Pakistani man sells home to undertake hajj to honor dead wife

A 45-year-old Pakistani pilgrim had to sell his house and few goats to be able to collect enough money to do the hajj on behalf of his wife, who died before fulfilling this dream.

“My wife died at the age of 38 when the roof of our house fell down on her. She was always talking of performing hajj. I had to fulfill her dream,” said Ashraf Rahmah.

He said the money he had collected from selling the house and the goats was not much but it was enough to bring him and his six children to the Kingdom and perform hajj for his dead wife.

“The death of my wife is a destiny from which we cannot escape but my children and I are still wrapped by the sadness from her eternal separation,” he told local daily al-Madina.

Unstable

Rahmah said he got married about 15 years ago and all the time during their time together his wife never stopped talking about the hajj. He always promised his wife that he would try to take her to hajj but his financial conditions never allowed him to do so during her lifetime.

Rahmah said he could not leave his children behind because of the unstable security conditions in his country.

He said he met a Saudi in the Holy Sites who has promised to find a job for him in the Kingdom. “The kind man asked me to visit him in his home in Jeddah after the hajj and promised to find a job that will sustain me and my children,” he said.

This article was first published in the Saudi Gazette, Oct. 6, 2014.