Meaningful gestures

To communicate with others, you do not always need written or spoken words. Sometimes you can feel others’  wishes and emotions just through physical expressions and the universal language of signs.

I realised this during my recent holy trip to Makkah and Madina where I met many people of different nationalities.

My first encounter was with our bus driver, who couldn’t speak any language other than Arabic. Whenever he stopped the bus for a break, he faced great difficulties while communicating with us.

Once we reached Saudi Arabia, where Arabic is spoken everywhere, we had to communicate with others, either by using our limited knowledge of Arabic, or mostly by employing signs.

However, not knowing Arabic was not a problem while meeting people from other parts of the world, as they too used sign language to good effect.

When we started climbing the Jebel Noor (Mountain of Light) in Makkah to pay a visit to the Cave Hira, where the first few Verses of the Quran were revealed to Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), we knew it was going to be difficult.

Climbing over 600 steps to reach the cave at a height of about 900 feet was getting to be so difficult that I was losing hope. But a group of Turkish ladies kept encouraging me to continue with the climb, and by using signs conveyed to me that they could achieve this despite their old age.

I also saw a few others who were returning from the climb, who again through use of very easy-to-understand gestures, encouraged me to climb on.

While waiting for our turn to enter the cave, a woman came up to me and said something in her language, which I failed to understand.

She then showed me her fist with the thumb pointing upwards. Immediately understanding the common sign conveying the message: “I am thirsty,” I offered her my bottle of water.

Although I could not fathom her reply in her native tongue, I realised she had made dua (offered prayers) for me.

(Published in The Gulf Today on April 13, 2013)