There’s nothing sacred about first-person narration in religion writing, but Ambah’s series stands out for her willingness to use herself — an ordinary person with ordinary responses — as one small reflection of the hajj. There’s no especially pretty prose here, nor will someone well-versed in Islam learn anything new about the hajj. But the series is honest journalism. What makes it really remarkable, in fact, is its very ordinariness, Ambah’s — and her editors’ — willingness to devote a significant amount of space to exploring one variety of religious experience without sensationalism or even a peg.