Goodbye Madinah See You Next Year, Say Pilgrims While Bidding Tearful Adieu
Image Caption: Haj pilgrims throng the courtyards of the Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah. – SPA photo
By Hassan Al-Najrani
Okaz / Saudi Gazette
MADINAH — A number of pilgrims cried their heart out while leaving Madinah for their respective homes by waving their farewell to the Prophet’s Mosque, while hoping to come again many times in the future.
Governor of Madinah Prince Faisal Bin Salman, who inspected the pilgrims’ reception and departure points on Monday at the end of the Haj season, reiterated that the Kingdom would provide the best of services to the guests of God and will always welcome them warmly.
“The success of the Haj season was within the Kingdom’s minute organization plans which enabled the pilgrims to do their rites in ease, peace and comfort,” he said.
Prince Faisal inspected the arrival and departure air and land points of the pilgrims in Madinah as part of his pro-Haj activities and said the Kingdom, its leaders and people are ever proud to serve the guests of God.
A total of 140,640 pilgrims visited the Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah after completion of their Haj rituals. Of the total pilgrims arrived in Madinah, 32,034 left the Kingdom for their homeland, according to the figures released by the Private Organization for Guides.
About 25,279 arrived in Madinah on Monday while another 19,922 pilgrims left the city on the same day, and these included 9,433 pilgrims who left by land. About 24 pilgrims were hospitalized at various hospitals in Madinah, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
Meanwhile, the number of pilgrims departing the Kingdom through Prince Mohammed Bin Abdul-Aziz International Airport here since the commencement of the departure phase has reached 18,741, departing on board 155 flights. The airport in cooperation with the airport operator and the agencies working at the airport had prepared an advance plan for departing passengers in order for them to leave in an easy and convenient matter after performing their rituals.
It was not easy for the pilgrims to leave Makkah and Madinah, Islam’s two holiest shrines, and it pained them to have a final look at the Kaaba in Makkah and the Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah.
“The farewell is saddening. I feel excruciating pain in my heart to leave Makkah and Madinah after the Haj but we must go back home,” said Wafa Mustapha, a 64-year-old Egyptian woman pilgrim.
She also bade farewell to the staff of the hotel in which she stayed and said she had spent the best time of her life in this hotel near the Prophet’s Mosque. “I am already missing these places. I pray to Allah to enable me, my husband and children to do the Haj many times in the future,” she said.
Mustapha said this was the first time for her to do the Haj and was very much impressed by the consummate organization. “There was no over crowdedness or chaos. It was really a very easy Haj,” she said.
She said the smiling faces of the Saudis and their generous hospitality in providing the pilgrims with food and drinks free of charge 24 hours a day made the Haj an enjoyable exercise.
Abdul Hameed Farghali, another Egyptian pilgrim, said he felt that part of his soul was torn out of his body when he was getting ready to leave Madinah. “My departure back home is a journey from the world of spirituality to the material world,” he said. He added the most difficult moment for him was when he offered his last prayer in the Prophet’s Mosque and climbed the bus to take him to the airport.
A number of Egyptian women pilgrims expressed the same sentiments and said while they were sad to leave the Prophet’s city, they were happy that they had done the Haj.
Meanwhile a number of pilgrims were keen to take memorial photographs with the Saudi women health volunteers who performed their humanitarian work during the Haj especially at the Jamarat area.
About 400 medicine student girls from various universities in the Kingdom volunteered within the Health Ministry to provide medical services to the pilgrims. “They are really messengers of peace and humanity,” a pilgrim said.
(Source: SaudiGazette.com.sa)