Glory be to the Most High

This book is a collection of inspiring stories and experiences from people who traveled to the blessed and holy city of Makkah and the Ka'bah, with beautiful photographs to go alongside them.

From the back cover: "Before you are some breathtaking experiences that, by the permission of Allah, will bring you to tears, put you on your knees, or put something in your heart".

Why First-Hand Accounts Do Something a Guide Cannot

Because the difficulty with Makkah is that everything written about it is either logistical or reverent, and neither prepares a person for what it is actually like.

What people report is rarely what they expected: the disorientation, the crowds, the moment of first sight, the thing that broke them unexpectedly on the third day. Accounts from ordinary pilgrims convey that where a guidebook cannot.

Who Reads It

Two kinds of reader, at opposite ends.

Those preparing to go, who want some sense of what awaits beyond the schedule of rites. And those who cannot go — through age, illness, cost or circumstance — for whom this is a way of being present at something they long for.

It also works well for those who have returned and find the memory fading.

Related Reading

• Hajj Made Simple — a practical step-by-step Hajj guide
• Islamic Album: Galleries of the Two Holy Mosques — a photographic album of the two Holy Mosques
• Atlas of Hajj & Umrah — the atlas of Hajj and 'Umrah