Hazia’s Reflections

One day, the moment I entered our room at Qurtuba Barakah, our roommates quickly ‘pushed’ this woman over to me. You see she was doing door-to-door selling of costume jewellery and other small items. Of course, I was ‘trapped’.

However, what seemed like an unpleasant encounter turned into a very inspiring one instead. Kak Jah, the Pattani woman, has been residing in Mecca for 23 years.

You could see many Pattani women in the Al-Haram district. They sold all sorts of things by the roadside, from telekong to nasi kerabu. Yes, a very entrepreneurial bunch indeed. Other than Arab kids, other kids performing small Haj were the Pattanies’.

The most costly item that I bought from Kak Jah was a box of ‘instant henna’ - this came in little tubes. She put it on my fingernails, drying my nails was tricky as there was no fan.

Kak Jah was sweet and had a natural glow. She spoke fluent Malay (pure Northern dialect). From merely looking at her stuff politely, I started to get more and more interested in her, especially in how she came to be there. This was the holy city we’re talking about. She had done Haj 23 times!

After graduating, she worked in Bangkok for a short while. She realised that she couldn’t do much ‘amal-ibadat’ there. Coincidentally, her acquaintance heard of a Pattani man looking for a bride in Mecca. She was given a 2-way ticket to perform Haj. No obligation, she could turn him down if she was not interested.

Her potential mother-in-law happened to like her too much and wouldn’t let her leave. So she stayed, got married and gave birth to 5 sons. Her eldest son is studying at UIA.

Also, we found out that my late grandmother’s 70 year old adopted sister was still in Mecca, she was a renowned Quran teacher there. My father has met her once during his first Haj. Kak Jah knew eactly where she lived and offered to take us to meet her. Too bad we weren’t free.

Kak Jah even offered to take me to Medinah after she accompanied me to complete my Tawaf and Saie Haji. That way my parents could go first, I couldn’t leave Mecca just yet because of ‘masalah syarie’. Meanwhile, I could stay at her place. Surprisingly, my father liked the idea but my mother dared not take the risk. I was actually curious.

My mother asked me an interesting question though. Would I consider an arranged marriage to a Mecca man? I could live in the holy city then. I left it unanswered;)