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.