by Arifa Akbar,  January 30,  2012, The Independent

It was not the objects that I saw in and around Mecca that made my pilgrimage such an extraordinary and exhilarating experience.

I went on the hajj in 2006, and then, as now, its meaning did not lie in the physical structures in Mecca themselves – the cube-like Kaaba, or House of God, which is the centre-point of all Islamic worship; the black curtain woven with scripture that is draped across it; the ancient Black Stone encased in glass beside it; the towering pillars of the Grand Mosque that encompass it all.

It lay in the experience of being among the throbbing ocean of worshippers who were treading their way around the Kaaba in circles, like an immense whirling dervish. It was a breathtaking procession in which to be, with its sense of order, meditation and prayer, along with its frenzy, vigour and its edge of chaos. The ritualised encircling had a ferocious momentum. If you imagine a judgment day, it might look like this. READ...