His age, which exceeded one hundred and three years, was not paid between crowds exceeding 1.6 million pilgrims, to stand with the longing of Hajj Hamid Aqaba, the Eritrean on Mount Arafat, and that it is adorned by throwing stones in Mashir Menna, and he shaken off his heart the dust of the pyramid and the world, holding the threads of spirituality that swept him when he put his feet in the holy sites for the first time in his life.
Hamid was born an orphan, his father never saw, how much he says in his conversation with “Al -Sharq Al -Awsat”; He left life before he sees the light in months. More than a century lived in the profession of grazing and selling cows, in the “Heart” area located within the region of “Alasa”, west of Eritrea, without ever to the idea of performing the pilgrimage.
He says with his coherent old voice before he was prepared to throw stones at his residence in Mina’s hair: “I never thought about performing the pilgrimage … until I had this longing during the month of Ramadan, after I saw a vision asking me: (Hajj to the Sacred House of God).”
He adds, the vision was not just a transient dream, but rather a complete turning point in the course of my life; She left the passion for raising cows, drinking her milk and trading in them, and went to prepare my papers and join the Eritrean Hajj Mission, and I did not hide you.
The pilgrimage was not when I was just performing worship, but rather a change in its concepts and convictions on which he lived more than 100 years; He says: “I was praying, fasting, and sponsoring the cows, and selling it, and I do not care for anything … After the Hajj fell in my heart, I became thinking a lot: What is my destiny after this livelihood and why I have not yet performed Hajj?”
My next trip to my mother
After realizing the value of this ritual, he said: “The grace of the Hajj removed from my heart the world … I wanted to perform Hajj from my mother who was tired for me … I was conceited and busy with beasts, and now I forgot the world and I became busy with worship. His upbringing after the death of his father.
Despite its exceeding one hundred years, I did not fear the hardship of traveling or the difficulty of performing the rituals, as his experience has proven that there is no age standing in front of the will if the intention was pure, which is what he stresses in his speech saying: “It is true that I was suffering some pain in the foot and eyes …
The pilgrim’s journey began from his small village, “Heart”, then he went to the city of “Karn”, the capital of Alasa region, and from there to Asmara Airport in Eritrea, then to Jeddah via King Abdulaziz Airport.
The journey was not difficult as it was imagined, but it was as everyone describes it, “a wonderful way … Everyone was keen to serve us and facilitate our affairs. ”
Hamed did not hide his amazement from what he saw in the Holy Places, including organization, care and services, especially when throwing stones according to Hadith: “I did not expect everything to be provided and easy in this way. Huge, cold facilities despite the temperature of the weather … organization above the description. Generosity and care I have not seen before. ”
A century -old message
What Hamid Aqaba carried from feelings towards the pilgrimage journey at this age, goes beyond the immediate positions to a deep human and spiritual value, and he says it is a message from a man who exceeded a hundred, which was led by a vision in a dream to a journey I perform Hajj from my mother.
