The Hajj Doctor

Demons live deep inside the earth’s crust, masters of our temptations and lust,’ I heard someone say. The voice sounded vaguely familiar; the words were definitely contained in a poem I wrote whilst at high school. ‘

Life is full of coincidences. Hajj awakens the eyes and the soul. It also provides answers, sometimes in remarkable ways. Perhaps it has something to do with my occupation as a doctor during this holiest of journeys where and when I have the privilege to meet the most diverse and amazing human beings.

‘There is not enough salt in the food,’ her husband complained. The two of them, together with their adult children, sat together as a family for supper. She got up and walked out of the room, out of her home, and out of decades of marital union.

I am on Arafat,‘ she said softly. I could barely hear her, but her sense of gratitude and amazement was very, very evident. ‘I should not be alive now, in fact I should have died on three occasions already,’ she continued. She came to see me in the makeshift medical tent just before Wuqoof.

The first day of Hajj was seven days away. I arrived quite late in Saudi Arabia that year and had just finished my Umrah. I proceeded to make my way to a friend’s hotel room very close by, had a shower and was ready to join my group in who had moved that same day