Friday, June 19, 2015

BROTHER ALI TWEETS ABOUT HAJJ

AMERICAN MUSLIM HIP-HOP ARTIST BROTHER ALI TWEETS ABOUT EXPERIENCING HAJJ FOR THE FIRST TIME AND WHAT HE SAYS WILL BLOW YOU AWAY (2010)





-Most challenging experience of my life, my Hajj is complete. Just said farewell to Allah's house in Mecca. Cairo for a day, then home. 

-I Lived in two pieces of simple white cloth,slept in tents and on the ground, visited the most ancient symbols of spiritual oneness. 

-I prayed and meditated on the plane where humanity will be gathered for the day of atonement. 

-I slept in the dirt on the plane where the first man and woman descended from heaven and created humanity. 

-I stoned the Jamrat, the ancient symbols of the devil to commemorate my rejection of my ego, greed, lust, anger, etc. 

-I visited the home, mosque and grave of our beloved Prophet Muhammad in the illuminated city of Medina, established by the first Muslims. 

-The Hajj is extremely difficult and grueling. There were funerals at all five of our daily prayers for 3 weeks without exception. 

-There were somewhere between 3 and 5 million pilgrims from every country performing the same rites at the same time. 

-You Literally get caught up and carried by the crowd of humanity. Terrifying, humbling and beautiful experience. 

-Met some of the most beautiful people of my life and some really troubled ones. Imperfect people united by a perfect system. 

-That's the most reflective and naked I've ever been. Tears of joy, repentance and immense gratitude.

-To be in place with millions of people with all the commotion and hear it get dead silent for prayer and all you hear is wind and birds. 

-I got lost in the tent city of mina with no phone,no cars, no guides and no one speaks english. Didn't know if I'd ever find my group. 

-I walked for 8 straight hours with no idea where I was going. I have blisters covering the bottoms of both feet. Still performed my rites. 

-While living in our tents, it rained for two days in a row. Scary thing in the desert where it never rains. 

-I never believed that you could go to place and feel the presence of God until this. Its tangible in the air.

-You can taste it. -The feeling of true brotherhood is electric in the holy precincts. Even the police are bound by it. 

-People come from every corner of the world. Many on foot from africa and eastern europe. You see people on canes and crutches. 

-People spend months walking thousands of miles and sleep in the streets. Other pilgrims feed and look after them. 

-Saw a family with kids and the parents were sharing a pair of shoes. Went into a store to buy some things and a stranger picked up my bill. 

-I've had some very low, dark moments in my life but it hit me on this trip that I Literally have received everything I've ever prayed for. 

-I was challenged in every imaginable way. This has been the greatest exercise in patience I could imagine. I'm so very grateful. 

-After loosing my father, my friend and making this pilgrimage all in 3 months, if you don't believe in God, let love be your god. 

-Please don't assume you know Islam because of what you've heard. I've practiced Islam for 17 years and didn't truly understand until now.




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