The land of desert, camels and Makkah. The land of oil riches and of kings and billionaires. It is the birthplace of Islam and is rich in Islam's history. For a Muslim, it would be the place of their dreams, a place to strive to go to at least once in their lifetime and a place close to their hearts. It is the reason for their way of life. The reason for all their challenges, pains, joys and rewards in this lifetime. It all started here. Saudi Arabia is mostly renowned worldwide for the annual Hajj, the Pilgrimage all Muslims are supposed to undertake at least once in their lifetime if they are physically and financially able to. And to this land I arrived on the 19th of December.
Before undertaking this journey, it is highly recommended that I seek forgiveness and reconciliation from my family and peers whom I had wronged or strayed from and that is so that I would journey on with a clear conscience, free from ill grudges and blessed with their supplications (do'a).
Before our Journey
On the 18th of December, my family conducted a small prayer before our journey to ask for God to bless our journey and to keep us safe. Before that, we also performed an obligatory Zuhr and Asar prayers during Zuhr time (Solat Jamak Takdim) because our journey in the flight would encompass both timings. Our Prophet Muhammad s.a.w used to say that prayers were never meant to burden us but instead help us, if only Muslims knew. Thus, if we cannot pray onboard the plane, we would have fulfilled our daily obligations (to pray) before the flight. A couple of relatives visited us at home and offered to bring our luggage to the airport. Later on when we entered the Departures gate, they and a couple more relatives and friends bade us a safe journey while some asked favours from us to pray for them for various reasons such as success in their endeavors or for good health.
Our Journey
The flight we took was Etihad Airways and we tranfered at Abu Dhabi International Airport, the home of Etihad Airways. The flight lasted about 7 hours during which I managed to watch Paper Towns, a fantastic film about people, mystery and taking chances in the unknown. I really like the soundtrack and the diversity of views expressed in the film. The food served was also great. They offered a choice of chicken, mutton or pasta all served with cheese cake, a salad and a selection of beverages. The chicken I selected was tender soft and its spice was not too strong. After the meal, I slept to the tunes of a playlist I created from M83, Kodaline, Coldplay and the Scripts albums. Abu Dhabi International Airport is enormous. Although, probably not as grand or lavish as Changi Airport or Dubai International Airport, it does have nice facilities such as travellators, shops, WiFi and shower rooms. Etihad Guest cardholders, of course, were entitled to more privileges. We boarded a Cobus bus from our plane to the airport and took about 5 travellators to reach our gate. On our way, we passed tourists of all kinds, Arabs in their Jubbahs, Europeans in their jackets and jeans and Indians with shawls and long sleeved shirts. At Abu Dhabi, we prayed Maghrib and Ishak prayers- Jamak Takdim. Our next flight was a little less than two hours to Madinah aboard another Etihad plane. Here is an interesting fact, the airport at Madinah was constructed about a year ago. Before that, visitors had to fly to Jeddah and take a bus ride to Madinah which I did so, two years ago. The airport is new, spacious and designed resembling the famous umbrella branches in the Prophet's Mosque.
Madinah and The Prophet's Mosque
We took a short bus ride to the city and arrived at Al-Haram Hotel, just a few metres away from Masjid An-Nabawi. To illustrate how close we were, in front of us is the Grand Oberoy Hotel and after that is the mosque. The temperature in the morning was 15 degrees Celsius, thus I was glad I had on my Uniqlo jacket. We arrived at around 10 am, roughly 5 hours behind Singapore time. Breakfast, lunch and dinner was served in the hotel. Perhaps to cater to the many South East Asian visitors in their hotel, the hotel served mainly Indonesian cuisines ala buffet style. Most of our time in Madinah was spent in the Prophet's Mosque aka Masjid An-Nabawi. Masjid An-Nabawi is a huge mosque stretching to as far as I can see from one end to another. It consists of various sections of sheltered praying grounds and open atriums.The unsheltered areas are covered by huge iconic umbrella structures specially designed by a German years ago. Each umbrella cost a million USD$ and it can be closed and opened when required. It provides shelter from both the relentless heat of the Summer Sun and the cold winds of Winter. It could also collect rainwater and its bottom also provides air conditioning. The floors of the mosque are marble which provides an excellent cooling material in this climate and huge mats are laid out where people would pray. These mats are of thick and high quality and are constantly rolled over by workers of the mosque, thus it was really comfortable to sit if not lie on. The front of the mosque is the area of the original mosque. There also lies the body of Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. and his two companions, Saidina Abu Bakr and Umar al-Khattab r.a, who were also the first and second Rashidun Caliphs after Prophet Muhammad's deaths. The place they were buried, a few metres to the left of the direction of prayer of the mosque visitors, used to be the home of the Prophet when he lived in Madinah, but now, the place is behind bars, away from prying eyes. Visitors to the Prophet would walk pass the graves and offer their greetings to the Prophet and his Companions. Of course, there are many people constantly walking through this area thus, there are security officers constantly ushering people to move. My first visit to here brought me to tears. After all, this is the man who had brought to me the religion I now hold. To quote me again, this extraordinary man had influenced the way I live and is the reason I live. I was not alone, many others weep too for the passing of this great man and prophet. That is how much he had affected our lives.
The mosque is being extended every time. Huge hotels like Al-Haram are being built behind the mosques and destroyed in a few years to expand the mosque. Two years ago, I stayed in Green Palace Hotel and it lay now in ruins in a construction site to make way for the extension of the mosque. Even with its huge enormous current capacity of 1.6 million people, the mosque was still able to fill up to close to its maximum during my stay there! The reason lies due to the month being Rabiul Awal, the month of the Prophet's birth and death day. Compared to Ramadan, this month is said to be even busier. However, even with thousands of Muslims praying the 5 obligatory prayers each day, the mosque never felt full. This could probably be due to the large open spaces, huge gates and extremely high ceilings.
Al-Baqi
To the left of the mosque, occupying a substantial area is Al-Baqi. These are the graves of those who had lived and died in Madinah and includes many of the prophet Companions and his wives. The area is filled with unmarked graves. An interesting point to note, Saudi Arabia embrace a strict form of Islam; Wahhabi Islam. While not a major sect of Islam, the most being Sunni, which I embrace, its practices are applied in the mosques of Saudi Arabia. Wahhabi Islam strictly follows the Laws and Traditions of the Prophet and his Companions. Anything that is not done by the prophet or his companions with regards to God is considered Bidyah, a sin and an innovation of man. One example is, some groups of Muslims recite al-Fatihah when they visit the dead, not to pray to the dead but to pray for the dead. But Wahhabis ban this because the Prophet did not do this. Similarly, us Sunnis, under the Shafi'e juridistic school, say the Qunut during our Fajr/Subuh prayers but the Wahhabis do not. Security or army officers patrol the thousands of Muslims passing by the Prophets grave and around the mosque. There was an Indian man singing Maulid Nabi, songs to praise the Prophet, in Hindi, a tradition which even us Malays do but he was stopped by the officers and scolded. As did two Indian ladies who were prostrating towards the direction of the Prophet instead of towards the Kaabah.
People in Madinah
There are many Muslims from all over the world in Madinah. I managed to converse with an Egyptian, a Turk, a Canadian (who helped me translate and order fries when I wanted them), Indonesians and Arabs. Other races I spotted were Indians, Pakistanis, Algerians, Thais and South Africans. To my amazement, I found out that Egyptians and Pakistanis speak English too, other than Arabic of course. Arabic is the predominant language of exchange there. Two years ago, an Egyptian man invited me to visit Alexandria in Egypt which he said is very beautiful. Alexandria had entered my bucket list of places to travel to ever since. One day, I entered a bookshop in Madinah and I met Umar, a Yemeni Arab, the son of a bookstore owner. When I entered, he was having breakfast with his brothers and his brothers invited me to eat with them.
"Sahabah? Yes? (I nodded) I sahabbah, you sahabbah," Umar's friend had spoken out. Sahabbah=friend
They made way for me to sit. That morning I only wanted to browse their collection of Islamic books, thus I politely declined. "La..(No) Shukran ya akhi... (Thanks, o friend)" After browsing, Umar stood up and offered me tea which I graciously accepted before I finally sat on a stool. Umar spoke some English and a collection of Bahasa Indonesia/Malay which he learnt while interacting with visitors to his store. He introduced himself in sparse English. He is the same age as me and came from Yemen where there is a civil war now. After exchanging views on our countries, I learnt a little about Arab culture. It turns out, its rude to decline an invitation to a meal in a person's residence. I guess that is a pretty interesting information piece of information I will never forget. After finishing my tea, a bade him farewell and Inyaallah (God-Willing), our path would meet again.
Places of Interest around Madinah al-Munawarrah
We visited a few places of interest around Madinah. We visited Masjid Quba, the first mosque built in the history of Islam. We passed by Masjid Qiblatain, a mosque in which the prophet received Word from God to change the direction of the Qiblat (direction of prayer) from al-Aqsa in Palestine to the Kaabah in Mekkah. We also visited Jabar Uhud, the site of the second battle in Islam's history. History of the Uhud Hill: After the success of thwarting the then pagan Arab Quraish of Mekkah in Badr, the two factions, pagans and Muslims, met again at Uhud. Just like a large portion of Saudi Arabia where the land have many rocky hills, Madinah, an oasis town, was surrounded with hills like Uhud hill. Before the battle, the Prophet assigned 50 archers to the top of the Uhud hill to keep the enemies of Islam from overpowering the Muslim ranks by sheer number in one on one combat. He told them to be wary of the enemy's cavalry and told them to stay put until he told them to come down. The first phase of the battle ended with the Quraish retreating from the battlefield leaving behind spoils of war. It was actually a cunning tactic by Khalid al-Walid, the then pagan worshipping commander of the Quraish Army. The archers, seeing the enemies, flee ran down the hill to gather spoils of war. Khalid al-Walid saw this and rounded his cavalry. He led his cavalry around the entire hill and attacked the Muslims from behind. The retreating Quraish also turned back and attacked, thus cornering and overpowering the Muslims now without the cover of arrows. In BBC's History Channel, it was mentioned that the Muslim population was decimated. 73 martyred including Hamzah, a respected warrior and the Prophet's uncle, and even the prophet himself was wounded. He and several Companions were pushed up a hill where an arrow struck the prophet's cheek. In the end, the Muslims lost. The martyred now lay in unmarked ditches in an enclosed fenced area. Years ago, a flood hit the area of Uhud and it was said the bodies of the martyrs were unearthed. The remarkable thing was that the bodies of these warriors were all perfectly preserved. Khalid al-Walid later on converted to Islam and was nicknamed Saifullah, the Sword of Allah, by the Prophet. In history, only two generals have never tasted defeat in war. One was Gengis Khan and the other is Khalid al-Walid who later on commanded the armies which defeated the Persian and Roman empires.
After visiting Jabar Uhud, we visited a Date Farm and the Date Market. There, one can find a variety of dates, or "kurma", which are desert fruits high in nutritional values due to its concentrated content. These fruits are akin to raisins but with a different peculiar unsweet taste to it. The best type are said to be Ajwa dates which are dark purple, more close to black than purple, and are small and slightly more rounded than most other types of dates. The Market is located in a one story building complex and have stores selling colorful chocolates, honey, nuts such as pistachios cashew nuts and some spice and sauce found in Arabia among other things. While the larger stores occupying 2-3 shop spaces have rows of neatly arranged products and more customers, they do charge higher prices. Ajwa dates there cost 50 riyals/kg, about S$19, compared to 40 riyals/kg in the smaller stores.
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| Uhud |
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| Masjid Quba |
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| Date Market |
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| Battle phases in Battle of Uhud |
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| Date Farm |
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| Masjid An-Nabawi |
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| Grave at Uhud |
Farewell to the Prophet and Madinah
We spent 5 days in Madinah, whereby most of our time was spent praying and doing dhikr, devotional acts which reminds us of God, in Masjid an Nabawi. These acts could be in the form of mentally reciting God's names, saying short phrases or prayers or reading the Quran. On our last day, it was time to perform Ziarah Wada, a farewell visit to bade goodbye to the Prophet. Our tour group visited the prophet at Masjid an-Nabawi and called out to him in the morning before leaving on a bus which would take us to our next destination, Bir Ali.
Thus we left the cool blessed oasis town of Madinah.
For nice pictures of Madinah, you can browse them on my Facebook album "As I Saw It":
