Every year pilgrims from China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan insist on visiting a cemetery in Al-Amariya District in Jeddah in the mistaken belief that Hawa – the mother of all of humankind – is buried there. They refuse to go to their home countries until they have managed to say “peace on you” to the dead and our Mother Hawa, reported Al-Madina Arabic daily. Haji Mahmoud Nimatallah from Indonesia believes that Hawa is buried at the cemetery. “I can't describe how happy I am that I'm standing inside the cemetery which has the body of our Mother Hawa. It's a dream come true. We've heard stories from our ancestors who visited this ancient cemetery. Today, we're here seeing it with our own eyes.” Muhammad Hadi, who guides Malaysian pilgrims, said that he was not taking advantage of the pilgrims' lack of knowledge. “We're not capitalizing on the ignorance of pilgrims. In fact, it's the pilgrims who asked us to bring them here because they heard stories from their relatives about this ancient cemetery.” Sheikh Abdullah San'an, professor of Qur'an studies at Jeddah Teacher College and Imam of Al-Rajhi Mosque, said that this cemetery does not have the dead body of our Mother Hawa. “To believe that the body of Hawa is lying here is wrong. Some people promote this idea among pilgrims to capitalize on it.” It's a Sunnah to visit cemeteries every year and to treat them all the same, San'an added. Pilgrims also insist on visiting Al-Rahma Mosque in Jeddah. Some believe that this is the mosque of Fatimah Al-Zahra while others believe that events involving Prophet Moses (peace be upon him) took place inside the mosque.
