Medina

BismillahirRahmaanirRahiim..

In the Name of Allaah. The Most Gracious. The Most Merciful

This post has been drafted few days earlier. Then i have this same routines to attend, and let tis post being abandoned temporarily. I could just make it short and simple (and it is never a long one actually) but i decided, why rush? so here it is...

staying in Medina is indeed a special experience. especially for first timer like me.

tho it's just short stay of 3 days.

we surely don't want to miss every fard prayer at Masjid An Nabawi. The home of Rasulullah...

as quoted in hadis ;

Anas relates that the Prophet Muhammad SAW said : Prayer in my mosque is equal a thousand prayers (elsewhere)...

SubhanaAllah...who would resist?

in the morning, 22nd...after breakfast, we had program with group around the mosque.

they (mutawif & assistants) briefed some histories and showed us around.

there's strict regulations practiced here. entrances are separated for men & ladies.

we ladies not allowed to enter that entrance near Makam Rasululullah, so we can visit him from outside of the wall. and we are not allowed to say prayer in group. once our group stopped at near wall of Makam Rasululullah for briefing and du'a then the mosque staff shoosh-ed us away at once. for them worry that there might leads to bidaah ritual..i heard so. anyway...

we visited Makam Baqi' (from a distance) it's just a close compound next to the mosque.

then a female assistant (indonesian) took us ladies to Raudhah, in the mosque.

Nabawi is such a big big mosque so in order to Raudhah we need to take another entrance at the other corner, bcos we couldnt pass through from inside. it's blocked.

and that morning, we visited Raudhah for first time. everybody so eager and some look quite tensed of waiting. yes, we need to wait. we ladies are not allowed to enter Raudhah as free as men. they set time schedule for ladies which is quite limited. and they put us into groups, like..asian group, iran group, and such...and i'm quite impressed with mosque's female staffs. they can speak some simple bahasa melayu..

"ibu..ibu..sini sini..."

"ibu..ibu..duduk..duduk..."

# correction : actually tht sounds more like bahasa Indonesia

said the staff behind the black veil. i cant help but admire their veil, sometimes while waiting. :)

then, once they let us go in...we rushed in. berebut macam budak sekolah, exactly.

i have no choice but to brush up my surviving skill. those Persian like Iranian, Turks etc are pretty (yes, they are) strong and very very tough and stubborn. some would just ignore instructions and let down manners. so we malays comparatively smaller in size have to follow the flow, berebut macam budak sekolah too...

Raudhah

indeed a special spot in Nabawi.

"Apa yang berada di antara rumahku dan mimbarku adalah sebuah taman dari taman-taman syurga."

(Hadith riwayat Bukhari)

And another hadith mentions, if you pray in Raudhah it's almost same like you pray in Heaven.

(sorry i couldn't find the details)

Allah will answer and make our du'a come true...inshaAllaah..

so people (ladies) really like pushing up forth to find a space to pray here. and so i did.

Alhamdulillah i had the chance. Twice.

Pictures

As this mosque is very good maintained with its rules, we are not allowed to bring in camera or handphone camera. The women-guard dutifully check our bag at entrance. But i did take in few times until one day terkantoii and she asked me to leave. Opps. I turned to another door and hide it at "tempat rahsia". So it saved me for another few rounds ;)

why i (and others) need the camera? ofcos we want to capture pics of interior design of the mosque.

MashaAllaah..it's soooo nice. fine, elegant and calming...

i took some pics here but i couldnt bother to take pic in Raudhah. and nobody did ;)

so i bought some postcards (later in Mecca) of some special places in Haram (Medinah & Mecca) and they are much nicer.

more stories and pics of Medina in my next entry, inshaAllaah...

to be continued