19th May
Sazi and i are on board Saudi Arabian Airlines airbus now. we've been travelling for 1 hour. i forgot how cold it is to be in an internationally bound flight. there are a lot of clouds, so it's quite a bumpy ride.
21st May
there's so much to write but i was tired! we reached Madinah at 11pm Malaysian time which was 6 pm local time. i was cheated SR15 after the porter delivered the bags to the bus. we reached Dalah Taibah Hotel and we were told we could pray at a nearby mosque. the enxt day we prayed subuh there. little did i know the mosque is none other than the famous Nabawi Mosque or the Prophet's Mosque...no wonder it was sooo crowded.
we were taken for a guided tour inside the mosque in the morning at 7 and waited to enter the Raudhah section, which is a piece of Eden on earth. it was also where the Prophet was buried. it 's a crowded place as people all pushed to be able to pray there. i managed to pray there, but in dire circumstances. we were told to exit as soon as we finished sunat prayer.
Prophet's Mosque/Nabawi Mosque
after the prayer, we shopped at Madinah's various shops. true to wha my fried As told me, most shopkeepers speak Malay and were eager to have us enter their shops. they like to call us "ya siti rahmah" i bought scarves, robes, souvenirs.... some sold their wares on the streets, and apart from buying the stuff, we also sampled some local fares. my students told me to try their kebab and ice cream, which we did. i can see why ice cream is so popular, because it's hot there! anyway, it's not always about "melontar" as our ustazah calls shopping, we alsop prayed at the mosque 5 times daily.
on 21ist, we were taken on a guided tour to Quba' Mosque, where we prayed sunat then we went to a dates farm.
Quba' Mosquethis was, i think, least resembled what dignified and repentant pilgrims should be like, as we "attacked" the dates shop like there was a Sogo sale. everyone rushed to buy dates and chocolates. then we were served with hot mint and date tea. after the purchase, we made our way to Jabal Uhud, where Uhud Battle took place.
this is where Sayyidina Hamzah was buried with 2 other martyrs. we also visited Qiblatain Mosque but we didnt go inside.23rd May
We went to pray in Raudhah and we said goodbye to the Prophet. at 10am we left Madinah for Mekah and i think i miss Madinah. of course, there are little quirks here and there especially when some big Arab woman was angry with me or the scene when i was turned away because i had shopped goods with me (shopped goods and cameras are not allowed in the mosque) but there was an informal air there. i also miss the ever authoritative young mak guards who would cry out "baji, baji...lesta, lesta" and some other arabic words.
the journey to Mekah took 5 and a half hours. it was a very hot day for us. even "hot" is an understatement. the air was so dry that you have to drink so often. my lips are chapped too, so the lip balm and a bottle of water became my companions - must haves in the bag. anyway, the air was arid and dry, and with it you could feel the hot air. i guess this is what Salman Rushdie calls the desert wind. along the way we only saw barren hills and land and rocks, plenty of them. it's normal to see abandoned shophouses and gas stations, i think it is mostly because of the haat and though they could reap profits from the R&Rers, it could backfire too. we stopped at 1 stop - where there's a restaurant and a mosque. the briyani rice was expensive but dry and salty. still, we continued our journey. oh i forgot to tell you that we miqat at Bir Ali, to mark the beginning of our ihram state. our muttawif led the doa and talbiyah and i cried the 1st time i recited it
Labbaika Allahumma Labbaik. Labbaik La Sharika Laka Labbaik. Innal-Hamdah, Wan-Ni'matah, Laka wal Mulk, La Sharika Lak.
‘Here I am O Allaah, (in response to Your call), here I am. Here I am, You have no partner, here I am. Verily all praise, grace and sovereignty belong to You. You have no partner.’
Masjidil Haram in the afternoon, 40 degrees celsius
Masjidil Haram, near to King Aziz's gateafter isya' 32 degrees celsius
We reached our hotel just after Asar, and after dinner, we walked to Masjidil Haram. as we came late, we could only pray outside at the courtyard of the mosque. after isyak we performed our umrah. the first sight of Kaabah was very emotional, and like my niece Inas said, was a surreal experience. there it was, the house of God, Baitullah, in black and gold, in its glory, and i saw worshippers tawafing. we were lucky as we stayed in our group with our Muttawif leading the recitation. we passed Maqam Ibrahim, and then after 7 rounds we prayed sunat tawaf facing the Multazam. nobody told me this, but instinctively i knew that i was supposed to doa. only later did i find out that it is mustajab to doa in front of multazam. after the tawaf, we drank zamzam and headed off for saie at safa and marwah. i never knew how 4.5km felt like until last night. of course, we were sweating in our ihram. then we did tahallul and our umrah was complete.
today we visited Jabal Rahmah where Adam re-met Eve on earth,
Jabal An Nur where the Prophet received his first revelation, Jabal Thur, where he escaped from the quraisy tribe, 
passed Mina, 
and had our miqat at Ja'rannah to do our 2nd umrah. at Jabal Rahmad, we saw camels for ride.
if it wasnt so smelly and we werent going to perform umrah on that day, i'd have gone for a ride. after the visit, we returned to Mekah to perform umrah for the 2nd time. it was very emotional as i felt it deeply this time and read all the required doa and saie without fail.26th May
Yesterday we visited a camel farm.
need i say it again that they're smelly animals? however they're gentle. i tasted some of the camel's milk and it tasted like cow's milk although 1 aunty claimed it tasted a bit salty. we then went to Hudaibiyyah mosque to miqat and stopped by at a museum on Masjidil Haram and Nabawi Mosque. we then returned to Mekah and performed umrah for the 3rd time.
27th may
yesterday we did umrah for the fourth time and after that we were free. had a briefing for balik kampung after lunch. our muttawif reminded us to not exceed the baggage weight of 30kgs alloted by Saudi Air. MAS only allows 20kgs.today we did our last shopping. surprisingly the sellers here dont call us Siti Rahmah like in Madinah.
28th may
we did our Tawaf Wida' and prayed that we'd return to Mekah. it was very emotional looking at Kaabah for the last time. i'll never forget the miracles there - the air outside was hot and dry, but the wind that blew near us at Kaabah was cool and refreshing. i ll miss reading quran there, or looking at the intricate carving inside Masjidil Haram or its typical Arabic lamps, and i'll miss praying there, listening to the imam's melodious and eloquent recitation of surah. and i'll miss making new international friends there - i met ladies from indonesia, turkey, egypt, india and pakistan and though there is a language barrier, we share the same religion and that makes us sisters.
at 3.30pm we departed for Jeddah. along the way we stopped at a floating mosque (not terengganu's version) to pray asar. it's next to Red Sea.
our flight was scheduled at 9.45pm. anne smsed me along the way and i told her i couldnt find baklava for her. arriving at the airport was a problem - as we had to find trolleys and it's hard to find them as jeddah airport is small...at that time we missed the convenience of facilities at KLIA so much, as the size of the bags had increased dramatically due to incessant shopping for souvenirs and also the 10litres of zamzam given free by the govt of Saudi Arabia.
29th may
finally, we reached KLIA at 1.30pm. i was overjoyed to see lush green hills and land.
the spiritual journey is an eye opener. at the holy land, everybody is equal whether you're a datuk or a tengku or a tun or a king or a cleaner or a labourer, which is why men wear white ihram, and which is why regardless of ranks, we tawaf and do saie, as in the eyes of Allah, we're equal. i learnt that humility is the best, any inch of pride or malice or greed in us and we will receive retribution - swiftly.
Masjidil Haram is calling again, and i will heed it's call insyaallah.
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