My surprise and amazement left me overwhelmed, and I could not take my eyes away from him as I slowly processed what he had just said.

“What is it you look at, Shaqīq?” he said.

“I am just deeply amazed at how far you have travelled in spite of your physical disability.”

The strong-willed man exclaimed, “O Shaqīq! My passion will bring my distant destination close. As far as being unable to walk, Allah will help me overcome this.”^[1]

سُـبْحٰـنَ الـلّٰــه O those who love Allah’s Messenger! Look at the inexplainable love and passion of this physically disabled man. Despite being totally unable to walk, he dragged himself from another country to lay his eyes upon the Kaʿbah. Ten years of his life were spent in this.

May we be granted a fraction of his love and passion! There is a great lesson in this incident for healthy Muslims who do not perform ḥajj despite being wealthy and capable enough. This physically disabled man had left his house crawling ten years prior, and his journey was still not complete. Yet, some people cannot bear to take a seated plane journey lasting only a few hours.

May we all be blessed with true yearning to perform ḥajj! May our hearts be filled with love of Allah and His Messenger, so we can practically prioritise their commands and leave everything to do obligatory ḥajj! If we have done our obligatory ḥajj, may Allah allow us to perform nafl ḥajj many times over!