my first umrah part 2

------------------------Continued from the the first part------------------------------

I did second tawaf sunat on day 2 in Mecca right before asr prayer after lunch time. Did you know solat Jemaah in masjidil haram gives you 100 000 merits than praying in any other masjid on earth? That’s really a huge amount. To compare, that 100 000 is about 80 years praying Jemaah in your place. Mashalllah, so which favours of Allah would us human deny anymore?  May Allah accept our ibadah ameen.

My mother and I today discovered a comfortable prayer area upstairs, nearby gate 90. As there were thousands of people in the masjid, your slippers might go missing, or maybe stolen, but never ever said something negative. Don’t ever say, oh man so many people, if I put the slippers here, it might get stolen by someone. Never dare to say that. Wallahi, the moment you finish praying, the slippers already gone. What did I do, every time I place my slippers I recited this du'a:

Inshallah the slippers will never gone missing.

One of the things that I miss a lot about Mecca and Medina is that, the masjid guards will call every male “Haji” and every female “Hajjah”. “ya hajjah hajjah, come here” some called us female “ibu, maju maju” telling us to go the front saf. Yelah muka pun dah lebih kurang je melayu ke Indonesia ke so they just call everyone from nusantara as ibu.

Mecca Day 3

Our second umrah. We went to Tanah Halal in Tana’im. We visited masjid Saidatina Aisyah, performed solat sunat ihram there, and berniat umrah inside the bus. I forgot to take pictures of this masjid. Compared to masjidil haram and masjid nabawi, although this masjid has many visitors each day, but it is not well taken care especially the toilet and ablution area. Same goes to Masjid Hudaibiyah. Its okay, just bare with it.  We came here from far away land just to worship the almighty. Be patient, selawat and istighfar banyak-banyak. It is sunat for us after reciting niat umrah, to bertalbiah. The one that you hear from tv, labbaikallah humma labbaik. Yes, that one is called talbiah. It is like us His servant answer for His call. We did bertalbiah inside the bus, and upon entering Tanah Haram, the mutawwif lead us to recite a doa.

Upon arriving masjidil haram, we did the second rukun umrah which is tawaf and complete the rest of it. Even before going for umrah, I prayed a lot to be able to perform prayer inside hijr ismai, unfortunately till the last day in Mecca I did not managed to get inside it. Takde rezeki. Inshallah next time. Theres too many people. I didn’t even dare to get close to Kaabah, afraid someone would push me. Imagine, Arabians, Turkish, Iranis are at your right, left, at the back and in front of you, their body built are way bigger than us tiny Malaysians. Once they push you, you might astray from keeping your left shoulder 90 degrees to the kaabah.

Picture of me in front of Masjidil Haram. 

Mom and Dad in front of Holy Kaabah. 

As we started off early in the morning, alhamdulliah we were able to finish our umrah before zuhr prayer. Finally today we succeeded in finding Saji Restaurant. The teh ais costs SR 5. Ya ampun mahal bener, tapi sedap bangettt. Lagi kaw daripada dekat Malaysia. Serious, tak tipu.

I don’t know why, but going to masjid in Tanah Haram was really exciting. It was like a parade, people from different directions walk together to go to masjid to perform Jemaah prayer. It is something that I couldn’t feel in Malaysia other than the month of Ramadhan. After each prayer, everyone disperse to whatever places they wanna go. I love how it felt  like to be in that sea of people. May Allah give me another chance to feel that way again.

Mecca Day 4

In the morning we attended a talk on Fadhilat Tanah Haram, bacaan yassin and also tahlil arwah. Then, for the first time we took a walk around the hotel area, went window shopping, there are a lot of stalls nearby the hotel selling everything you name it, nuts, sejadahs, tudungs, jubahs, bags, hennas and a lot more. I bought a jubbah, initially cost SR 80, got SR 40 after bargaining. 50% discount thanks to my relatives who such a sweet talker :P To be honest, shopping in Medina is much better than Mecca actually, lot of people said that, and I would like to agree on that too. Maybe because the stalls in Medina are well arranged, the sellers are a lot more gentle and welcoming, and most of the goods are actually from Medina so the prices are much more cheaper. Some say SR 3000 isnt enough to shop in Medina. Like seriously? Haha.

Morning view in  front of our hotel (while waiting for the bus) 

I should have taken pictures of stalls in Medina and Mecca to show you the comparisons. How come I forgot to take it aiyooo. We didn’t take too long to shop, back to hotel an hour before zuhr prayer. I did another tawaf sunat today after asr prayer without my parents, they needed to save their energy before the third umrah tomorrow. As I have mentioned before,  umrah requires a lot of energy especially saie. So that’s why. I didn’t go back to hotel after tawaf sunat, I just stay in the masjid waiting for maghrib and isyak prayer as it takes about 30- 45 minutes to complete 7 rounds of tawaf, and the moment I finished it, it’s already 30 minutes before maghrib prayer. Hence, instead of wasting my time walking to hotel, it’s better to use the time wisely doing something useful like reciting quran for example.

I managed to get a spot in front of the kaabah for maghrib prayer, but suddenly I became hesitate is this place really for women to pray, or it’s actually men’s, if it’s men’s later on the guard will ask me to go find another place to pray? I asked around but none speaks Malay and English, so I ended up praying upstairs at the same spot me and my mother used to pray. Should have just stay at the spot, it is only once in a lifetime. Besides, the spots in front of kaabah rarely empty, always filled with people, and I just missed the chance to be close enough to it.

This is how it looks like outside of Masjidil Haram

Mecca Day 5

Before performing our third and last umrah, we did go visiting few well known places in Mecca which are Jabal Rahmah, Arafah, Mina, and Muzdalifah. I’m sure the names sound familiar right. Jabal Rahmah is also called Love Hill where Prophet Adam met his wife, Eve after 40 years searching for each other. It is located in Arafah. This place is one of the places where prayers are readily accepted. Usually people come here praying for their jodoh with their spouse to last forever.

Arafah that I saw in tv during hajj season was way different from the Arafah I finally witnessed by my own naked eyes. All this time I thought Arafah is like a barren land, but not anymore.  It is now far more greeny, has so many trees and plants. During hajj season, there will be many tents installed for millions of people that will gather in Arafah, which is one of the rukun haji. Last hajj, about 3 millions of people gathered here to answer The Call. Inshallah soon it will be our turn.

Other than that, I just knew that Arafah, Mina and Muzdalifah are actually close to one another. Muzdalifah is the place where people will spend a night after gathering in Arafah, before going to Mina to stone the devil (melontar jumrah).

Mom and Dad at Jabal Rahmah. 

Mina, the place to stone the devil

Along the way to Jaaranah, the place for miqat, we passed through few camel farms. Starting from 2014 if I’m not mistaken, Malaysia government has prohibited Malaysian pilgrims from visiting camel farm due to the emergence of Mers-CoV. Hence, we can no longer take photos side by side with the camel like our ancestors used to do sobs. My grandparents had one. Despite that, you can still enjoy eating camel’s meat if you want.

We started off today quite late. We were scheduled to start our ziarah at 7 am in the morning actually, but due to some problems, it was delayed 1 hour later. The bus which was meant to carry us for ziarah got stuck with the authorities. It is quite strict here in Mecca. Only after zuhr prayer we managed to perform saie and finish our umrah an hour and half before asr prayer. This time around, my father’s legs  gave away, they couldn’t bare the weight of his body anymore, so we pay SR 100 for someone to push him by wheelchair during saie. One of his legs got shot during his days as an army to fight against the communist, and the other one broke in a motor vehicle accident.  He’s 67 years old now. Not strong anymore like the old days L

Behind Mom is Bukit Safa. 

Saie area. 

2 days left before leaving Mecca for Medina, we decided to ate at Saji Restaurant for the last time. Here, in Mecca, every time near prayer time, the shops and stalls will be closed immediately. Surprisingly they do not technically close the shops, they just cover them with some fabric or clothes. It shows their dependence towards Allah is high enough till they can just leave their shops like that without even worried someone might steal their goods, their money, do something bad or anything. I am amazed. This one will never be seen in Malaysia. 

-------------------to be continued------------------