Princess Sultana's Daughters

sleeping.
    My husband’s face became pale as he
graphically described the feeling of being asphyxiated under the
trampling feet of frenzied worshipers. He told me that since the
time of his dream, at age twenty-three, he had purposely avoided
the congested conditions endured by the faithful in making the
annual pilgrimage to Makkah.
    Kareem felt so intensely that his nightmare
would be fulfilled if he attended Haj, that I had little heart to
argue with his visionary forebodings.
    Once again, everything was as before, and our
family continued to depart the kingdom during the time of Haj.
    When the very real and ghastly tragedy of the
1990 Haj occurred, as over fifteen hundred pilgrims were crushed to
death in a mountain tunnel in Makkah, Kareem took to his bed in
Paris and trembled for an entire day, declaring that the
cataclysmic disaster was yet another extraordinary omen from God
that he should never again worship at the Holy Mosque!
    After the fateful accident of 1990, when
hundreds of worship- ers died, Kareem’s extreme reaction to his
dream began to annoy me, and I told him that his fears were
inherently unsound. Nothing I could say or do at the time comforted
my husband, even when I pointed out the obvious, that his dream had
been realized in the death of others. In my opinion, the exact
catastrophe was unlikely to occur again.
    I saw that my observation failed to quiet
Kareem’s fierce apprehension when he replied that, evidently, he
would be crushed as a singular tragedy if he failed to heed his
dream or the recent mishap, which to his mind was nothing less than
a direct warning from God.
    Since it is true that a number of Hajjis are
trampled or crushed to death during each Haj season, I could not
reason further with Kareem. I wanted to dismiss his obsession, to
ignore his terrors, but I could not.
    Sadly, I pushed the possibility of ever again
making the happy journey of Haj far into the back of my mind, but
not from my heart.
    After our triumphant return from London with
a loving Maha in our arms, I felt an irresistible desire to embrace
the ritual of glorifying God in unison with other Muslims. The time
of Haj was upon us, and I gently approached the topic with my
husband once again, suggesting that I take our children to Makkah.
Since women in our country rarely travel without the protection of
a male escort, I wondered aloud about the possibility of
accompanying my sister Sara and her family to Makkah.
    Much to my surprise, Kareem responded
favorably to my ardent wish to undertake a journey to the city of
Mohammed. My mouth fell open when he said he would consider taking
the journey himself. Kareem acknowledged that he continued to fear
personal harm, but that he too shared my need to give special
thanks to God for the return of our precious Maha.
    We were discussing the upcoming trip with
members of Kareem’s family when we received a warning from his
brother-in-law Mohammed, who was married to Kareem’s youngest
sister, Hanan. Mohammed said that over two million pilgrims were
expected to unite in our holiest city of Makkah, and of that total,
a hundred fifty thousand worrisome worshipers were expected from
Iran, the Shiite country that makes an annual call to revoke King
Fahd’s exclusive custodianship over Islam’s holiest places.
    In 1987 the inflamed Shiites had gone so far
as to lead a violent protest during the traditional holy event, and
in the process of breaching Saudi laws, they had desecrated the
Holy Mosque, causing the deaths of 402 pilgrims. Two years later,
in 1989, Tehran had instigated two deadly bombings, killing one
person and wounding sixteen others.
    In Mohammed’s view, Haj was becoming a
dangerous religious ceremony for peaceful Muslims. Radical Muslims
were on the move the world over, and they favored the holiest of
Islamic sanctuaries to make known their political grievances.
    Mohammed, a prince of high authority in
Public Security, a Saudi public service organization that strives
to ensure the security of Saudis and Muslims visiting our country,
was privy to knowledge that most Saudis do not have. Blind to my
emotion, and absorbed only in our personal safety, Mohammed
suggested that Kareem and I wait until the masses of pilgrims left
the kingdom. Then, we could take our children and perform the
sacred rites.
    Kareem sat pale-faced and said little, and I
knew that my husband was not in the slightest concerned over
Iranian danger but was considering the dreaded effects