Labbaik Allaahumma Labbaik...

24 May, 2011

Around 2pm, we set off to Mecca by bus again. All ready in Ihram attire, most of us in whites.

I didnt prepare a specific white Ihram clothes from home, i planned to wear any of my jubah or abaya which is not white. But later i realised all my sisters ready with white clothes according to sunnah, then i decided to buy one at Medina. A simple white jubah.

It was hot sunny afternoon, as usual. My sister sat beside me fell asleep immediately. I cant help but feeling nervous through the whole long journey. So i read thru my guide book studiously. Tht was my first time to perform Umrah, i was pretty worry i might overlook some important points especially about Restrictions during Ihram.

Shortly later we reached Bir Ali Mosque for miqat. It's the nearest miqat point from Medina and the furthest point from Mecca (Medina direction). Jemaah from Medina will stop for miqat at Bir Ali mosque, located at Dhul Hulayfa.

We performed solat sunat tahayatul mesjid, solat sunat Ihram and niat (intent) to perform Umrah here.

It's a beautiful mosque but we couldnt spend long time here bcs we rushed to further our long journey to Mecca. We should reach Mecca before midnite otherwise it will be tiring to perform Umrah after late nite.

Before we set off from Bir Ali, our mutawwif again reminded about Ihram and its restrictions and lead us  to recite Niat Ihram for Umrah. Especially for ladies, for those in mense & before mense, in order to avoid problems in completing our Umrah, lest we have to pay Dam.

Anas said, describing how the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) entered ihram, said that he said:  

Labbayka Umratan la riya’a fiha wa la sum’ah  

[Here I am for Umrah in which there is no showing off or seeking reputation.] 

We then recite Talbiyyah throughout the journey, it is sunnah for us to recite Talbiyyah as often as possible until we perform Tawaf.

‘Here I am O Allaah, (in response to Your call), here I am. Here I am, You have no partner, here I am. Verily all praise, grace and sovereignty belong to You. You have no partner.’

Sebak sangat bila menyebut nyebut talbiyah ni, bila dihayati maknanya..

Dalam panas terik petang tu, hujan membasahi di dalam hati dan di pipi.

"Ya Allaah, terimalah daku hambaMu yang hina ini

terimalah daku dengan sebaik-baiknya

izinkan aku beribadah kepadaMu dengan tenang, dengan sempurna

ampunkan dosa-dosaku Ya Allaah, dan terimalah ibadahku"


We reached around 10pm, we stayed at Dar el Iman Hotel in Safa Tower. Alhamdulillah, again our stay was very close to Mesjid.  It's just about 40m away from King Abdul Aziz entrance.
Shortly after settled our luggage to the room, we made our way to Al-Haram to perform Umrah.
My very first Umrah.

SubhanaAllaah...upon seeing Baitullah before my eyes, i lost my words to describe.
There, my dream came true...
 I didnt bother to take any pic on that night. My mind was so pregnant with emotions.
Syukur Ya Allah, syukur...

shy-shy

before i move to next entry about my most marvelous experience in Mecca, i just want to share some personal notes about myself. about my new discovery.

re-title : of me & black veil.

i am a normal muslim. i am no better than you.

i started to wear tudung  when i was in standard 5, because i was the only free-hair prefect and one day during a school ceremony the headmaster asked me quietly (while handing over my prize)

"dalina bila nak pakai tudung?"

*gulp*

later that same day i request a tudung from my mom. but only for school.

then i was just another normal 11 years old girl with tudung at school. only at school. on some hot days, i took off my tudung once i stepped out of school gate. panas katanya. somemore my childhood hair used to be very very thick. very lebat. black & thick. bila pakai tudung tu memang menduga kesabaran dan keimanan yang tak berapa ada masa tu :)

i stayed in kampung. tudung is very common attire for girls as early as possible.

so i just continued with tudung since then, particularly at school.

i entered a boarding school at form 2. rules at school taught me something somehow. then tudung became my extended attire apart of normal clothes. i did not bother so much about "berdosa kalau buka aurat" bcs it's more of school culture, the norm. so i was in the flow.

somehow, tho i didnt really made efforts to understand about hukum menutup aurat, never came across my mind to let it go even after my schooling phase. maybe i was just used to it.

i am still used to it.

and i used to think, niqab is a higher decree and only being practiced by a higher level of devotees. i could never picture me as one of them. i recount myself as far behind.

but i always respect them in niqab especially those who live here, or any other place which Islam not being practiced dominantly. to me, they are courageous pretty souls.

during my last visit to Haramain, so i decided to try it out. I wanted to experience how it feels as the watching eyes behind the veil. my sisters and brothers found it funny. as the youngest sister in the family i'm used to exceptionally do something new, at worst they wud just laugh it out. nothing serious.

so i did try. one morning in Medina, after breakfast...me & sisters head to bazaar for some farewell shopping. we were pretty early, while waiting for our favorite shop to open we roamed around. then we stopped at a shop where i found my first niqab. my sister thought i was making joke when i try it on me, yeaah we laughed but then i bought it. and i put it on immediately.

my first impression : mashaAllaah...it's calming.

then i occasionally wear it. like when we went to shopping, it made me most comfortable. okay i'm not a pretty face that people would stare admiring my beauty but still, without that pretty face i feel very comfortable walking around the mall and people could never judge what lies behind the veil. maybe now i understand the beautiful feeling of niqabis.

this niqab also very practical for walking around under scorching hot & dry day. I coughed less, this veil works as filter and protect from dust.

yours truly in her first niqab, for first time. hence the sengetness, very much amateur ;)

i posted this pic on my FB wall on tht afternoon before we moved to Mecca. one of my frens thought i am now berpurdah...hehe. no no not yet. i am still far behind. but tis is a practical wear for tht circumstance.

later in Mecca, i bought another piece. that first one is a 3-piece type, suggesting 3 layers of cover. light, medium or full. the second purchase is more simple & convenient. it's done with a stretchable string, i can just put it on whenever i want even while i am walking.

then i posed. and posed. and posed. me & my new discovery.

noted that before this, i never posted my picture at any public networks. i pemalu *eheh heh heh*

really, bcs i'm not comfortable. i segan. shy-shy katanya.

that pics of me in niqab made me feel better. i posted at my fb wall, i use them as my profile pics.

tho i am still pemalu. *snickers*

one might ask : why dun u wear it here?

answer : naah..blum dpt greenlight ;)

perpisahan

24 May, di pagi yg hening selepas solat sunat Isyraq.

pagi terakhir di Masjid An-Nabawi

selepas solat fard zuhr, kami bersiap untuk meninggalkan Medina.

ziarah wada' mengucapkan salam perpisahan...amat sebak di dalam hati. 

sedih untuk berpisah dari kekasih, junjungan besar Rasulullah saw

semoga perpisahan ini cuma sementara

"Ya Allah, jangan Kau jadikan pertemuan ini sebagai pertemuan akhir ku disisi RasulMu,

dan mudahkan bagiku untuk kembali semula ke Haramain,

murahkan rezekiku, kurniakanlah keampunan dan kesihatanku,

kembalikanlah kami dengan sempurna dan sejahtera"

kalau Tuan mudik ke hulu,

carikan saya bunga kemboja,

begitu Tuan pergi dahulu,

nantikan saya di taman syurga...

cerita bergambar

Medina...part II

the next day at Medina, we had ziarah in group. Our mutawwif (ustaz Ali, from Indonesia) such a good person. He explained some short histories of places we visited. Also reminded us to avoid from being cheated by street sellers.

here are some pictures taken along the short morning visit. we were quite in rush bcos we need to get back before zuhr prayer. it's more important than shopping :)



Masjid Quba
[info of Masjid Quba as quoted from other website]: When the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) emigrated to Medina, he first landed at Bani `Amr bin `Awf and stayed in Quba for three days. So the Prophet (PBUH) built a mosque there, hence the first mosque built in Medina. The distance from the Prophet`s Mosque to Quba Mosque (Masjid Qubaa) is 3.25 km
Narrated Ibn Umar,"Whoever purifies himself (take wudhu') in his house then comes to Masjid Quba' and prays in it has the reward like that of Umrah." (Al-Nasa'i and Ibn Majah)

Our next stop was Jabal Uhud.

I just read some good info about Martyrs of Uhud from tis site. it's good to refer. at the center of the yard, there's Sayyidina Hamza's grave, among others who martyred in the Battle of Uhud.
"God certainly fulfilled His promise to you when you were fighting the unbelievers, by His permission. Even after We showed you what you wanted, you began to lose courage, started quarreling with each other  and disobeyed God's order. Some of you want worldly gains and others of you want rewards in the Hereafter. Then He let you face defeat in order to test you. However, He forgave you. God is Gracious to the believers.(Believers remember) when you were fleeing without even glancing to either side even though the Messenger were calling you back, God made you suffer sorrow upon sorrow to make you forget your grief of what you had lost and the injuries you had suffered. God is Well-Aware of what you do"[Surah Al-Imran : 152-153]

Next stop was at Dates Farm for some shopping before we moved to Masjid Qiblatain. Then rushed back to hotel to get ready for Zuhr prayer at Masjid Nabawi.

May this ziarah benefits us for our knowledge and imaan. InshaAllaah...

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

cinta

Bismillahirrahmaanirrahiim

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

Day 2 (22 May - Sunday)

First Fajr prayer at Mesjid Nabawi.

MashaAllaah...i remember that special feeling when we step into the mosque for first time.

Upon entering the mosque.

My heart trembled with nervousness. Delighted, touched, and honored. I had mixed emotions.

It was so special..

I felt like going for first date.

But it was much more special than any date.

Because i was going to "meet" the most beloved man. Our Rasulullah..

many many times i asked myself, "is this for real? am i really one of his guest here at his mosque?"

i am nobody but a sinner.

i have wronged myself too much.

i have made mistakes, over and over and i am so guilty.

quietly, i cried.

that was very special feeling

that was indeed a special invitation.

i never knew before, how much i loved him

but being there among his other guests

it made me realised

i love him more than anyone i know

i fell in love again,

at Nabawi

by air and by land...

Day 1

we started off from home around 10 in the morning. Mr & Jr sent to airport.

earlier we took Jr to clinic for check up. it was infection at his eye, doc suggested. we took home some antibiotic which we were pretty sure he would not take it in.

at least there is medicine, if highly necessary. (more of me comforting myself)

Mr just dropped me off. after salam & bye-bye, i asked them to leave. i cant bear to watch them any longer at airport, while Jr. started to make scene. somehow, i know he could understand about me leaving. eventho without his words.

our flight scheduled at 3pm but with long Q at check-in counter, short briefing, etc...we had to rush for snack lunch and jamak qasar zuhur & asr prayer. we were done just in time.

....flew off we were, by malaysia airline.

8 hours direct flight was pretty tiring...

we reached Jeddah Terminal Hajj..around 6++ pm local time...

alhamdulillah immigration procedure was pretty smooth. we were told tht sometimes (on some bad days) jemaah had to wait for long hours to settle with immigration checks.

touch down - Jeddah

Jeddah - Hajj Terminal

then we further our journey to Medinah by bus which took another 4 hours.

tired. but upon reaching the hotel, that sight of Mesjid Nabawi liven up our spirit.

we stayed at Movenpick Hotel, just merely few steps away from the mosque gate.

alhamdulillah...

will write about the majestic mesjid nabawi in next entry...

(and i already missed to be there again, even while i was staying in Mekkah)

to be continued

perjalanan

Bismillahirrahmaanirrahiim...
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

i just transferred photos from my handphone and camera to this lappy.
perhaps it's more fun to write from now.
these last few days i'm nursing myself at home. did nothing much. the part time cleaner, fara was here last friday. Alhamdulillah...at least she settled some (major) cleaning task.

apart of nursing my cough, actually i'm dealing with separation sickness.
i miss Haram...
some days, when i woke up in the morning..i wish it is 3 o'clock in the hotel room and we rush to get ready for Fajr prayer at al Haram...
oh my..i cant wait to be back there again..
i really really hope, in my next trip...i'm going with these two men of mine.

i wanted to write about my Umrah. some details of this special journey of my own.
that might take few entries and i shall start with this one.
just a short intro perhaps.

Nite Before Leaving
my sweetheart intan payung musyuk masyam pengarang jantung...ditakdirkan Allah,
bengkak sebelah matanya...ketumbit eh namanya. lebih kurang lah
Astaghfirullah..ujian Allah swt...sgt berat dlm hati si ibu, bila tengok anak mcm tu
tapi hanya kepadaNya jua kita bermohon, semuga tabahkan hati untuk menunaikan hajat yang telah lama diidamkan, bermusafir menuju ke RumahNya dan semuga dapat beribadat dengan tenang dan sempurna. Semuga urusan keluarga disini dipermudahkan Allah dan didalam lindunganNya sentiasa...

malam tu asyik berkepit je dgn mommy...tidur nak peluk mommy

Maha Suci Allah...Dia Maha Mendengar du'a hamba-hambaNya...

Besoknya, saya berangkat bersama rombongan keluarga seperti yang dijadualkan...
Dan mata si anak surut pada hari kemudiannya...

to be continued

safely home

now i'm safely home, alhamdulillah
with piles of stories to tell
and abundance of emotions to share

but i think i better take some time for myself
sorting out some affairs
right here in my humble house
with my two dearest men

Love.

preparation

so finally i got myself a travel bag. a medium size. red color. love it.
(i am a red lover, i guess)
it was yesterday.

and today The Three Us went to some shopping outing, somehow i managed to convince Mr. to get some new shirts for him. After many many moons of postponing. Sangat susah nak suruh dia pegi pilih baju/seluar dia sendiri. Malas katanya. Some of his shirts dah berlobang. Malu. Tapi dia okay je pakai yang berlobang kat ketiak tu pegi keje. hehe

one thing that i most concern about leaving these One & A Half Men;
* pakaian - can he do laundry? doubt doubt doubt

so today i forced him to pick some new shirts, and underwear. ;)
and i bought some for Jr. too...
lega. at least for tht matter.

and i got two new pairs of socks. that's enough for me.
next...
hmm...what's next?

#p.s
we had some little surprises today;
i) morning - Jr. "accidentally" wash up his "business" by himself. alone. wah!
ii) while mommy belek-belek pilih his brief at kids department, he pointed to Ben10 box. Amboii..padahal kat rumah tak penah2 pun nak layan ben10 etc.

I think i shud be prepared to welcome a big boy in the house soon
=)

a week

it's saturday
and it's a week away until my first journey of Umrah
nervous. excited

checklist:
vaccine injection - done
short course - done
clothing - almost
travel bag - not yet
mind - loading
heart - preparing

i'm gonna leave these One & A Half Men behind
i'm gonna miss them pretty much soon
but my heart so longed for visiting His Baitullah Al Haram
i pray everything goes smooth and fine
and may this journey make me a better one
InshaAllah