This Talbiyah, recited by more than a million Muslim pilgrims in December 1973, marked the formal beginning of our pilgrimage. Etched in memory was the scene at the airport in Beirut, where we waited all night for our flight to Jidda in Saudi Arabia. My father and I, each clad in two pieces of seamless white cotton terry cloth, bareheaded and wearing sandals, and my sister Aisha, with only her face and hands exposed, were among hundreds similarly clad.
How spoiled we were! The thought of the African herdsmen who had walked much of the way, and the Indonesian peasant who had invested his life savings in making this pilgrimage by sea, shamed us into thanking god for the ease with which we were performing our hajj.
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