FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ON UMRAH & HAJJ.
1. QUESTION: WHERE IS THE MEEQAAT AND HOW IS IT LOCATED ?
- ANSWER: Usually pilots announce on board when approaching the Meqaat. If Madina is the first or second entry point into KSA, the pilgrim can take as his Meqaat where Madina people take their Meqaat (Dhul-Hulaifa)

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2. QUESTION: HOW DOES ONE ENTER THE STATE OF IHRAM?
- ANSWER: To enter the state of Ihram, one should; Recommendations:
 I: Perform the ghusl. That is, one should take his or her bath as in Janaba.
 Shaving the hair under the armpits, the public & private & cutting the finger & toe nails before taking the Ihram are recommended.
 It is also commendable for a man to perfume his head and beard, but not the garments. The woman is prohibited from putting on perfume in the presence of men who are not her Mahram.
 Men must wear two pieces of preferably white cloth, underwear & head covering are not allowed. Footwear like slippers that does not cover the ankles can be used. Shirts, Trousers, Turbans, and perfumed garments are prohibited.
 Women may wear what they like, but must avoid using attractive clothes. Clothes that expose their shapes or those that look like men's clothes. Their face and hands should not be covered by using Niqaab and Gloves respectively.

The following should be avoided:
• Walking around with only the bottom part of the Ihram (men)
• Leaving a shoulder(s) uncovered except during Tawaaf when the right shoulder should not be covered.
• Carelessly flying part of the Ihram to cover oneself which may hit another person behind.
• Using the Ihram as a hand towel.
• Sitting carelessly and exposing ones private parts.

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3. QUESTION: WHEN IS A PERSON IN THE STATE OF IHRAM- OR WHEN IS ONE A MUHRIM?
- ANSWER: Even when dressed in the clothes of Ihram, one is not in the state of Ihram until he or She utters the Niyyah.

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4. QUESTION: WHAT HAPPENS IF A PILGRIM PASSES THE MEEQAAT WITHOUT TAKING IHRAM?
- ANSWER: Pilgrim must return to Meqaat or go to the nearest one, or perform a sacrifice of an animal as expiation.

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5. QUESTION: IS JEDDAH A MEQAAT OR NOT?
- ANSWER: It is for residents of Jeddah.

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6. QUESTION: WHAT ACTS VIOLATE THE STATE OF IHRAM & WHAT SHOULD ONE DO?
- ANSWER: A part from those stated above, the following should also be avoided:
• Wearing clothes that fit the body.
• Cutting hair and nails when in state of Ihram.
• Marrying or giving anyone else in marriage or proposing marriage.
• Any act capable of arousing sexual feeling s or indulging in any intimate relations of this kind.
• Hunting or killing of any animal.
• Any act of disobedience to ALLAH.
• Argument, disputes or quarrels, idle talk. Violating any of the forbidden acts may lead to Fidyah, that is expiation if done intentionally.

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7. QUESTION: WHAT ACTS ARE ALLOWED WHILE IN THE STATE OF IHRAM?
- ANSWER: * Wearing wristwatches, money belts, putting on eye glasses or sunglasses and hearing aids are allowed.
• Taking bath with unperfumed soap.
• Changing Ihram garments does not affect state of Ihram.
• Can use blanket to cover oneself while sleeping but men should not cover their heads.
• Repeating the Talbiyah loudly and as often as possible from entering state of Ihram to the beginning of Tawaaf is highly desirable.
A woman can repeat it loudly enough to be heard by the person next to her The Talbiyah: "LABBAYK ALLAHUMMA LABBAYK. LABBAYKA LAA SHAREEKA LAKA LABBAYK. INNAL- HAMDA WAN-NI 'MATA LAKA WA MULK. LAA SHAREEKA ALK" Here I am Oh ALLAH, here I am. You have no partner, here I am. Surely all praise, grace and dominion are yours and you have no partner.

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8. QUESTION: WHAT IS TAWAAF AND HOW IS IT PERFORMED?
- ANSWER: Tawaaf is circumbulating the Ka'aba in an anti-clockwise direction, while making dhikr, supplicating or reciting the Qur'an, while also in the state of Wudhu. Upon entering Al-Masjid Al-Haram, like any Masjid, it is recommended to recite: Arabic "Bismillah wassalatu wassalamu ala Rasoolillah, A'outhu billahil A'dtheem, WA bi waj hihil Kareem, WA Sultanihil Qadeem, min ashshaitanir rajeem. Allahumma iftah li abwaaba rahmatik. In the name of ALLAH and blessing and peace be upon the messenger of ALLAH, I seek refuge in ALLAH the Great and His Honorable face and His ancient authority from the accused Shaytaan. Oh ALLAH open for me the doors of your mercy. Tawaaf like any act of ibadah commences with the Niyah ( the Niyah is formulated in the heart and not uttered). It is important to remember that one must ensure that Umrah and Hajj like all acts of ibadah should be performed with Ikhlas and Intiba'a. That is for ALLAH alone and in accordance with the Sunnah of the Prophet (S.A.W). The Tawaaf commences at the Black stone (Hajr-al-Aswad) by kissing the Black stone if possible, touching it with the right hand, kissing the hand (Istilam), if not, facing the Black Stone and gesturing with the right hand once WIHTOUT kissing it after. Start with: BIsmillahi Wallahu Akbar. It is desired that one walks briskly – not running in the first 3 rounds (circuits) of the Ka'aba and walks normally in the remaining 4. It is not desired if this would disturb others or lead to losing those under one's care e.g women and children. Walking briskly in the first 3 circuits does not apply to Tawaaf-al-Ifadah or Nafl. When at the southern corner of the Ka'aba, the Rukn-al-Yamani, one should touch it if possible and say; ALLAHU AKBAR. If not, do not gesture towards it as in the beginning, but continue to Hajr-al-Aswad without saying "ALLAHU AKBAR". The following prayer is recited between the Rukn-al-Yamani and the Black stone: "Rabbanaa aatina fiduniya hasanatan wa fil aakhirati hasanatan wa qinaa adhaabanaar" Repeat the same as above for all the seven circuits then after, proceed to Maqaam Ibrahim and after 2 raka'at prayers.

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9. QUESTION: IS IT OBLIGATORY TO TOUCH OR KISS THE BLACK STONE?
- ANSWER: It is desired only if it can be done without harming others, e.g through pushing to Force one's way.

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10. QUESTION: SHOULD ONE PASS THROUGH HIJR AREA OR AROUND IT?
- ANSWER: One should walk around it and not through it although it is permissible to offer 2 raka'ats of Nafl in it. At the Maqaam Ibrahim it is desirable to say "Wattakhidhu min Maqaam Ibrahim musalla" i.e " and take the station of Ibrahim as a place o prayer". Then perform the 2 raka'at. This can be done anywhere in the mosque. If one is lucky, then he or she can stand with the Maqaam between him or her and the Ka'aba. During the 2 raka'at it is sunnah to recite Suratul-Kafirun after Fatiha in the first, and Suratul-Ikhlas after Fatiha in the second raka'at. After the 2 raka'ats, Tawaaf is now complete. It is recommended to proceed and drink Zamzam at the well if convenient, then return and kiss the Black stone without crowding it. If not proceed to Safaa and without gesturing or saying ALLAHU AKBAR.

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11. QUESTION: WHAT IS SA'EE AND HOW IS IT PERFORMED?
- ANSWER: This is the set of seven (7) trips between As-SAFA and Al-MARWA. When approaching As-SAFA it is recommended to say once at the beginning of the Sa'ee:

Innas-Safa wal marwata min sha a irillah,
Abda'u bima bada'a Allahu bihi.

Meaning: Indeed As-SAFA and Al-MARWAH are among the signs of ALLAH. I begin with that with which ALLAH began.

One should proceed and stand on As-SAFA and facing the Ka'aba, then repeats (sunnah) three times, with his hands raised as in supplication (and supplicating in-between) arabic Alhamdu Lillah, Lailaha Illallah, wallahu Akbar, laa ilaha illallahu wahdahu la shareeka lahu, lahulmulk wa lahulhamdu, yuhyee wa yuweetu wa huwa ala kulli shai in qadeer. Lailaha ilallahu wahdahu, anjaza wa'dah wa nassara abdah, wa hazamal ahzaaba wahda. All praise is due to ALLAH, there is no God but ALLAH, and ALLAH is greatest. There is none worthy of worship but ALLAH alone, no partners are unto Him, His is the dominion and His is the praise. He gives life and He takes it and He is capable of everything. There in none worthy of worship but ALLAH alone, who fulfilled His promise and gave victory to His servant and defeated the confederates alone. Then proceeds to Al-MARWAH walking, until one reaches the green light from where brisk movement or running is recommended for men until the next green light or indication. Women are not required to run. Men should not run fast if they may lose women or children in their company. Upon reaching Al-MARWAH, face the Ka'aba and supplicate as was done at As-SAFA. Then walk/run at the green lights as before back to As-SAFA. With this 2 trips are complete. Continue until seven (7) trips are accomplished, ending at Al-MARWAH. The Sa'ee can be performed on a wheelchair if age, fatigue or illness does not allow normal activity. With the completion of the Sa'ee, the Umrah is also completed at the 7th lap at Al-MARWAH. For all acts of Ibadah, knowledge is compulsory. It is highly recommended that one seeks knowledge all the time.

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12. Question: Can a menturating woman perform sa'ee?
- ANSWER: Yes, but not Tawaaf. The area of sa'ee is not part of Al Masjid al aHaram.

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13. Question: Are women too to run between the green lights?
- ANSWER: No. Women are not to run between the green lights.

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14. Question: Is shaving compulsory?
- ANSWER: It is preferred that men shave, but can cut the hair from every part of the head, and women cut from the length of her hair what is about the width of a finger.

VISAS FOR INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL
Most countries require other nationals to obtain visas in order to enter their territories and in some cases even to transit them.

Citizens of member countries do not need visas to visit Ecowas countries. Therefore Nigerians do not need visas to visit any of the Ecowas countries.

Virtually all other countries require Nigerians to obtain visas to enter their territories.

Intending travelers are advised to contact first, the embassies of the countries they wish to visit and seek for relevant information regarding visa requirements. If visa requirements are fully met, there would be no problems obtaining visas.

Travelers are strongly advised to avoid using touts. Touts can obtain some visas but not all. Touts may use any means available to secure visas, even to the detriment of the intending traveler, because their objective is their fee. For example, a tout may state that a traveler may be going on a medical visit to obtain visa, whereas the traveler may be going for a commercial reason like a trade fair. If such a traveler goes to the country intended he may face isolation for fear of transmitting a disease. For the purpose of this, a tout may include even a so-called travel agency, not formally authorized or accredited to process visas on behalf of the country in question.

Madallah Travels obtains tourist visas to Dubai-UAE, and for Umrah and Hajj, and is making formal arrangements to represent and/or complement certain interests toward obtaining certain visas.

HOTELS
From our website you can make reservations for virtually any hotel of your choice in any location. However, it is advised in the case of Umrah and Hajj, our intending travelers should first check what is available under Umrah and Hajj packages accordingly.

Hotels reserved directly outside the said packages may not necessarily be more advantageous than paying for the formulated packages and may sometimes lead to over spending because the accommodation element attached to the visa may not be avoidable, as it determines whether one qualifies for visa or not.

Where hotel reservations are made directly, they are subject to terms and conditions stipulated by the principal service providers and payments for the accommodation shall be made at the respective hotels booked upon arrival at destination.

The invaluable advantages to enjoy by booking for hotels on our website are the discount obtainable and the assurance of availability of accommodation upon arrival at destination.

Click on the appropriate link to make your booking:
Umrah Package | Hajj Package | Hotels in general

THE UMRAH PACKAGE

The package comprises of the cost of flight ticket on the one hand, and the cost of accommodation and surface transport on the other.

The flight ticket
The cost of flight ticket depends on the Airline, points of departure and return, and can vary according to season and routes taken. Flights can be the normal scheduled flights or charter flights. There are daily flights from Abuja, Kano and Lagos throughout the year, while Charter flights are usually operated during Ramadan.

An intending moatamer (Umrah Pilgrim) can choose his/her travel itinerary according to his/her conveniences and budget. As a travel agency, we give professional advice on this. However, we generally recommend a two-week span of travel dates to give our clients 4 nights stay at Madina, including at least one Friday Jumma'at prayer, and 10 nights at Makkah with another Jumma'at prayer.

Umrah Accommodation and transport

Standard package includes 4 nights accommodation at Madina and 10 nights at Makkah, to rhyme with the flight itinerary. This accommodation comes with the issuance of Umrah Visa- although the visa itself is free, except for service charges incorporated therein.
The package also includes surface transport from Jeddah to Madina, Makkah and back to Jeddah in air-conditioned luxurious buses.

The standard visa package provides accommodation on multiple occupancy bases. That is, a standard of 4 or 5 people may be accommodated in the same room and sharing common facilities, e.g. toilet (and/or kitchen where available). The number of people in a room is often determined by the size of the room as approved by Hajj Affairs Ministry of KSA. Couples wishing to stay in privacy have to enter into agreements outside the standard package.

Luxury accommodation is also available to cater for certain preferences e.g. in 4 or 5-star hotels, with corresponding transportation.

It is possible to sell to a client Airline ticket only and allow him to obtain his/her visa elsewhere, and so allow him/her to search and make his/her accommodation arrangements. The reverse is also possible. However, it is always better to source the two together, so that the agent providing accommodation is fully aware of arrival and departure points and timings, so that the client accesses his/her accommodation easily and timely.

For our Umrah package Click here, for details.

The Hajj Package
Our services for Hajj are generally offered as a package to intending clients.

The payments in respect of the hajj package are normally for;
 Air travel ticket
 Accommodation at Madina and Makkah
 Stay at Mina with feeding and refreshments
 Surface transport between the cities including to and from Mina
 Hajj royalties to the Government of the KSA
 Service Charge and other miscellaneous statutory levies.
The above payments can be broken into two components that can be sold separately, that is;
The Airline ticket:- this can be sourced and issued as a normal travel agency service.
The "Half-package":- which includes all the other elements in the Hajj package other than the air travel ticket.

It is however recommended that the client purchases both from the same travel agent for reasons which include:
• Smoother and more efficient operation if all clients are together and move in a single group
• The cost of a full package may be lower than the cost of the two components added together.
• Payment made for airline ticket may not be fully refundable after purchase, therefore, where Hajj visa is not obtained the Hajj travel agent may not be concerned, and vice-versa.

The standard duration of the hajj trip or exercise is 20 days. Five (5) days are often allocated to stay in Madina before Hajj and 15 days for Makkah, including stay at Mina. This duration can be varied, but preferably to be less than 20 days but not to exceed 20.

Accommodation in both Madina and Makkah may be in serviced apartments or in Hotels as the case may be. The accommodation is usually of 4 or 5 occupancy, but often decided by the size of the room.

Where special type of accommodation is desired, such must be requested and agreed upon and documented accordingly.

With a few exceptions, all Hajj clients or pilgrims are normally accommodated at the same place, to ensure their comfort and welfare are at all times adequately and efficiently catered for.

For enquiries and reservations, fill in the following and send.

For our Hajj package Click here, for details.

Flight tickets and reservations

Flight reservations and ticketing can be made for virtually all destinations.
Fare quotations shall where possible be accompanied by time available before payments for tickets in respect of flights booked.
It should be borne in mind that fares can change without notice, and that fare quotations and bookings are automatically cancelled by airlines after sometime. Therefore, to ensure enjoying quoted fares, clients should endeavour to make payments within the stipulated times.
At the time of making reservations, clients are strongly advised to ask and be fully informed of all the attributes of their flight tickets, including all rules and notes associated with their respective tickets, especially as regards changes in travel dates, no-shows, refunds, stopovers etc, in order to avoid costly and embarrassing situations.

For all enquiries and flight bookings, kindly fill the following and send to us;
"enquiries/reservations"

Buying the flight ticket

Most intending travelers shop for cheap tickets by visiting one travel agency after another. This tends to show that they think travel agencies can choose or decide what to sell to them. We often hear things like………….. "what is your fare from Abuja to Dubai?" Clients should see the Travel agent as travel consultant to them, while at the same time being sales agent to suppliers of service, the airlines. Below is an attempt to shed some light on fares generally.

What is common knowledge is that there are different fares for travel in First, Business and Economy classes. What is generally ignored is that any of the classes mentioned above often have several different other classes of fares within them, even though passengers travelling in the class enjoy the same services during the flight. For example, within First class there may be classes like, F, P, R, A; within Business class there may be classes such as, J, C, D, R; and Economy class may have, W,Y,S,B,H,K,L,M,Q,T,V,etc.all these other classes, in all the three major categories shall have different prices with correspondingly different liberties or restrictions attached to them. The lowest fare in all the classes will have the most restrictions e.g. flight reservation must be made within a specified time before travel; ticket must be paid for by a certain time relative to reservation and/or travel; passenger must stay for a certain minimum and/or a certain maximum time relative to date of outward travel and so on and so forth. Other restrictions include non-refundability of ticket fare or part thereof, penalties for rerouting of travel itinerary, non-transferability, non-endorsability and so much more.

 

Generally ticket fares are categorized into 2 broad groups. Fares are either normal or promotional.

Normal fares as their names suggest are generally accepted and used industry wide, i.e. they can be sold by one airline and can be accepted by another if endorsed, subject the relationship between the two. Such fares have few or no restrictions. They allow stopovers /connections, rerouting, they can be fully refunded, and they allow date change without penalties and are very flexible.

Promotional fares or special fares as they are usually called on the other hand are often cheaper, but have restrictions or "fences". They are affected by seasonality, e.g. flights to Saudi Arabia during Ramadan and Hajj Periods are very expensive .They have minimum and maximum stay periods, they attract penalties for refunds, date changes etc.
When fares are displayed by the computer, most of these factors are automatically taken care of before a fare is given, but the client may not know. His own is only to take the lowest fare. However, his travel agent should normally check and adequately inform him of the important implications of his choice so that, together they arrive at what is a best bargain for him. It is not enough to just pick a low fare and pay for it. The need for this professionalism would not be apparent until there is a problem.
The inexperienced traveler ignores that even the fare classes are actually limited and can be exhausted while seats are still available in the aircraft. It is like the seats are sold in segments, even though the passengers may seat anywhere and enjoy same services.
In order to get the best out of air travel in pricing, it is recommended that, as soon as travel plans are confirmed, one should visit his travel Agent (your travel Consultant) and tell him in detail the travel plans (as you would tell your Doctor or Lawyer your problems) in order to help you secure your seat and actualize your plans at a fair deal and be also fully informed.

Buying ones flight ticket is like buying something in a super-market. Sometimes one has to take what is available rather than what is desirable, in term of fares. Like different products from different manufacturers, fares too may have different costs and attributes, just like any other thing. And so people rush for them in different manners. One's objective should be "satisfaction at the optimum price, and not a cheap price that can metamorphose into something economically undesirable".
Here is an example of what of could have been avoided if an informed decision was made. A couple paid around 75% of a normal fare to travel to a destination for medical reasons. At the time of returning which was not known earlier they had to ask and pay for date change, and they also had to pay additional fare because their earlier class fare was not available. The cumulative difference paid could have more than paid for normal fare which would have avoided the penalties incurred.
One should always be fully informed of all implications of choosing a particular fare rather than another to avoid unpleasant surprises.