Rihla - Jeddah to Taif

Assalamualaikum warahmatullah wabarakatuh,

As I said from the previous post that the journey from Jeddah to Taif is a difficult one, like the Prophet Muhammad (saw) made his journey to Taif to preach Islam. After the boycott and the departures of Abu Talib & Khadijah (ra), the Prophet (saw) named that year as the Year of Sadness. He (saw) was so sad that the Makkans were not listening to him. He decided to preach outside Makkah. So, he and Zayd (ra), his freed slave, went to Taif to preach Islam. They were there for 10 days talking to many tribes and noble people of Taif about Islam, but none of them accepted Islam, some even insulted the Prophet (saw). In one incident, the Prophet (saw) met and spoke to three youths from the nobles of Thakif. The Prophet (saw) invited them to the truth and to believe and worship ALLAH alone. They just mocked the Prophet (saw) and refused to listen to him (saw). One denied that he could be a prophet because of the disruptions in the Makkan community. The second questioned him saying could ALLAH not find anyone else to be a prophet. The third refused to listen to him at all because either the Prophet (saw) was too important to speak to or was a liar. Some of them get together with a group of boys chased the Prophet (saw) and Zayd (ra) away with stones. They were both injured. The Prophet Muhammad's (saw) blood ran down his legs and clogged up his sandals.

When they had travelled a short distance, they rested against one of the walls of a vineyard. as the Prophet (saw) rested, a couple of Makkans who owned the vineyard recognised him (saw) and took pity on their state. They sent their servant 'Addas with some grapes for the two visitors. The Prophet (saw) thanked Addas and ate the grapes beginning with the name of Allah (Bismillah). Addas was surprised with these words and began to talk to the Prophet (saw). 'Addas was a Christian slave and when the Prophet (saw) asked him where he was from, he replied Nineveh. The prophet (saw) said the noble Yunus was from there. 'Addas was very surprised and asked the Prophet (saw) “How do you know about Yunus?” The Prophet (saw) replied, “He was my brother and I too am a prophet.”. 'Addas was very surprised and kissed the Prophet (saw) on the hands and forehead before returning to his duties. The two brothers had witnessed this and they asked 'Addas about his behaviour. 'Addas said that that man leaning against the wall is none other than a prophet. The two brothers shouted at 'Addas and told him that he should not leave his religion and follow Muhammad (saw). The Makkans were against the Prophet and did not want anyone to follow him.

'Addas Mosque

The inside where we prayed 2 rakaah, alhamdulillah

The mosque is hidden in the moutain in Taif

Have to walk through a narrow and long alley to get there

The grape garden next to the mosque

Can this be the breed of the grape the the Prophet (saw) had?

After a short prayer the prophet (saw) made a dua to ALLAH. In the dua, he praised ALLAH and said to ALLAH that may he forgive him for his short coming and in his inability to deliver the message. He said that although he had been injured and hurt by the Makkans he was happy as long as he had not displeased ALLAH. Later, Angel Jibrail (as) came to the Prophet (saw) with the Angel in charge of mountains. Angel Jibrail (as) told the Prophet (saw) that if he so wished he would command the Angel of mountains to bury the city between two mountains. Although the Prophet (saw) had suffered a great deal in the hands of these people, he replied that maybe their offspring would accept Islam and would proclaim the religion of truth. Due to the kind nature of the Prophet (saw), the city was saved from destruction.

And indeed, ALLAH answered the Prophet's (saw) prayer. HE made the people of Taif good Muslims even until today. People in Taif are extremely friendly. The weather there is nice and not as warm as in Makkah or Madinah. Cool breeze and nice weather the whole time we stayed there. Even Shaykh Hamzah Yusuf loves Taif's weather a lot that he said he would sleep in the villa with the windows open.

We were stopped at the check point to Taif for about 4 hours. And when we finally had to return back to Jeddah, our bus broke down and we had to wait for another 2 hours for another bus to pick us up. Felt like the whole day was wasted. We got tired and disappointed. But then, came the good news from the Emirate that we are allowed to go for umrah the next day to compensate the incident. Yay! Felt like how the Prophet (saw) realised that the Jinns were listening to his words and his (saw) efforts were not wasted. This happened on his (saw) journey back to Makkah, the Prophet (saw) and Zayd (ra) rested for a while in a place called Nakhlah and the Prophet (saw) recited the Qu'ran. As he (saw) recited the verses of the Qu'ran, he did not realise that even in the darkness of the desert, there was an audience listening to and admiring these verses. Later on, a few verses of the Qu'ran were revealed which told the Prophet (saw) that a group of Jinns had come and had marvelled at these beautiful words. The Jinns had gone and spoke to their companions about these verses. This audience of Jinns then sat, filling the valley, listening to the beautiful recital.

"Say: It has been revealed to me that a company of Jinns listened (to the Qur'an). They said, 'We have really heard a wonderful Recital! It gives guidance to the Right, and we have believed therein: we shall not join (in worship) any (gods) with our Lord."

~ The Holy Qur'an: Surah Al-Jinn (Chapter 72: The Jinn) verse 1-2

Stopped at the check point to Taif

The only rain ever saw in Saudi when we were on the way returning back to Jeddah

Felt like the Heaven is opened up for us after the blessed rain

The bus was broken down in Makkah

Until next time...

Wassalam.

My friend is engaged!

Assalamualaikum warahmatullah wabarakatuh,

One of the Cambridge sisters is engaged! Yay, sooooooo happy and proud of her. I pray that she will enter her marriage on 25th August 2007 in a very blessed way. Amin.

Wassalam.

I'm back!

Assalamualaikum warahmatullah wabarakatuh,

Such an immense experience throughout the whole Rihla, which I don't think I'll will ever forget. Full of ups and downs, trials, tribulations, reward, gratitude, bitterness and sweetness, tears and laughter, etc... All in this one single trip. I would say this is a trip of a life time after the Hajj. It is impossible for me to tell you the whole experience in just one post and I don't know if I have the time to tell all of them to you. For the time being, I can only tell you that I only have less than 1 month to go before I'm going back to Malaysia! And in this short period of time, I got lots of things to do. Starting next Monday, there will be summer Cambridge Quranic Class for the kids and it's everyday except Friday. So I'll be in the mosque every morning until Zuhr time. Then, this weekend is my friend's engagement. I wasn't meant to be there but cause I can't attend her wedding (which is when I'm back in Malaysia), so she invited me to her engagement instead. I'm sad that I can't make it to her wedding... And finally, before I get back to Malaysia, I have to do as much work on my PhD as I can, so then, when I come back to UK again, I can decide what to do when the school start.

About the Rihla, there were more than 100 of us and some great teachers - Shaykh Hamzah Yusuf, Shaykh Abdullah bin Bayyah, Shaykh Dr. Abdullah Al-Kadi, Shaykh Waleed, Shaykh Jamal Zahabi, Imam Zaid Shakir and Sidi Yahya Rhodus. This trip includes Umrah, Ziarah, visiting blessed and historical spots in Taif, Makkah and Madinah, classes and ibadah. Of course the one that I love most is Umrah. We get to do 3 umrahs from Taif. Then is the classes. We studies Ulum al-Quran, Fiqh of Minority Muslim, Fiqh of Ihsan, Refinement of the Heart (Ibn Juzair), Tafsir Surah Yassin, Asbab al-Nuzul, Fiqh of Imam Shafi'i, and some other little topics which are spiritually up-lifting. The visiting is great! If not because of Shaykh Hamzah Yusuf and Shaykh Dr. Abdullah Al-Kadi, we won't have the permission and opportunity to visit all these sights where the Prophet Muhammad (saw) had prayed and mentioned in the Quran, Hadith or Sirah . The reason is because the Saudi Government decided not to preserve all these spots due to the worried that people will start to worship all these places thinking of the barakah thus making it like a bid'ah - which is a fair reason for Wahabbism . This happens because of the lack of education among the Muslims, which is undeniable. But the fact that the government is planning to destroy some of these spots really is unreasonable. When Umar Abdul Aziz (some said that he is the 5th rightly guided caliph) decided to preserve all these blessed sights, he built a mosque in every spot that the Prophet (saw) prayed 2 rakaah. This was more than 1300 years ago. Some of the mosques were rebuilt, some were ruined, some were demolished and some become private properties. As the government has no intention to preserve them, they were all locked up and hidden. It's very sad to see these places left to be ruined by wind and storm. Only those who studied the Sirah and know exactly the significance of all these places will be able to tell us the location and how to gain access to visit. I will try to write about these places with the pictures that I have taken in the future posts, inshaALLAH.

Going to places where the Prophet (saw) has been to, we actually can feel what the Prophet (saw) has been through at his time. One of the example is like when we arrived at Jeddah, we spent a night in Jeddah and went Taif the next day. As in the Sirah, when the Prophet (saw) trying to enter Taif and spread Islam there, he was being chased out by the people of Taif, including the kids throwing stones on him until his blessed blood dripped around there. When we were trying to enter Taif, we were stopped at the check point for good 4 hours. We were unable to get into Taif due to some paper work problems (which is not a big problem but because of the police there), we were basically like the Prophet (saw), unable to enter Taif. Then, our bus broke down somewhere around Makkah on the way back to Jeddah. But alhamdulillah, we managed to get into Taif the next day after we did our first umrah.

For all the umrah first-timers like me, we were nervous and didn't really know what to do exactly. We were given a CD on the fiqh of umrah a few weeks before the trip. Sidi Yahya Rhodus also gave us a summary of what we should do for umrah, the morning before we departed from Jeddah to the Miqat in Juhfah. But still, we all thought that we were not prepared enough. I felt like entering exam hall. I've done my revision well but still think that there is something missing. Entering the Holy Mosque, walking and searching for the sight of the Ka'abah with talbiyah in my head, I was speechless when I first saw the Ka'abah. My mind went blank and I can only feel the greatness of the Ka'abah, much more massive than I've imagined it would be. My friends around me were crying but I couldn't let my tears flow, which made me feel a bit disappointed of myself. I made du'a as it is related that the du'a when we first see the Ka'abah is mustajab. We prayed maghrib and isha together looking at the Ka'abah. When I turned back to look for my friends, they have all gone into tawaf. I lost them all, so I did all the rituals by myself. Tawaf, Multazam, prayed 2 rakaah behind Maqam Ibrahim, prayed 2 rakaah in the Hijr Ismail, drank Zam Zam water and then I couldn't find Safa Hill. I got lost and went around the mosque 1 good circle until I found it. Went on to do Sa'i and went to a toilet nearby, asked a lady cleaner to cut my hair for me, and alhamdulillah, it's all done. Felt like a dream because I thought that I won't be able to complete the ritual by myself. As there was about half an hour left, I went around the whole mosque and then quickly went back to the coach and found a few sisters in the coach eating dinner at 12 midnight! And I realised that I was really hungry like I have just finished a long marathon. Some sisters came back to the coach later and get their hair cut. We then went into Taif smoothly and started the classes the next day.

Alhamdulillah, alhamdulillah, alhamdulillah, it's a great experience and I'm grateful that ALLAH made the first umrah easy for me. I didn't find any difficulties at all except to find the door to Safa Hill. I'm blessed and I pray that ALLAH except my first umrah. One of the sisters who got lost with her group of friends, she didn't come back after we have waited for 1 hour. Two organisers went into the Haram and looked for her while we all went to Taif. They failed to find her but then she came back 2 days later. She was lost in the Haram and missed the coach to Taif and she stayed the whole time in a hotel in Makkah under the supervision of the Ministry of Hajj. Alhamdulillah, she is safe.

Wassalam.

Break until I'm back

Assalamualaikum warahmatullah wabarakatuh,

I'll be going to Rihla inshaALLAH. I'll be in London tomorrow morning and stay over a night and then go to Jeddah the next morning. So, if I can't find any internet access in Saudi, I apologise for not being able to update my blog. I'll be back on 25th July. Sorry.

Mean while, please make dua for me so that I can have a safe journey and sound health to participate in all the activities there, make umrah and gain lots of benefits from this trip.

Wassalam.

Graduation

Assalamualaikum warahmatullah wabarakatuh,

Not my graduation, it's my friends! Alhamdulillah, all these little lovely angels of ISOC have graduated after 3 or 4 years of hard works. Seeing such a fun last year, I did it again this year. As their 'unofficial' photographer for their graduations from rehearsal to roaming to the Senate House until the photos on the lawn. I think this is the only graduation gift that I can give to them considering I'm not rich enough to buy them a proper gift each.

The first day is Thursday. There are Sidrah from St. John and Shabana from Trinity Hall. So did the photography for them. The second day is Friday. Unfortunately I have to go to school to do my research, so was unable to do anything for them. The last day is Saturday which has Newnham in the morning, New Hall in the afternoon and then Robinson. There are 5 sisters graduating from Newnham, 3 sisters and lots of my other friends in New Hall and 2 sisters in Robinson. Thanks a lot to Zishan and Miyada who lend me their cameras for Saturday.

It's a shame that these 3 days were raining the whole time. Last year was great with sun shine the whole week and the pictures were all great. Anyway, these are the pictures:

Possession from Newnham College

Walking in the middle of the street

Walking pass King's College

Entering the Senate House

Guests are entering the Senate House

The guests have all gone inside the Senate House

Getting ready for the next college

Then the Principal of the college marched in

Now the Senate House is empty

This is where the graduans can order photos inside the Senate House, lawn photos and frames

Lawn Photography

May ALLAH bless them all and grant them a bright future ahead.

Wassalam.