Month: September 2025

Summary:

In this video, Alban Fejza explains where the Ihram should be put on before entering Mecca for Hajj and demonstrates how men and women wear it.

Video Transcript:

Praise be to God. There is no other God except God. So in the previous Friday sermon titled my 2025 Hajj travel checklist, I mentioned that one of the items that I need to prepare for Hajj is theam. And in this video, I’m going to show you how to wear it. But before I do that, let me first talk about where to wear it. Theam should be worn before you enter the borders seen in this map. These are the borders of the Mecca state. And what I mean by Mecca state is that in a more advanced world, Arabia would be a democratic country like Italy is today. And then Mecca, this region of Mecca will be a religious state separate from Saudi Arabia, just like the Vatican is a religious state separate from Italy. Now, traditionally when you enter this region for Hajj or Umrah from any of these borders, you are supposed to wear the before you enter. However, one of those borders entrances extends all the way to the sea. And there was a general consensus since before, during and after Muhammad that people who come from the sea should first step on land and then wear the am because it would be uncomfortable and unreasonable to change your clothes in a moving ship where you might not even have sufficient privacy. But then the question is where should you wear the Aram if you land in this region from the air with an airplane? Well, we can reach the conclusion about this from the Quran. The Quran in verses 3512, 55:19, and 2553 mentions only two seas. The Quran does not mention five oceans, for example, like they teach you in geography courses because according to the Quran, correctly. So, the so-called oceans are just one continuous body of water that makes just one sea. But where is the other sea then? The other sea according to the Quran and the Bible is the atmosphere. It is called the upper sea which is separated from the lower sea by evaporation. The atmosphere also contains water which is why it can be considered the sea. The Bible in its first chapter also mentions this idea of the two seas. The lower sea the oceans and the upper sea the atmosphere. And once we realize that the atmosphere is one of the seas, we realize that the Quran whenever it mentions ships, it also talks about airplanes as just one of the ship versions because the airplanes float in the upper sea just like ships float in the lower sea. For example, in verse 55:24, God says that to him belong the ships which are elevated high like mountains. Obviously this also refers to airplanes because they are elevated high like mountains and they fly or float in the waters of the atmosphere. So this means that what traditionally applied to ships in in relation to it applies to airplanes as well. And this means that we should wear theam after we land on the Mecca state. Just like for centuries, the people who went to Mecca on ships were their am after they landed in Jedha. Let me use another example to explain why this makes sense. Let’s say if you travel to Moscow, Russia, for example, when the plane enters the atmosphere, the atmosphere above Russia, they do not check your passport up there in the air while still on the airplane. First, the airplane lands and then they check your passport at the airport inside Russian land. But if you travel there with a car through land, first you show your passport and then they they let you enter Russia. And the same logic applies to. If you travel with an airplane or ship, first you land and then you wear theam. But if you travel through land, first you wear theam and then you enter the Mecca state. Unfortunately, the Saudi religious authorities reached the wrong conclusion about this issue without any basis in the Quran or even in their hadith. They apply the rule of the land to the case of the airplanes instead of applying the rule of the ships to the case of the airplanes. So they actually require you to wear theam before you land there at the Jada airport. This is a requirement with no basis, but I plan to obey it regardless because it is such a small price to pay to be able to per perform such an important religious ritual like Hajj. God willing, one day this will be corrected and they will have changing rooms at the Jada airport for people to wear theirs. But for now, let’s just wear the before we land at the Jada airport. You can wear it at home before you leave or you can wear it at the last airport before you fly to Jedha. The airports have bathrooms after you pass security when you wait at the boarding gate for the airplane. So you can just use the bathroom to remove your clothes and wear the air. So here is what I plan to do. I take a shower at home and then I wear the air either at home or at the airport bathroom. So now here is how I wear my ear. I take my pants, my t-shirt, and the undershirt off. I’m not going to do it here on video, of course, because it would not be modest, but you can just imagine that I removed my clothes. By the way, I plan to leave my underwear on and wear theam on top of the underwear. Traditionally, people used to wear the aam without underwear, but this is actually not religious requirement at all. The purpose of the Aram is so that people cannot see the shape of your body. Which is why is supposed to be a simple fabric which has not been sewn together with other fabric because suing them is what enables you or the or the factories to shape them according to the shape of your body. So ultimately what makes theam a trueam is not allowing the others to see the shape of your body and whether you wear underwear underneath the iram or not that should not make a difference in revealing the shape of your body. In fact for people of the modern world it is better to have underwear underneath the aam because we do not have very sophisticated privacy protection habits. We are not as careful in how we sit in different situations for example and we wouldn’t want to flash somebody by accident while we are sitting to eat for example or maybe while we are standing up and someone accidentally steps on our aam and it falls off that would be totally embarrassing for you and for the other person. So to avoid such an accidental situation where the aam might fall off it’s better to have underwear. By the way, even Jesus wore an undergarment. And if underwear was not too unholy for Jesus, the definitely are not too unholy for us either. But bedwins at the time of Muhammad did not have underwear, but they did not have underwear even when they were not going to Hajj. And that is because they had mastered the art of not wearing underwear in the desert since their childhood. They were taught by their parents how to be mindful about how they sit and in what positions they eat when and where they eat and in what positions to sleep and so on. But for people of the modern world like us who typically wear underwear, underwear is a better method of protecting us from the unintentionally from unintentionally revealing our private parts during the whole hutch process. For women, if they wear underwear, it’s important that they do not exaggerate some certain shapes of their bodies. Now, what does the Quran tell us regarding how to wear the Before we go there, let’s first take another example with which we are familiar to understand the logic easier. For example, what does the Quran tell us about how to use a fork? Basically only one verse in the Quran advises us about this. Verse 6 141 tells us not to waste the food. So just don’t drop the food outside of your plate when you use the fork because when because then it might be unclean to eat it and it goes to waste. So basically the only rule in the Quran about how to use a fork is to simply make sure not to drop the fruit. It doesn’t matter if you hold the fork like this or like this or may or like this or with your left hand like this and so on. Just don’t drop the food. In a similar way, the only rule in the Quran about how to wear the is just don’t drop theam. Don’t let it fall off from your body. It doesn’t matter if you hold it with your hands or use this method or that method or use a belt. There are no specific rules as long as you don’t let it fall off. And this rule is given to us in verse 727. It says, “Oh children of Adam, do not let the devil dupe you as he did when he caused the eviction of your parents from paradise and the removal of their garments to expose their bodies. So just don’t let the devil expose your body in public. So which one of the many available methods of wearing the am you use is not important. As long as you do it in a way where you feel comfortable that it will not fall off. So here is one of the methods which I use. I take the aram. Here it is. I put it behind my body. I spread it like this. And then I grab with my right hand all the way to the corner. All the way to the corner. But with my left hand, I don’t need to go all the way to the corner. Just somewhere here. So, I tuck the right side underneath like this. Make sure I pull tight. And then the other side on top. And then I roll it as far as it goes. Like this. And then to make sure that it doesn’t fall, I roll it down on all sides. Like that. If it feels tight, you’re doing it well. And there we go. And then I can test it if if it’s going to fall. Look, I’m pulling really hard. It’s not going to fall. So yeah, that’s the method I use. Or God willing, this time I also plan to use a belt. So, what I can do is put a belt, an inram belt, put it like this, and then for to be extra modest, I’m actually going to cover the belt. I’ll I’ll cover the belt with the ear. There we go. So, yeah, that’s it for the lower ARM. Very simple. Now for the upper body aam there are quite a few methods basically you just do it like a shawl like a winter scarf. You put it around and then you throw one side on top of the other like that at the back of your body. And that’s it. And even though I did it like a scarf because it’s much wider than a scarf, it kind of covers all my upper body. And this method is actually useful when you are not very active. If you are in a situation so when you want to be more active, what you can do is in instead of throwing this up like this, you put your shoulder out and then you throw it. In this way, you have extra mobility or you can do the prayer or you can walk around or even run. This has extra mobility. Or if it’s really hot and sunny outside and you have no protection, no umbrella and let’s say you want to do the prayer and you cannot hold the umbrella and you need your head to be protected from the sun. What you can do is just put it like this and then just put these two sides like that and that’s it. So now you’re protect pro protected from the sun. Some people think that we shouldn’t cover our head during Hajj. However, that rule only applies to you wearing an extra hat or an extra cap. But if you use the Aram itself to cover your head, that is totally fine. You can and if it’s really really hot and and in a dry desert climate, what you can do is sprinkle some water in the it’s actually going to really keep you cool. And that’s it. The upper air and the lower Aram. Now for women, women don’t wear a by the way. women wear a modest dress. For example, my wife plans to wear this dress. It’s a very simple black dress. It can be I would recommend that it is either black or gray or white because those are neutral colors which are more modest. And then so she plans to wear this before we go to Saudi Arabia. And then on the plane when we are about to reach Saudi Arabia, before we land, she plans to wear the headscarf as well. What they call the hijab. It’s a simple it’s a simple headscarf. So she plans to put it on her head. That’s it for women. So this is all you need to know about or the models dress for women.

Summary:

In this video, Alban Fejza goes through his checklist of items to prepare for his 2025 Hajj journey, explaining what each item is for.

Video Transcript:

Praise be to God. There is no other God except God. Are you planning to travel for Hajj pilgrimage during this year? If yes, let me give you a helpful checklist about what items to prepare for your travel. I titled this video my 2025 Haj travel checklist because this is my checklist for this year and some of these things might not necessarily apply to you or in another year. So, it’s not a one-sizefitsall type of video, but it’s very helpful to give you ideas about what might apply to you. Then, based on your own circumstances or depending at what time in the future you are going to Hajj or from which place you are going to Hajj, you might have to remove some things or you might have to add some things. Nevertheless, this is a good starting point to just give you a general idea about what you have to prepare for the Hajj travel. So, here is my checklist. You can take a screenshot of it to use it to doublech checkck what you might want to prepare for your Hajj. Now let’s go through all the items in the checklist one by one. Passport check. Umra visa check.

Phone check. Airplane ticket check. I saved it on my phone so that I can access it even without internet. Reserved hotel name and address. Check. I also have it saved on my phone. Very important. So that when you go to Saudi Arabia, you can tell the taxi driver where to send you. Next item, wallet, check, about $300 cash for emergency purposes and food, plus the credit card. You might need more money if you haven’t paid your hotel room or some other payment yet. Iram checkram is basically two very big white towels. Today they mostly come in similar sizes with very slight variations. I’m quite also I went for the ones which are 45 in by 90 in which is 114 cm by 228 cm. But any of the sizes on the market will probably work for anyone. I also got one which is not too thin so that the shape of my body cannot be seen through it but also not too thick because it would take too much space in my luggage. I tell you how to wear the amam in another Friday sermon video titled how to wear theam. If you are a woman, you have to wear a modest dress instead of anam. Next item belt foram. Check. Not necessary, but I wasn’t so comfortable without it last time when I went to Hajj. So, I plan to use it this time because it’s not easy to find it in the market. God willing, I am bringing one for free for each submitting man who is coming to Hajj with us during this year. When we get there, God willing, I’ll give you one. Phone charger, check. Travel adapter, check. In Saudi Arabia, they have type G sockets like this, which are the same as the ones they use in UK. I have an international one here, which includes the UK plug type. That should do the job. If you really can’t find one, you can coordinate with your hotel roommate to see if you can share one or you might have to use your phone less during Hajj to make sure that you have enough battery for emergency purposes. Underwear, check. Undershirts. Check. Three shirts or t-shirts. Check. The one which I’m wearing, of course, and two extra ones. Pants like this. Check. Just the ones which I am wearing should be enough. I wanted to get better ones which I have, but they don’t fit me comfortably anymore. I have gained some weight. So, I’m settling for these jeans. Not the best option, but they are allowed. I only need one pair by the way because most of the time I will be wearing the aam, God willing. Next item, toothbrush, check. Toothpaste, check. They don’t allow toothpaste which are bigger than 100 ml at the airport. I got one which is only 20 ml here. If you can find a small one like this, then you can take chewing gum which refreshes your breath. This is only important because we will be sitting near the other people that are at the sacred masjid and we don’t want to make it unpleasant for others if our breath smells bad. Next item, backpack check. Now I won’t need this when I and it is not recommended when I visit the sacred masjid because it takes too much space in a crowded place. So God willing I will leave it in the hotel room during the visits to the sacred masjid and Safa and Marba which are indoors environments and I will take it when we go to Arafat Musa and Mina which are outdoors environments. It will be very useful there to carry food and water and other necessary things. Next item, carry-on baggage. Check. It’s smaller than 55 cm by 40 cm by 23 cm so that it can fit in the overhead cabin in the airplane. In this way, I don’t have to pay extra at the airport for the luggage. Plus, more importantly, I do not have to wait for my luggage at the airport when I get to Jeda. Next item, sandals. Check. These are my sandals. My Crocs. They are just about within the religious requirements because they do not cover my heel and my ankle. I had these already, which is why I’m taking them. They might not be perfect for stepping on hot pavements in the desert, but I will take my chances this time in case they don’t work perfectly. I can stay more under the shades. Sun UV umbrella check. It’s hard to find this umbrella in the markets outside of the American online markets like Amazon. So for those who do not live in the US, God willing, we will bring a free umbrella for everyone when we meet you there, God willing, we’ll give every submitter an umbrella like this. And last but not least, coupon for animal sacrifice. So the way it is set up today is that I bought the coupon for the animal sacrifice online and then this authorized the agencies which are appointed by the Saudi government to sacrifice a sheep on my behalf and distribute it to the poor. They can do it anytime even before I travel for Hajj and that is fine as long as it is done before I finish Hajj. They already sent me the confirmation that they did complete the animal sacrifice. So I’m good to go in this aspect and that’s it. These are the things which I have prepared for my Hajj travel God willing. And now let me remind you about the most important one. Verse 197 in chapter 2 of the Arabic Quran tells us to take provisions for the Hajj travel which are these or others. But it also tells us that the best provision is righteousness. So righteousness is what you should truly care about when you go to Hajj. Now when I get there to Mecca, I plan to buy food, water, and the prayer mat. I don’t need the prayer mat when I visit the sacred mazjid and Safa and Marva because it is indoors, clean and nicely paved. But the prayer mat will be helpful when I go to Arafat, Musalifa, and Mina because those are outdoors environments. And there in addition to using it for the contact prayer, I can also use it to sit and rest on it to protect myself from the potentially scorching rough ground when I sit. So these were my Hajj preparations for this year and may God bless your Hajj travel if you intend to go.