Alhamdulillah, I received my invitation from Allah (so to speak) for Hajj this year. I can definitely second what you’ve said, Akhi with respect to unpleasant surprises. However, one of the best things (among a lot of good things) that our Hajj group leader did was to prepare us psychologically for the journey. He reminded us that we’d encounter a lot of things that would test our patience but that we should remember that we are engaging in Ibadah while on the journey. As a result, I found myself letting go a lot of things I might otherwise have complained about or criticized.

One thing I thought about quite a bit was the people who slept on the sidewalks and in the courtyards of Masjid al-Haram and Masjid an-Nabawi – I felt bad that I had a hotel to stay in while these folks – many of whom, I surmise, scrimped and saved for quite a while in order to make the trip – had to brave the elements. Some people told me that these people chose to sleep there while others said that they couldn’t afford hotel rooms to stay in.