A journey that was...Madinah

Salam...Alhamdulillah, we reached bumi Malaysia at approximately 11.02am this morning. I slept almost the whole journey, hoping to minimise the 5 hours difference in time. Woke up properly just in time for breakfast served at almost 9am.

We left Malaysia last Wednesday afternoon, a whole 2 buses of us from the office, some with families in tow, some singles and some with friends. Whatever apprehension I felt when I first decided to take on this journey melts seeing the faces that will join me on this trip. I am quite sure they have mixed feelings as I did especially the first timers.

Alhamdulillah I was lucky to be joined by hubs, my eldest 'Aisyah and my first boy Imran. They say when you have made the decision to go there, it is a taqdir from Allah swt. That the doors of the Kaabah is wide opened ready for us. Imran, my son up until 2 days before we pushed off was still saying he didn't want to go, that he's not ready to go..How do you tell a 15 year old that you will never be ready, sayang..That mama is also not ready. But I want to share this journey with my loved ones. He kept quite after that.

We reached the airport in Jeddah at around 8pm UAE time. And already our patience was tested. The immigration process was horrendously slow, with the officers taking their own sweet time going about their work and stopping when they felt like it. We understood that stop for solah and also shift change but by the time we were out from there, it was after around 3 hours of waiting.

So about 70 plus hungry, tired people was later brought for a late dinner and straight on the bus to make another 6 hours journey to Madinah. We reached Al Haram hotel just before the azan was called for the Subuh prayers. Some of us, went straight to the Nabawi Mosque which was a sight to behold, while the rest went about the checking into our rooms. We chose the latter. Our hotel is about less than 400 meters from the mosque.

Our daily prayers was done in the Nabawi Mosque. This time of the year is one of the busiest months here and also in Mekah, I was told. The weather was bearable. We were taken on ziarah to makam Rasullullah saw, Raudah, Quba' Mosque, Qiblatain Mosque, Magnet Hills,Bukit Uhud, the Dates Market, Masjif Khomsah, the Quran printing complex in the few days we were in Madinah.

We so love the food, the people and the shopping in Madinah besides the daily prayers at the mosque. The first time we were taken to Raudhah (one of the garden of heaven) in Masjid Nabawi, the crowd was so big that I found myself being pushed here and there by the bigger sized ladies. Raudhah, one of the places that your du'a is certain to be maqbul, and everyone wants to have a share of that. I found my second trip there late one night more fulfilling with the ability to pray the solat sunat and also solat hajat without being trampled on. We had to wait almost 2 hours before we could go in...though the 2 hours was not wasted with yassin recitals and zikr..Alhamdulillah..

And it is in this 2nd visit there that I managed to get a good look at Makam Rasulullah s.a.w..(pbuh). We made silent prayers for Rasulullah s.a.w over and over again, all the while counting our blessings for the chance to get this close to him. And Mekah is another story...