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The ecstasy of delivering Athaan at the top of the world
4-19-2016
It all started with a dream, says Mostafa Salameh, the first Jordanian to climb Mount Everest and one of only 12 people in the world who have earned the feat of climbing the world’s 7 highest summits and skiing to the 2 poles.
“It was a dream that I had in 2004, where I woke up in the middle of the night and I dreamt that I was standing on the top of the world and calling the Athaan, and praying on the top of the world.
“That’s exactly how everything started. Before that, I have never been on a mountain. It was just this dream that changed my life, and I really wanted to make the Athaan for the first time on the top of the world.”
In truth, Salameh’s extraordinary story cannot be told without recounting his humble Palestinian heritage, born to Palestinian refugee parents in Kuwait in 1970.
The Salamehs spent 18 long years in a Kuwaiti refugee camp before eventually being granted citizenship by Jordan.
For many years Mostafa worked as a waiter in Hashemite Kingdom before travelling to the UK with Jordan’s ambassador to London. He worked as a butler for the ambassador’s residence until travelling to Scotland where he worked as a waiter at the Sheraton Hotel in Edinburgh. Mostafa studied for a degree at the Queen Margaret University in Scotland before being promoted to a manager within the hotel.
Islam, at this stage, played almost no part in his thinking. Yet it was in Edinburgh that Mostafa had this mind-boggling dream – a profoundly religious experience that would see him renew his faith and change the course of his entire life.
Salameh quit smoking, started training, and discovered the “7 Summits” challenge, where ambitious climbers succeeded in climbing the highest peak on every continent. After hard work, training and selling his house and car to afford the trip, his dream came true: On May 25th, 2008, Mostafa realized his dream as he stood on the highest mountain in the world, becoming the first Jordanian to ever climb Mount Everest.
He reached this peak, fully cognizant that his travails were taking him through daunting terrain, which for many aspiring explorers had inadvertently become their icy graveyard.
“There are 270 people dead on Everest,” Salameh told Cii Radio – “but I believe two things are written for me from the outset: the day I will die and my Rizq(sustenance). These two things are written and nobody can change it”.
“My death could be in the mountain, it could be when I am sleeping, it could be anywhere. I don’t have fear of that. But at the same time I will throw myself away – I will prepare 100%, I will do Istikharah and then hand my fate over to Allah SWT,” he said.
When weighed against the majesty of the Divine creation that such an experience has to offer, Salameh notes that the weight of personal difficulty is much diminished.
“You see how this universe is working in a beautiful way, according to God’s plan. When you view the world from the top of the mountain, you realise how insignificant you are. I felt useless”.
The explorer recounts his final thrust towards the Everest summit with vivid clarity.
“We left in the evening, and [later] we saw the sun coming up through the clouds. You could see the moon at the back of the mountain, and really, you do see the majesty of God.”
The epic climb took Salameh 72 days, and on summiting the Jordanian could barely contain his exhaustion.
“I was completely out of breath, I had no energy,” he said.
But then, Salameh was jolted into remembering his dream.
“The minute I stood to make the Athaan, I just had this rush of energy – I was so strong. My breath came back to me. I was just repeating ‘Subhanallah’ – I can’t really describe it. It was a moment of complete closeness to God. It was an achievement and dream that I had, and 4 years exactly after I had that dream I was on top of that mountain”.
Realizing his dream, Salameh said, was emotionally overpowering.
“When I did the Athaan, I was crying – crying from pride and crying from that feeling of being so close to Allah from the top of that mountain”.
Noting the status of Salaah as the “spine of Islam”, Salameh described its call as also fulfilling a similarly esteemed role.
“The Athaan brings with it a sense of peace. It is also a meditation. Above all, as a Muslim, it is my identity”.
Following his Everest triumph, Salameh added the “7 Summits Challenge” to his list of achievements, becoming not only the first Jordanian, but also one of a select group of approximately 250 people the world over to have succeeded in conquering the highest peak on every continent.
His adventurous spirit also took him to both Poles, and in January this year, he was crowned as the ‘first Muslim’ to reach the South Pole.
Now an accomplished motivational speaker too, Salameh is keen to channel his spirit of adventure for a higher purpose, spearheading many charitable climbs for causes.
He initiated the “From the Lowest Point to the Highest Point for Cancer” initiative LH4C, leading a group of 20 individuals safely up to and back down from Everest Base Camp in April of 2013 raising $600,000 for the King Hussein Cancer Center (KHCC). This was repeated in February 2014 where he led another group of Jordanians to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania raising $1,400,000.00 for the benefit of KHCC.
Reaffirming his attachment to the spectacle of a mountain, the modern-day Ibn Batuta said it was within the nature of this creation to uplift.
“Lots of Prophets including our Nabi Muhammad SAW, Sayyidina Moosa AS, Sayyidina Isa AS – lots of things happened and messages came on the mountain. The mountain is a special place. You can see the majestic views – that I think is the prize for the mountaineer.”
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