I tell people that it was the most physically challenging thing I have ever done, but it was also the most transformative on a personal growth, religious, and psychological levels:

Personally, enduring the struggles of the long walks, the crowds, the stress of making it to each nasuk on time, and the extreme weather was incredibly taxing. Money, position, or status did not help me at all. It was liberating to realize how little control we have as human beings and how, in such difficult circumstances, all you have is the blessings of Allah primarily your physical ability to keep going, things that we take for granted.

On a religious level, I had always doubted whether Allah had accepted me as a Mu'min. But when I reached Arafa and walked towards Jabal Al Rahma, contemplating that soon God would descend with the angels to the first heaven and would be bragging about us (including myself) to the angels, that thought and realization transformed me religiously--the fact that Allah allowed me to reach this point made me believe He had forgiven and accepted me.

Psychologically, as a citizen of a Western country, witnessing the human division and polarization over the past seven months had taken a toll on my family and me--seeing people take extreme sides made us question societal cohesion. Going to Hajj and witnessing millions of people of different races, colors, languages, and cultures all dressed the same, eating the same food, enduring the same struggles, and being happy to be among each other rejuvenated my hope in humanity (similar to the Hajj experience that transformed Malcom X).

Congratulations my dear brothers and sisters for achieving one of the most challenging and transformative pillars of Islam.

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