In fact, in some small, poor villages in Asia and Africa, the community pools its meagre resources together so that at least one respected elder can go to Mecca to visit the heart of Islam. Having been exposed to the wide range of Muslims from all corners of the world, that Hajji, as the successful pilgrim is known, experiences a global variety unavailable elsewhere. The pilgrim returns to the village with remarkable tales. There are high-rise hotels throwing their shadows across the shops and houses. Villagers from overseas who've otherwise rarely seen a car are confronted by elevators and escalators and electronic vending machines.
Surprise sits unmasked in their eyes.
Many of the pilgrims are elderly, having saved for most of their lives to achieve their spiritual mission. They are often the happiest, knowing they've reached the twilight of their lives and yet managed to come to this holy place to wash their sins away with divine blessings. It shows a conservative Muslim how the more liberal Muslim lives and thinks. But then, God doesn't see shapes and sizes.