, and this seems like the way to do it. I hear some pretty radical things about the decision cut the dreadlocks from women who've done it. It's cathartic. One sister said all my pain went with my locks. I'm hoping something will go with mine.
I was really getting into my preparations and feeling ready for the King, when my daughter called stranded somewhere. No need to get in a tizzy, I thought to myself; all of this is part of the process. So with hair still wet I went out in the dark to pick her up. I had that one-on-one with at least my three eldest, and it was as wonderful as they are. Then in the car my daughter told me something she had been holding back for a few years, and that was enough for what I had planned. Even now, some of the disclosures of my children weigh on my heart.
But true to her wisdom, my youngest also reminded me of something. Although it is true that I travel a lot, this is one trip I am taking because I want to. It may be hard to imagine that I have been to 40 countries, but each time it was work-related; I have never gone to another country just for vacation and never gone to another country as a spiritual retreat. This makes this visit to the King all the more special.
So, in case you are waiting for the details about negotiating my ihram, I was too excited to wait or even to pick out something to wear after all that attention to white clothes, so I decided after my ritual bath I would just stay in ihram until after the first part of my visit, which will be umrah. Mercifully, daylight savings time put the regular fajr prayer within reach before departure to the airport-I had already been up for two hours by then. I prayed the recommended two rakat followed by the niyyah du'a first, that is to recite my intention to make hajj tamattu.
From that moment on, I recited the recommended supplications or du'a. My middle daughter came to drive me to the airport, and despite stripping down to a short white scarf at security I still got the extra pat-down. It wouldn't be home if I didn't, I guess. But then this too is part of the process. Next note from Makkah!
December 1, 2010—The Journey Begins and Ends
There are three separate flights for me to arrive in KSA. The first flight, from my home airport, is the departure spot, so saying farewell is emphasized. I don't like to say goodbye and rarely do I have anyone to see me off. I always feel some finality in this, so I prefer to make any comments about when next I will see a person in the days before departing, and then I go to the airport alone. Leaving Indonesia, I was blessed with the local option: there was a party of people at my house that day and two carloads came to the airport. I am touched by this. Overwhelmed in fact, because I don't know what to do with all these people.
As I mentioned, my original itinerary allowed me to fly direct from SFO to Paris. This new itinerary had me stop in another U.S. city first. Think about this—after all the excitement to get started with this once-in-a-lifetime journey, to stop again in the U.S. is the worst kind of interim re-routing. I mean, am I on my way? Are we there yet?
But the Charles de Gaulle airport, which is the transit spot to Jeddah—now that is really something. First of all, there will be other pilgrims there and the ihram has to be taken up, either here at the airport or on the plane itself. When we leave the ground, our next landing will be the goal of the journey, the destination. That makes a difference. In one sense, when I depart I am going toward this goal; but I travel alone, and in Atlanta, for example, no one really knows why I am wearing white. It's just an outfit. But when you're together with others in white-and particularly the men in their two unstitched white cloths --- there at the waiting area for the flight to Jeddah, you're visibly traveling for hajj. I am with them. They are with me, and we are part of what will eventually swarm to three million persons!
But others travel to Jeddah too on this flight, including Muslims and non-Muslims. Jeddah is a port city; and as the major airport hub for Saudi Arabia, this flight has all types. Now, I've been on many planes, but this is the first time I've been on a plane where 50 percent of the seats are business- and first-class. Sort of gives you an idea who comes to the Kingdom, among Muslims and non-Muslims alike: big business. Okay, so the flight is not exclusive to hajjis, but when we arrive they announce for us hajjis to remain on the plane and disembark last. Let the other passengers, many whom will transfer to domestic flights, get off first.
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