Assalamu Alykum
Part II
Again I ask for your forgiveness for yet another delay this time it was Ramadan and Taraweeh that took up my time, I hear someone saying but Khaldun Ramadan was like almost two weeks ago but then there was Eid init, anyways making a long story short, Alhamdulilah I’m posting now and that’s what counts
So we left Makkah on a Thursday as the Sunnah of the Prophet :arabic5: and took one of them small funny minibuses, the trip took quite long and subhanAllah on the way I kept looking at the landscape. Very Very harsh environment and I still could feel the heat even though I was in a vehicle with good air-condition. Looking out it hit me, how the Prophet :arabic5: suffered traveling there alone with Abu Bakr (radiyaAllahu anhu) the burning sun the stony ground and with the Makkans on their heels made me very emotional subhanAllah. Arriving in Madinah about Asr time (we prayed Fajr in Makkah and Duhr in one of the many masajids available for travelers on the road) stepping out of the bus, I had been told that Madinah was much cooler then Makkah, so then I committed my second serious mistake, I inhaled very deeply and this time it was even worse I actually got a nosebleed and the heat was incredibly intense and to make matter worse a sand storm erupted and we had to find refuge inside the Prophets :arabic5: Masjid until it had died down. Shaykh Thubaytee lead the Asr pray Alhamdulilah it was very nice.
Following day was Friday of course; we made it quickly to the masjid to get good places, and following the hadith of the Prophet
Abu Huraira reports that the Prophet :arabic5: said: "Whoever makes ghusl on Jumu'ah like the ghusl one makes due to sexual defilement, and then goes to the mosque, it will be as if he had sacrificed a camel. If he goes during the second hour, it will be as if he had sacrificed a cow. If he goes during the third hour, it will be as if he had sacrificed a horned lamb. If he goes during the fourth hour, it will be as if he had sacrificed a hen. And if he goes during the fifth hour, it will be as if he had sacrificed (something like) an egg. When the imam comes, the angels will be present to listen to the remembrance."
Shaykh Thubaytee took the Prayer, mashAllah. Later on for Isha I met standing in the first line the very same brother who I had met in Makkah talking about Shaykh Shuraim subhanAllah, I greeted him and he recognised me. I asked how he got so good place (just behind the imam) he said I waited since duhr today, I was tempted to ask him to share his place with me hehe but I had my brother and cousin with me so we moved on and had a seat in the third row near where the Prophet :arabic5: is buried and the rawdah which we had prayed sunnahs in. So we were sitting there waiting for the salah, abit tired because just previous we had been sitting in one of the numerous knowledge gatherings by Shaykh Abu Bakr Al Jazaa’iree who had given a tafseer of the first few verses of Surah Ghafeer. So anyways, sitting and relaxing and this old man comes up to us, and yells “What are you doing here in the front close to the pious people (the Prophet and his companions)” I was gob smacked didn’t know what to say…then he smiled and laughed and said “mashAllah may Allah bless you, your good kids” and he gave us sweets alhamdulilah. But we had to put it in our pockets because as soon as we got them the iqamah was given and out stepped Shaykh Abdul Muhsin Al Qassem, he read incredible mashAllah and his takbeer is priceless. Just after the salah, it started to rain, not any sort of rain the heavens literally opened up and it poured! And soon after came the lighting which was so near that it struck some generator close by and some of the lamps around the masjid went out, and it was very dark subhanAllah.
The following day we finished the Ziyara alhamdulilah, saw most things. The martyrs of Uhud looking at their sacrifice and what we do for Islam made me feel ashamed. They sacrificed their lives and wealth for Islam and yet always used to be afraid and humble themselves, here we do the totally opposite and yet feel that Allah should give us jannah as a reward.
If you want to get around in Madinah I would recommend taking a normal car and not one of the companies taxis, first of all it’s cheaper and second you will meet some very interesting people, people born in Madinah and raised there real native Madinaties (is it called that?) So we took one of these taxis to the University of Madinah in order to apply alhamdulilah very nice looking place. So I came in and gave my application form in and they said looking at me, so you memorized the Quran? MashAllah! TabarakAllah! Read from here, here and here lol. But alhamdulilah I managed and it didn’t go to bad.
We stayed in Madinah for two weeks and both Fridays Shaykh Thubaytee lead, but I had the privilege to pray behind Abdul Mushin Al Qassem and Salah Budayr. I kept on bumping into people even in Madinah. I met a brother from Leicester who also is an imam fan, and he asked me if I had met the imams yet. I looked down ashamed and said no sorry it’s too hard. And he said I have…surprised I looked at him and he gave me a small briefing on how to catch them just before they enter their car park etc but I thought that sounded abit too much so I never got to meet any of the imams *sad*.
After our stay we headed back to Makkah once again to complete our journey and do one more umrah. And inshAllah in my final bit I will tell you about how I finally got to met Shuraim and give him my salaam along with other encounters inshAllah.