Your first Umrah: what to expect

Before you leave Colombo

Every tier we offer includes a pre-departure briefing in Colombo. Go to it, and take whoever is travelling with you. It is where you meet the group leader, hear the actual departure time, and ask the small questions that feel silly in writing.

Two things have to be done well before the date. Your meningococcal vaccination must be at least 10 days before you arrive in Makkah, and your Umrah permit must be issued through the Nusuk application before you arrive in the Kingdom. Neither is something to leave to the week of travel.

The packing list has the documents in full. The one worth checking twice is the vaccination certificate: it must name the vaccine and the date it was given.

Getting there: what the route actually looks like

Each of these airlines serves both Colombo and Jeddah or Madinah, so a one-stop connection exists through the named hub. Frequencies change, so check at the time of booking.

You leave from Bandaranaike International Airport (CMB). You arrive at King Abdulaziz International Airport (JED), 19 km north of Jeddah, which serves both Jeddah and Makkah, or at Prince Mohammad Bin Abdulaziz International Airport (MED) in Madinah. The pilgrim facility at Jeddah is the Hajj Terminal, built for pilgrimage traffic and able to hold 80,000 travellers at once; its tent-like roof won the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 1983.

Sri Lanka is 2 hours 30 minutes ahead of Saudi Arabia, all year. Neither country observes daylight saving. A 2 a.m. departure from Colombo lands you in a morning that feels like the middle of the night.

The Miqat, somewhere over the sea

This is the part first-timers get wrong. For pilgrims from South Asia travelling by air, the Miqat is the one the aircraft passes over. A passenger who comes in line with a Miqat from the air must enter ihram at that point. It is not permissible to pass the Miqat and enter ihram only after landing in Jeddah.

So change into ihram before you board the last leg, or on it, well before the announcement. The practical guidance given is to prepare and put on the ihram garments before reaching the Miqat, and to make the intention when in line with it, or slightly before, to be safe. Crews normally announce the Miqat. Your group leader will also tell you.

If your itinerary goes to Madinah first and Makkah after, your Miqat is Dhul Hulayfah, also called Abyar Ali, just outside Madinah, and you will stop there on the way.

Once you are in ihram, the Talbiyah is what you say, and you say it abundantly on the way to Makkah: لَبَّيْكَ اللَّهُمَّ لَبَّيْكَ — *Labbayk Allahumma labbayk*.

Landing, and the road to Makkah

Immigration, then baggage, then your group. Airport and inter-city transport is included in every tier we offer, in an air-conditioned coach. Expect the transfer to take a while: you are moving a whole group, and everyone is in ihram.

When your group makes its first Umrah is your group leader's call, not a fixed rule. Ask at the briefing, so you know whether to expect it the same night or after a rest.

The rites themselves are four things in order: ihram, Tawaf, Sa'i, and the shaving or shortening of the hair. How to perform Umrah takes them one at a time, with the duas.

The rhythm of the days

Days in Makkah organise themselves around five prayers, and so does everything else: meals, the coach, when the shops are busy. In Sri Lanka you will hear them called Subah, Luhar, Asar, Maghrib and Isha, and you will see the same five written as Fajr, Dhuhr, Asr, Maghrib and Isha. Both registers are in local use.

Sri Lankan timetables also separate Adhan from Iqamath: the call, then the start of the congregation. Jawatte Masjid in Colombo publishes both columns. The gap between them is when the rows fill.

Our tiers are full board with a Sri Lankan menu, which matters more than it sounds after four days. What is not fixed is the hour: hotels serve around the prayers, so meal times shift through the trip as the prayer times move.

You can check today's times for your own city on our prayer times page before you travel, and follow the mosque and the ACJU timetable for congregational times.

Ziyarah in Makkah

Ziyarah, the visits to historic sites, is included in every tier, with a Sri Lankan religious guide travelling with the group. Which sites you see and in what order is your operator's itinerary. These are the historic sites in Makkah that Ziyarah itineraries draw from.

• Jabal al-Nour, the Mountain of Light, north-east of the Grand Mosque and about 4 km away. The Cave of Hira at its summit is where the first revelation came to the Prophet.
• Ghar Thawr, the Cave of Thawr, on the summit of Jabal Thawr south of Makkah, where the Prophet and Abu Bakr sheltered for three days during the migration to Madinah.
• Jannat al-Mu'alla, one of the largest and oldest cemeteries in Makkah, where Khadijah bint Khuwaylid, Asma bint Abi Bakr and al-Qasim, son of the Prophet, are buried.
• Mina, Arafat and Muzdalifah, the three Holy Sites where the Hajj rituals are performed from the 8th to the 13th of Dhul Hijjah. Arafat is about 20 km from the Grand Mosque, on the road towards Taif.

The journey to Madinah

The Makkah to Madinah leg is by air-conditioned coach on every tier. It is a long leg, and a good one to sleep through.

Madinah is the calmer half of the trip, and in winter a noticeably cooler one. Its January average high is 24.4 °C against Makkah's 30.9 °C.

The Ziyarah sites in Madinah, from the Saudi list that cites the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah:

• Quba Mosque, the first mosque built in Islam, established by the Prophet on his arrival. It spans 50,000 m² and holds up to 66,000 worshippers.
• Al-Qiblatayn Mosque, named for the moment a group praying towards Jerusalem was instructed to turn towards the Kaaba. Built in 623, today 3,920 m².
• Mount Uhud, a reddish rocky mountain about 4 km north of the Prophet's Mosque, with the Uhud Martyrs Cemetery nearby, holding the companions martyred at the battle.
• Baqi' al-Gharqad, the main cemetery of Madinah, south-east of the Prophet's Mosque.
• The Seven Mosques on the western side of Sela' Mountain, associated with the Battle of the Trench in 627, and Al-Fath Mosque, the highest of them, built in stone by Umar ibn Abdulaziz between 705 and 711.
• The Well of Uthman, also called the Well of Rumah, north-west of the Prophet's Mosque, which supplied water to Madinah for many years.

Coming home

Zamzam is the one piece of luggage with its own rules. It cannot go in the cabin, and it does not go inside your suitcase. It is handed over separately at check-in. Madinah airport sells the official 5-litre bottle for SAR 12.50, one per passenger, passport required, from a sale point on the pavement in front of the Hajj terminal gate.

How much travels free depends on your airline. SriLankan allows 6 litres free in addition to the checked allowance, but only from Jeddah. The packing list has the table.

At Colombo, a pilgrim away for under 90 days falls in the USD 187.50 duty-free allowance band, and assorted foodstuff is capped at 50 kg in total with each variety 10 kg or less. Gold must be declared. Then the clock goes back 2 hours 30 minutes, and you are home.