Umrah Travelogue - Part 4

The final part of my journey was spend at Mecca. At that time, the construction of the Holy Mosque is still ongoing.

Due to the massive construction, the environment is dusty and the places where you can perform the prayers are limited. There are hundreds of massive cranes that are scattered around the mosque. Bear in mind that I went to perform umrah before the accident of crane collapses happens. Read here.

To describe the feeling that I felt upon seeing the Kaaba is beyond words. I am lucky and honoured to be selected to come to this Holy place. It is my hope that all of my prayers will be answered and that all of Muslims in the entire world would be able to live in peace again.

To end my post, here are few pictures of the mosque including the on-going construction at that time.

Umrah Travelogue - Part 3

My first part of the trip was at Medina followed by Mecca. 

Medina, the city of Holy Prophet. It reminds me the struggle of the Prophet and His Companions to relay the message of Allah Subhanahu Wa Taala and now Islam has been spread worldwide. 

The Prophet Mosque. 

It it the main attraction here at Medina. There are several interesting features of the mosque in comparison to the mosque in Malaysia. Apart from being the second largest mosque in the world, it also hosts the original house of the prophet and the final resting place of the Prophet and His Great companions. One of the place where supplications can be easily granted, Raudhah is also located in this mosque. There are lots of historical remains in this mosque. 

The giant umbrella

It is one of the most common structures featured in any television show whenever you talked about the Holy Prophet mosque. The umbrella is extremely tall in structure. I will let the picture shows how big and massive is the giant umbrella. 

The aircond

I was surprised at first to see the location of air conditioning system at the mosque. It is located at the bottom of every pillar inside the mosque. 

Shoes 

Perhaps not common in Malaysia, here in Saudi Arabia, you can bring shoes inside the mosque as long as you put your shoe in a clean container most often in the form of plastics. There are thousands of shoe racks inside the mosque. 

Raudhah. 

This place is always crowded regardless of what time it is on the day. You have to come early to get inside to the Raudhah. There are allocated time for female and male to visit this place. However, this place is open to all Muslims during the compulsory prayer.

One piece of advice from me....this also applies to Mecca as well. It is advisable to come extremely early to the mosque for every prayer time. Even during Fajr prayer, the mosque is already full one hour before the actual prayer.

to be continued...

Umrah Travelogue - Part 2

King Abdul Aziz International Airport (Jeddah's Hajj Terminal)

This airport is frequently used to handle pilgrims who are taking part in Hajj and umrah.  I departed from Malaysia in the morning and arrived in the Jeddah's airport in the evening. The flight will usually last between 8 to 9 hours and the time zone in Saudi Arabia is about 5 hours later than Malaysia.

The most common problem that people will face at this airport will be the attitude of the immigration officer. It has been cited by many blogs including by my friends, and they have warned me in advance, that you should expect delay for several hours at this airport.

In my own experience, I was stuck at the airport for more than 5 hours. The immigration officer keeps on talking to themselves and intermittently close the counter without any proper explanation, and later ask the people who has been waiting for the past few hours to move on to the next counter.

Despite there were only two flights that arrived in the airport at that time, the immigration officers took about 5 hours to process the passengers from these two flights. Just imagine the situation when they are handling thousands of Hajj pilgrims during Hajj season.

Personally, I took this as a test to measure my patience. Let us hope that this situation will be improved in the future. 

view of the airport with it's unique design of the roof

Madinah al Munawwarah

After the delay at the airport, we travelled to Madinah via chartered buses. The journey took us about 6 hours with a stop in the middle of the travel for dinner. Madinah is located about 400km northeast of Jeddah. By this time, all of us were already sleep deprived and tired. Most of us were asleep during this journey.

Image taken from Google Map

The picture above shows the location of the hotel in comparison to the Prophet's Mosque. Most of the hotels are located to the north and west side of the Holy Mosque. I stayed in one of those hotels and it was within walking distance to the Holy Mosque.

The Baqi cemetery is located to the southeast of the Holy Mosque. This is the cemetery of the Prophet's companion.

I will take more about Madinah in the following post...

Umrah Travelogue - Part 1

Alhamdulillah, I have returned from my trip to Meccca and Madinah one week ago. The trip lasted about 2 weeks and within those periods, many significant events happened in Malaysia. 

First was the massive flood that involves multiple states in Malaysia. My hometown was also not spared from the disaster and even my own parent has to relocate as my house was next to Sungai Perak. Half of my hometown was flooded for more than one week.

Second was the crash of Indonesia Air Asia aeroplane. Until today, they are still looking for the dead passengers and the black box. This event will have significant impact to the future of budget airlines in Indonesia.

Back to my umrah journey. This trip was planned for few months in advance. This is my first time visiting the Holy Land. Alhamdulillah, there were few surprises and lots of nice memory that I have collected throughout the journey.

Preparation

1.     Travel agent

Many Malaysians used to go to perform umrah via travel agents albeit few will go independently. In my case, I follow the majority and arrange the entire trip using a travel agent. There are many travel agents available in Malaysia and it is up to you to choose which agent suits you the best

2.     Knowledge

In order to perform umrah while hoping that it will be blessed by Allah, we need to increase our knowledge and learn the best way to perform this act of worship. In this matter, I read few guides of umrah and explore hundreds of blogs regarding their experience at Mecca and Madinah.

3.     Physical

The journey at Mecca and Madinah requires lots of stamina. Umrah is a physical form of worship. During the trip, I used the pedometer app in my smartphone and on average, I walked about 20000-25000 steps per day which translates to about 18-23km per day!

4.     Spiritual

This is a journey to cleanse a soul and a time for self-reflection. This is not a journey of shopping, photography or any worldly matter. Prior to the trip, it was advisable to perform night prayers and frequently asked forgiveness from Allah for any wrongdoings, whether intentional or unintentional. Personally, I always check regarding my nawaitu of visiting the Holy Land. It is best to go there with an open, sincere heart and willing to prepare for any tests that we will encounter during this journey.