Shadiah Abdullah Saudi Gazette MAKKAH — The whole idea behind the monumental gathering at Haj is to cleanse one's soul and to ask for forgiveness from Allah Almighty and to fulfill one of the five stipulated obligations of Islam. When you go on this once in a lifetime journey (globalization and wealth allow the wealthy to go many times) one of the first thing one has to do is to leave the worldly self behind, which for many means elaborate clothes, make-up, perfume, shaving and gels for men and everything else that defines the ‘I' and the ‘me' and don the simple white garments called the Ihram. The Ihram is a symbol of purity and equality. It removes societal status and distinctions and signifies that the pilgrim is in a state of devotion. Women go into Ihram wearing their normal clothes, which should be simple covering their whole body except the face and palms. However, as many pilgrims arrive in Makkah days or even weeks in advance they are not required to wear Ihram until the actual Haj starts, and as a result the Haram Mosque, which is the focal point where all pilgrims gather, becomes like a fashion parade of traditional clothes without meaning to. From Kurdish Sherwals, Shalwar Khamis of the Subcontinent, velvet Kufieyes of Russian Muslims, Tarbouch, caftans of the Maghreb, and the Grand Boubous of Central Africa — literally every kind of traditional clothing, color, style and material was on display. One of my favorite pastimes when I was at the Haram apart from the ibadah (worshipping) was to sit back and watch in awe the various nationalities in their finery while I played guessing games of where they came from listening intently to their languages. However, the guessing game was made easy by the Haj tour operators, who had hit on the ingenious idea of branding any article of clothing of their pilgrims. One has to say that this branding business is a great idea as the pilgrims come from every place imaginable and communication is always a problem, especially when they get lost. Also, this is a good way for the pilgrims from a particular group to recognize each other among the vast crowds. So what better way than to have the operator's contact details printed on their clothes? However, the branding was not necessarily done in a drab way. Some of it was very creative and the Africans were the most vibrant and colorful, with vivid blues, purples and lilacs. Many walked tall in their indigenous clothes that were made from a cotton fabric spun locally. They wore long shirts reaching up to their lower thighs and spilt on the sides. Under them were loose pants made of matching material and print. Each country had a variety of prints that pointed to the nationality of the wearer. The Malians were wearing moss green outfits with small pictures of the yellow Malian map and the name and numbers of the Haj operator printed on it. While their women were wearing long caftans in the same print and color. The Ghanaian women were sporting polyester round billowing hijabs with lots of glitter glue-on and emblazoned on the back was a big yellow map of their country with the name of their operator. Of all the African countries, Nigeria was the most visible, just by their sheer numbers. The pilgrims had prints on their clothes that pointed to the different provinces they hailed from. From their clothes I assumed that each province had a quota for going to Haj. To differentiate themselves some of them had big patterns of their country's map inside of which were printed pictures of the Ka'aba. Other operators had eschewed printing on clothes and had instead given their pilgrims branded bags while others like the Palestinians were sporting branded apron-like jackets on top of their clothes. The Indian ladies on the other hand were wearing billowing saffron hijabs, a tribute to their nation's flag. The Indonesian women, especially the older ones, looked like adorable dolls in their white lacy long tops and hijabs under which they wore either loose white pants or long skirts. Pinned on the top of their heads were colorful bows or flowers, so that the groups could spot each other in the crowds. The Moroccans, most of whom were old, were dressed in their beautiful embroidered caftans and had different pink or blue small scarves wrapped around their necks. The Iraqi women were wearing long white one-piece prayer outfits and pinned on the back of their heads were long silk fabrics with the name of their Haj operator printed on. One of the thoughts that hit me when I was doing the Sai'e, the walk through Safa and Marwa to emulate the footsteps of Hagar when she ran between the two mountains searching for water for her child, was how diverse the Muslims were. For the groups of people of different colors, ethnicity and countries that were trotting from the end of one mountain to the other, it reminded me of an Olympic parade, albeit one with no pomp — only this time they were not representing their countries, they were there united by Islam.
