I saw the strangest thing on the tube today
I saw an old man (over 70), Asian looking (turns out hes from Bangladesh), in the full Ihram kit – he was going to Umrah (minor pilgrimage, its not required like the Hajj, but you can go whenever you want to do it, as opposed to just going when its Hajj.
I felt a bit sorry for the guy, as he didn’t realise that you don’t have to wear it immediately after leaving the house, but when you reach the Miqat – the pilgrimage boundary which is a about 200km around Makkah.
A small note – some Sunni’s say that you should perfume your body when you enter the state of Ihram – they are wrong, as perfume is one of the 25 “banned” things.
*Edit – I stand correcte d – it turns out, that if the flight goes over the boundaries of the mosque (a few hundred km in each direction), you still have to be wearing the full Ihram kit, so thats a possible reason to be wearing it on the plane. My dad had to do the same a few years ago, when he flew from Kuwait.
