1 a.m at the Haram

pic: The Guardian

(continued) By Rasha, Rida

Finally, Abba dropped us off at the gate outside the Haram by cab at around 1 am...it was as bright as day and there must have been millions of people all around. As we walked to the Haram, we heard the mua'ththin calling for the Qiyaam (the extra night prayer)...

The Haram was packed with people, it seemed like there was one person per square inch of space...there was barely space to walk, except in a thin path that led to the people doing tawaaf around the Ka'aba..

For some reason it reminded us of the circulatory system...it was like the vein carries the impure blood to the centre, the heart, and then the blood is purified and returned to the body by an artery...just like that we go to the Ka'bah, the Qiblah with our sins and imperfections and lapses, and return clean (in shaa Allaah).

Just as we took off our shoes and started walking in, the Imaam started the recitation for the prayer...it was such a blessed moment, alhamdulillaah. The lights shining everywhere, so many people, and the beautiful recitation ...it was all a little overwhelming and we were a little dazed...we prayed to Allaah to forgive us our sins, the open and the hidden, the ones committed in the past and the ones we might commit in future ...and to grant us good in this world and the next. (Please say AAAAAAmeeeeeeeeeeeeen with us!!)

After the tawaaf we were looking for a place to pray 2 rakahs , but it was so crowded that there was just no space...anyway we found a little space in a women's suff and prayed and began the sai'ee (going between Safa and Marwah) . Even here, the place was full of people and the water coolers had been removed (to avoid people slipping on water). We were really thirsty and tired b/z we had been fasting and travelling all day, but there was nothing to be done since the places where zam-zam was available in taps were very crowded..so we kept walking and remembering Haajar, Umm Ismaa'eel, who had walked between these 2 hills, and she was much more thirsty and tired...

On our third/fourth lap, we saw a lady (she was from Turkey) who had filled 2-3 jugs full of zamzam and was offering it to people who were doing sai'ee...we stopped and took 2 cups from her, and thanked her and blessed her in our hearts..It was such a thoughtful, kind thing to do, in shaa Allaah, she will have a big reward for her small deed of kindness.

As we were completing the last round of the sa'iee the Imaan started reciting the duaa...we said Aaameen, Aaameen with the rest of the people, may Allaah accept the duaas of all the Muslims!

How we wound up right opposite Jabal-an-Noor, subhaanallaah!!

By Rasha and Rida

It was funny that although we weren't planning to, we found ourselves right in front of Jabal-an-Noor in Makkah this time! We were all tired out after the long journey and had been told to park our car right on the outskirts of Makkah and to take a cab to the Haram and go for Umrah b/z there were so many people in Makkah this year that there was no more space and the hotels were all full...but there is no other explanation except that Allaah's Qadr smiled on us and we found a suitable furnished apartment at the very first place we asked!

It was quite dark when we went in and it was only by chance that the Ed opened the window and saw that the huge mountain in front looked familiar -- even we recalled the picture that we'd seen in our geography books -- it was really the Mountain of Light!!

This was the place where the Prophetصلىالله عليه وسلمused to come and spend time in prayer during Ramadhaan...this is the place where the Cave of Hira is, where Jibreel came to the Prophetصلىالله عليه وسلمand asked him to "Read" and revealed the Verse Iqra. It was so exciting and thrilling to be so close to the first place of revelation, especially on a night that could be the Laylat-al-Qadr...

the best parts about being in Madeenah

By Rasha, Rida and R

*walking
I love walking...always have..and when you walk in Madeenah, you feel the ground under your feet throbbing with the distant echo of footsteps across centuries...we walked everywhere this time, and it was heaven. alhamdulillaah.

*shopping
trinkets, clothes, toys...once I was counting money to make sure I had enough for my purchases, and a shopkeeper in Madeenah told me that I would never run out of cash here b/z the Prophet had blessed the weights and measures ..and subhaanallaah, it's really true ..two riyaals go a looooooooong way here..

What did I see in Madeenah?

I flew towards Madeenah on the wings of eagerness. The hardships of the way seemed to be a blessing to me,and before my eyes was drawn the soul-stirring image of the earlier traveler whose camel had passed through the same route.

The first thing I did on reaching Madeenah was to offer two Rak'ats of Salah and express my sincerest gratitude to the Almighty for granting me the good fortune to be there.

After it, I betook myself into the presence of the Holy Prophet صلىالله عليه وسلم .

I offered salaam and affirmed that he had conveyed the Message of the Lord of the world, proved true the trust He had placed in him, showed the straight path to the Ummah and strove till the last breath of his life in the way of Allaah.

Then, I sent salutations to both the trusted friends whose selfless devotion was without a parallel in history.

From the Prophet's mosque, I went to Jannat-ul-Baq'ee. What a priceless treasure of truth and purity, of love and dedication is buried in this plot of land! Asleep here are those who had sacrificed the life of this world for the life of the future...

Thereafter, I visited Uhud where the most spectacular scenes of love and fealty were staged...on reaching there, it seemed that I heard the words of Anas bin Nadhr: "I feel the sweet smell of Paradise coming from Uhud"...It was here that Abu Dujaana made his back serve as a shield for the Prophet صلىالله عليه وسلم ...Talhah had taken the arrows meant for the Prophet on his arms until they were paralysed...Hamzah was killed and his body cut to pieces and Mus'ab bin 'Umayr martyred in such a state that even a shroud could not be provided for him...

Would that Uhud gave something of its treasure to mankind! Would that the world got a small particle of the faith and steadfastness of those glorious times!

(Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi/ Fee Mahd-i-Rasool)

The City of Light

It seems to me that all the people who live in this city, or even sojourn it temporarily, very soon fall into what one might call a community of mood and thus also of behaviour, and almost, even of facial expression: for all of them have fallen under the spell of the Prophet, whose city it once was and whose guests they now are...

Even after thirteen centuries, his spiritual presence is almost as alive here as it was then. It was only because of him that the scattered group of villages once called Yathrib became a city and has been loved by all Muslims down to this day as no city anywhere else in the world has ever been loved.

It has not even a name of its own: for more than thirteen hundred years it has been called Madinat-an-Nabi, the City of the Prophet. For more than thirteen hundred years, so much love has converged here that all shapes and movements have acquired a kind of family resemblance, and all the differences of appearance find a tonal transition into a common harmony.

This is the happiness one always feels here -- this unifying harmony.

Although life in Medina today has only a formal, distant relationship with what the Prophet aimed at; although the spiritual awareness of Islam has been cheapened here, as in many other parts of the Muslim world: an indescribable emotional link with its spiritual past has remained alive.

Never has any city been loved for the sake of a single personality; never has any man, dead for over thirteen hundred years, been loved so personally, and by so many, as he who lies buried beneath the great green dome.

It was precisely because he was only human, because he lived like other men, enjoying the pleasures and suffering the ills of human existence, that those around him could so encompass him with their love.

This love has outlasted his death and lives on in the hearts of his followers, like the leitmotif of a melody built up of may tones. It lives on in Medina. It speaks to you out of every stone of the ancient city. You can almost touch it with your hands: but you cannot capture it in words...

(The Road to Makkah/Muhammad Asad)

the road to makkah

When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
I summon up remembrance of things past,

I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,
And with old woes new wail my dear time's waste:

Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow,
For precious friends hid in death's dateless night,

And weep afresh love's long since cancell'd woe,
And moan the expense of many a vanish'd sight:

Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,
And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er

The sad account of fore-bemoaned moan,
Which I new pay as if not paid before.

But if the while I think on Thee,
dear friend,
All losses are restored
and sorrows end

view from the top..by Rida & Rasha

Copyright@Rida-Rasha

When I visited alMadinah...

...I went to the Prophet's sall Allaahu 'alayhi wassallam's grave. The feelings were flowing from my heart and ringing in my ears.

As I caught sight of the grave I headed for it, feeling very humble...I paid my respects in the prescribed manner and did not say anything else except one line of poetry. I did not know how it came to me because of the emotional state I was in...
I saw however, waves of people coming in and shouting long phrases. Someone was reading from a book, and another listening to someone who had memorized much; this one was disturbing that one , and everybody was disturbing the people at prayer.
Was it not the Prophet who had said:
Yaa Allaah, do not make my grave after me an idol to be worshipped?

Muhammad is not a story to be read on his birthday, nor is he to be extolled in prayers added to the words of the adhaan, nor can love for him be expressed in poems of praise...Instead of listening to the story of the Prophet's birth being recited in a pleasant voice, one should get up and reform oneself in order to draw nearer to the Prophet's practices in his spiritual and worldly , in his likes and dislikes, in his knowledge and action,in his habits and forms of habit...the Muslims in whose hearts the Prophet does not live and whose insight does not follow them in their actions and thoughts will never benefit by merely sending salaah and salaam to him a thousand times every day.

..How cheap is love when it is only talk! And how dear it is when it is an ideal, safe and assured.

[from Fiqh-us-seerah: Understanding the Life of the Prophet
by Muhammad al Ghazaali]

Walladheena aamanoo wa 'amilussalihaat
wa aamanoo be ma nuzzillaa 'alaa Muhammad
wa huwal haqqu min Rabbihim
kaffara anhum sayyi'aatehim
wa aslaha baalahum
Surah Muhammad: 2

~contributed by Rasha~