Spiritual Journey 2

In the name of Allah, The Beneficent, The Merciful.
All praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds.

Our flight from Kuala Lumpur was delayed for two hours. All the passengers were already seated when the pilot announced that we are still waiting for clearance from Yaman airspace authority. And when Yaman denied permission, the route had to be rescheduled. It was a longer route through Oman and an extra two hours would be needed in our journey, therefore the aircraft had to be refueled and another pilot had to be called for duty. The flight from Kuala Lumpur to Jeddah was slightly more than eight hours, and after few hours at Jeddah airport we boarded the bus for another seven hours of journey to Madinah.
We reached Madinah early in the morning that day and sadly we missed the Fajr congregational prayer at the masjid and ended up praying in our hotel room. After breakfast and a brief rest we walked to the masjid.

Outside Masjid an Nabawi

Beneath that green dome he was laid to rest. The mere glimpse of the the green dome brought me to tears.
Assalamualaika Ya Rasulullah..
Assalamualaika Ya Habiballaah..
Allaahumma solli 'ala Muhammad.

Three days in Madinah was too short, but I am thankful that Allah had blessed me the opportunity to visit the raudhah near the Prophet's grave.
It was crowded as usual, but everyone was so engrossed in tearful prayers.

On the third day we headed for Makkah in our ihram attire. The bus journey was about four hours. We reached the vicinity of Masjidil Haram around 11.00pm and I saw the minarets from afar.
How do you feel when you finally meet/see someone you had been missing and longing for years? That was my feeling at that time.

Outside Masjidil Haram at night

The bus stopped at our hotel which was just about 10 minutes away from the masjid. We loaded our luggages and were told to rest in our rooms until the briefing time at 12.15am.

It was around 12.40am when we headed for the masjid to perform our umrah.
The breathtaking sight of the masjid and the kaabah filled my heart with happiness, humility and peace, all mixed together.
I felt a lump in my throat as I recited the prayer, and tears rolled down my cheek.
Subhaanallah...
Alhamdulillah...
Allahuakbar...
Thank you Allah, for receiving me as your guest again here, in this place that I had missed so dearly.

The crowd circling the kaabah was quite packed but the cool temperature was comforting. Somehow it felt really cold afterwards when we were doing our saie.
We completed the umrah rituals; the tawaf and saie in about two and a half hours. Only then when we were outside the masjid I saw on the screen that the temperature was actually19 degrees celcius. No wonder we were trembling.
We walked around the masjid slowly and quietly carrying our tired body and feet, but our hearts were so at peace. I felt so at home in His house.
We were looking for the restroom and realized that the place had changed so much since our last visit. We had to ask the policeman for the direction.
The time for Fajr prayer was just another two hours, so we decided to stay on at the masjid for fear that we might miss the prayer all together if we return to rest at our hotel room. After the first call for Fajr prayer we went our separate ways. My husband headed to the man's section and I went to the woman's to wait for Fajr prayer. I tried hard to remain awake while waiting for the second call of prayer, I was really tired and sleepy.

We went straight to our hotel after the prayer, had our breakfast and went to bed.
We slept like logs and only woke up three hours later.
Alhamdulillah...all praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds.