A Drummer's Testament

Chapter II-21:  The Pilgrimage to Mecca

Dangers and benefits of the Hajj; preparations; Hajj agents; foreign exchange problems; arrival at Jidda; arrival at Mecca; Arafat; Mina; Mudzalifah; Medina; Alhaji Ibrahim's piety and his feelings of pity during the Hajj; return from Mecca; greetings

• Paragraph outline and links
• Proverbs and sayings
• Dagbani words and other search terms

Contents outline and links by paragraph

Preparation

• 1.    Introduction:  Alhaji Ibrahim's experience

Agents

• 2.    agents handle passports and foreign exchange
• 3.    how agents take bribes and deceive their clients
• 4.    how agents cheat the people who go on the pilgrimage
• 5.    example:  pilgrims pay different amounts for the same services
• 6.    example:  how Alhaji Ibrahim's agent defrauded his clients for luggage costs
• 7.    example:  no one was able to recover the luggage money
• 8.    pilgrims have no strength or voice with agents; people who go should be aware
• 9.    the cheating continues in Mecca; need for money to see things; pilgrim must ignore it
• 10.  forthose who are dropped from pilgrimage:  grief, shame, debt

Anticipating the dangers of the pilgrimage

• 11.  danger of dying; leave money for family; share property in case die on the trip
• 12.  possible to die at the Kaaba, at the stone throwing, at Medina

The trip from Ghana to Jidda

• 13.  at airport, Alhaji Ibrahim is robbed in the check-in line
• 14.  customs search for foreign exchange; hiding money in a water bottle
• 15.  farewell to families; waiting
• 16.  soldiers remove people from the plane
• 17.  worries during the flight
• 18.  the long, uncomfortable flight to Jidda
• 19.  thoughts during the fligh

Jidda

• 20.  disembarkation and immigration
• 21.  the customs area; Alhaji Ibrahim's honey; the transition to the status of pilgrim
• 22.  students from Ghana help the pilgrims to find transport and lodging
• 23.  advice from the students about Jidda and the pilgrimage
• 24.  changing money
• 25.  Alhaji Ibrahim's easy situation in Jidda

Mecca

• 26.  traveling to Mecca
• 27.  arrival at lodging house in Mecca; houseowner Moro
• 28.  the charge for accommodations; some people refuse but later return
• 29.  other lodging charges for Ghanaian pilgrims
• 30.  services and transportation provided by the householder at their lodging
• 31.  advice and instructions on first visit to the Mosque
• 32.  going around the Kabba; tawaf; starting point of the pilgrimage
• 33.  Safa and Marwah
• 34.  return to the house; lodging arrangements
• 35.  eleven days in Mecca; further description of the Mosque and its dangers
• 36.  Alhaji Ibrahim finds money at the Mosque to replace the stolen money
• 37.  the luck of the found money; from God

Arafat

• 38.  travel to Arafat
• 39.  description of Arafat and lodging
• 40.  the houseowner slaughters cows for his lodgers and prepares food
• 41.  the extent of some of the sacrifices at Arafat; reflections on the poverty of Ghanaian pilgrims
• 42.  lectures about Arafat and sermons
• 43.  climbing the mountain

Muzdalifah and Mina

• 44.  travel to Muzdalifah and Mina
• 45.  the three statues at Mina
• 46.  the dangers of the stone throwing
• 47.  return to the Mosque at Mecca; removing the harami, shaving
• 48.  return to Mina; three days
• 49.  sacrifice and fasting

Medina

• 50.  farewell to the Kaaba; travel to Medina
• 51.  why and how the pilgrims visit Medina
• 52.  finding lodging; assistance from a Zambarima man
• 53.  hesitation of some in Alhaji Ibrahim's company
• 54.  description of the lodging house; anxiety about the charges
• 55.  the negotiation of the lodging charges
• 56.  the negotiations for visiting the sites in Medina
• 57.  the graves of the Holy Prophet and the Sheikhs
• 58.  the mosques of Medina; the Holy Prophet's friend Hamzah

Return to Jidda

• 59.  no plane comes from Ghana; many pilgrims finish their money and have to manage by trading and begging
• 60.  Alhaji Ibrahim's situation was better; ten days in Jidda

The return trip to Ghana

• 61.  carrying things from Jidda to Ghana; some overweight items are thrown away
• 62.  the overbooked plane; removing some passengers
• 63.  arrival at Tamale; soldiers confiscate the goods people brought back and extort money
• 64.  the corruption and cheating of Ghanaian soldiers under Acheampong
• 65.  complaints about the government's seizing of goods

Arrival home

• 66.  the guarded happiness at first after the return
• 67.  people come to give greetings; gifts; zamzam water

Reflections on the pilgrimage

• 68.  the religious benefits; inspiration of seeing the places adds to religion
• 69.  the benefits of prayers at Mecca
• 70.  the blessings of helping others or friends go to Mecca, even strangers
• 71.  Alhaji Ibrahim's conversation about being sent to Mecca by a friend
• 72.  Alhaji Ibrahim took John's picture and talked about the friendship at Mecca; the friendly social atmosphere in Mecca
• 73.  praying for a friend and good thoughts about a friend
• 74.  how friendship and love extend through generations
• 75.  friendship and patience; Alhaji Ibrahim gives John the name “Patience gets everything”; the good names and bad names of patience
• 76.  the Hajj brings thoughts of happiness and pity; despite the Holy Prophet's work, he still had to die
• 77.  people wish to return to Mecca to see more of the experience
• 78.  how Alhaji Ibrahim's life has changed; the additional respect of being Alhaji
• 79.  conclusion of the talk

Proverbs and Sayings

As for the problem of a hundred people, if you one person are going to take charge of it, you will come to face the problem on your own.

Old Dagbamba say that if something is falling from the air, nobody knows whose head it's going to land on.

Too many thoughts is sleep.

What brings fear?  It is darkness.

Prayers know where to go.

Patience gets everything.

Even if a dog goes to Hajj and comes home, its name will change.

Dagbani words and other search terms

• Places in Saudi Arabia
• Arafat
• Jidda
• Kaaba
• Marwah
• Medina
• Mina
• Muzdalifah
• Safa

• Muslim terms and figures
• Alhaji
• Allahu Akubaru
• Faatiya
• Hajj
• Hamzah
• harami
• Holy Qur'an
• Ishai
• maalams
• Magarbi
• Holy Prophet Muhammad
• Sheikh Abu Bakr
• Sheikh Umar
• Sheikh Usman
• tawaf
• zamzam

• Names
• Acheampong
• Alhaji Ibrahim Abdulai
• Alhaji Iddrisu
• Alhaji Muhammadu
• [Alhaji] Mumuni
• Alhaji Ohenedjan
• Alhaji Osmanu
• Alhassan
• Moro
• Nkrumah
• Sulemana
• Yakubu

• Miscellaneous words and idioms
• cedi
• Chimsi
• drumskins
• guinea fowl
• houseowner
• housepeople
• mother's children
• pesewas
• Yaa-Naa

• Towns and places
• Accra
• Dagbon
• Kumasi
• Savelugu
• Sunyani
• Tamale
• Yendi

• Cultural groups
• Arab
• Dagbamba
• Wangara
• Yoruba
• Zambarima