<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><span style="font-size:18pt;line-height:100%">Personal trek, with millions</span> <span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:100%">Pilgrims from all over the world fill the three levels of Mecca's Grand Mosque for prayers at sunset in the days before the hajj. The black cube-shaped building in the mosque is the Kaaba, built by the prophet Abraham.</span> Recently a group of Southland Muslims undertook the hajj -- Islam's ritual pilgrimage to Mecca. With moments of peace and chaos, the trip was an experience they won't forget. By Ashraf Khalil, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer March 4, 2008 If this were Lebanon, Raef Hajjali would have returned from Saudi Arabia to a mini-parade of family and friends, a nice long rest and new social standing in the community. Relatives and neighbors would have slaughtered a sheep in celebration and decorated his home with palm fronds. "The whole town would have been waiting," he said. Instead, he and his wife, Ellen Hajjali, returned home to Altadena a few weeks ago to minimal fanfare, and he was back at work the next day. He didn't last long. A construction engineer helping remodel the neonatal wing of a hospital in Torrance, he was coughing so much that his co-workers sent him home. How to explain that he was still fending off the severe chest cold known as the hajj flu? But how to explain what it's like when 2.3 million people gather, as Ellen put it, at the House of Allah? "It's impossible to explain what you get out of it," Raef said. Raef and Ellen Hajjali were among about 40 Southern California Muslims who traveled in December to perform the exacting rituals of the hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca that is the pinnacle of an observant Muslim's life. The pilgrims' leader, Imam Moustafa Al-Qazwini, told them in November that they would be embarking on an "amazing journey." Now, back home, having had months to reflect, the pilgrims say the journey was more rewarding and punishing, more joyful and miserable than they could have imagined. ....</div> http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-ha...0,7553812.story
