Wake Up!!!

I was a bit behind on this, (was it 2 years ago?? ), nonetheless perhaps there are others like me, who never been exposed to such excellent discoveries through this amazing online film production called The Arrivals . A must see, for those who believe of the end of the world. There are 2 more interesting series on the WakeUpProject website called '' Phase 3" and "The Divine Book" also worth your time to watch. You can also watch it through Youtube, you'll find plenty, find the one under Noreaga/Archernahr. Go and have a peek, it'll change your perceptions of the world insyaallah.

Better late than never~

menyahut PanggilanNYA.. (pt 3)

We arrived in Mekah late at nite. As we approach nearer we recite the talbiah... whilst our little heart felt excited and overwhelm to finally reach our main destination... Mekah al-Mukarammah.. and to finally see the the holy Kaabah with our own naked eyes, insyaallah. From afar, I could see the brightest light coming from Masjidil Haram.. subhanallah. But, my first sight was distracted by the bigger building just right to it, The Zam-Zam Tower..memang potong stim. Why would they build such a gigantic tower in this holy land? It has taken the special grand-appearance of Masjidil Haram.. I would personally think that because of this, people could be more amazed to see the big tower than the Kaabah.. (sigh..).

But alhamdulillah.. despite the BIG distraction, my heart is still itchy from curiosity..

curious to see the magnificent Kaabah, the Baitullah. At that moment I was excited plus scared, would I see it? Bermacam-macam cerita tak bes dari pengalaman2 orang lain (actually pengaruh dari bace cerita2 cerekarama dari metro la.. apela.. hehe) terngiang-ngiang kat kepale.. ade orang yang tak nampak Kaabah sebab dosa yang tergantungla, and macam2 lagi la cite tak bes... So I pray hard.. moga-moga we are among the lucky one to be able to perform umrah without any hiccups.

And Alhamdulillah.. that very nite, we approached the Masjidil Haram, and there it was.. the big black cube.. as beautiful as people said it was, dan yang paling penting, I saw it! ;)

Around midnite, we performed umrah, from Tawaf to Saie and to Tahlul.. and khalas.. at around 1++ i think, we are free from the pantang-larang ihram. Mase buat umrah tak rase letih, tapi once dah selesai, fuhh.. terase jugak, nasib baik Myra kena tinggal kat hotel, kalau tak, sure lagi mencabar nak angkut die sekali tengah2 malam buat umrah (although I am sure akan dipermudahkan olehNYA kalau kiteorg bawak pun..;).

The hotel we stayed in is just few hundreds meters away, so agak senang nak berulang-alik. The next few days were just us and our own activities, berulang-alik ke Masjid, ambik sebanyak mungkin peluang untuk tawaf, because this is where, the only place we could do so.

I recall from a video I saw about tawaf, claims that ''the Kaabah has the strongest energy on earth that flows counter-clockwise, so by us flowing in co-relation with this energy, we are uplifting ourselves, we are reaching spiritual level that we rarely felt anywhere else, and the fact that we perform 7 times of the tawaf is because of the 7 level of the skies. So, we are reaching the ultimate state of wisdom spirituality''.. wallahualam.

I don't remember which day exactly we went for the group tour to see the Kaabah's Museum and the ladang unta. It was a brief tour, tak sempat nak bergamba sangat pun, hiks.

Anyway, the very last day before our departure, me, my hubby, nizam and Aiman went for our own quick tour with the local taxi. Paid Saudi Riyal 100 per taxi, to visit Jabal Nur, Jabal Thur, Jabal Rahmah, Mina, Padang Arafah etc2. During that tour, we could just imagine ocean of people coming to perform hajj. That empty tent, that empty field would be filled up with millions of pilgrims, with one hope; to not only fulfill one of the 5 pillars of islam... but to be accepted by Allah.

That same evening, we performed tawaf widaq, partly sad that it's time to say good bye. Praying that we'll be invited again..soon insyaallah.

23 hours later, we reached Doha... dengan azam dan semangat baru, semoga Allah terus-terus memberikan hidayah. Memang betul bak kate ustaz Abdullah, doa Nabi Ibrahim (a.s) sememangnya sangat makbul, doanya, semoga sesiapa saja yang datang ke tanah suci Mekah akan rindu untuk datang kembali..

that is exactly what we felt until now.....

menyahut PanggilanNYA.. (pt 2)

Another day in Madinah Al-Munawarah.. which is by rukun, is not part of the umrah, but as one of the respected sister once told me, 'How could you not come and visit Rasulullah (s.a.w) when you are so very near already?

She was right..

The ziarah to Madinah is mainly to send our salam to rasulullah (s.a.w) and his sahabat and to also visiting Raudah; which is as per rasulullah (s.a.w) is part of the heaven's garden.. and is among the most mustajab place for doa. So, whenever you have the opportunity, go ahead and make your wish to visit it, after raudah you are just meters away from makam rasulullah (s.a.w).

For ladies, they have provided few time slot for ziarah, sometime after subuh, after zuhur and after ishak. The guys have much more convenient to visit, which for them are open all the time.

Me and ibu went at around 10-ish that nite (taking turns as we left Myra at the hotel with her dad). We were guided straight to Raudah's way (so we tot). They have a system to gather all the ladies as per their nationalities; which of course put us among the Indonesian and Singaporean group. The ladies guard (as fierce as they can be) would constantly shouted 'Dhudhuk ibu..dhudhuk..' (which is kinda cute, considering they are arabs and all, hiks). So there we goes...from one point to another, like a heard of sheeps we were guided and ordered to make our way, meter by meter nearing Raudah, everytime asked to dhudhuk (sit) then again making few step forwards, then sit.. until we can actually see the Raudah. At the very last point, few of the Pakistani and Turkish ladies got so angry with our group. They stubbornly sneaked in to be among us (as they tot we are next in line to get into Raudah). The ladies guard kept shouting for them to get back to their group, but their ziarah spirit seems much stronger than to bother about a small system as this. We've waited 10 minutes, and another group went in, 15 minutes, another group went in.. it was told that our group (which is the most well-behave and dengar cakap) will be the last to go, so that the Turkish or the Pakistani won't have the chance to push us (which is apparently their best known-behaviour, hence the system). So bagus jugak la ade system ni, at least semua kompem dapat merase.

Alhamdulillah.. 15 minutes before midnite, we finally got in.

(Pic by Aizal)

The next day we have our ziarah with few local ustaz (which are from Malaysia themselves). We visited Masjid Quba, Bukit Uhud, Ladang Kurma and Kilang pencetakan Al-Quran (which is the biggest in the world). The mutawwif in our bus is ustaz Abdullah, throughout the journey he was talking really passionately about the sejarah that all of us felt so tak puas, and rase nak dengar lagi... so Haji Mansur invited him again for another session that night, none of us felt sleepy. All eyes and ears are onto him, memang best.. sayu je dengar sejarah rasulullah (s.a.w) and para sahabat. I hope one day to get the chance to hear the history told by him again..

Never in my life, have I felt so into the scene when people talked about history until that day.

The next day, we checked-out and ready with our Ihram, making our way to Miqat in Bir Ali, untuk pasang our niat umrah and off to Mekah Al-Mukarammah.

To be continue (Insyaallah)