Assalamu Alykum
Alhamdulilah I tought I share my experiance I had when I went to umrah this summer, I know many of you will object and say you took ages to post this and for that I sincerly apoligies however certain things are beyond human capacity and in the hands of Allah. Like when a man once asked the great companion Ali (radiaAllahu anhu) about the concept of taqdeer (that something has already been pre-destined) the man wanted to understand this fact, so Ali (radiaAllahu anhu) told the man to raise one foot, and he did so, then he said now raise your other foot and of course this is impossible thus he showed him that humans will has a limit, even if he wanted to raise the other foot he would not have been able to do this, you might wonder whats the wisedom behind telling you this, the only thing I want to put across is that I wished for something and Allah wished for something else and I hope you understand.
Well I started of the journey at the airport ofcourse and spent one day travelling when the plane landed in Jeddah and we stepped out of it the air was very humid and this was like 22.00+ in the night. At first I tought maybe I was standing to near the engine but I later came to release that this indeed was the weather of Saudi. And it was at this point that I made my first major "mistake" as I stepped from the plane I took a very deep breath through my nose consecently making it very dry and irritated, so the first lesson you will learn is not to take deep breaths as soon as you leave the airplane at least wait until your used to the climate.
Anyway after that we made our way from Jeddah towards our goal Makkah it was in the middle of the night when we finally arrived and most of my family members were at sleep but I was determined not to go to sleep. One thing that really struck me (being a person raised in the west) was that how different it was, like for an example here in the west when you drive on the roads you get all sorts of billboards with filth, however on the roads of Saudi they had small road signs saying "remember Allah" "All praises are for Allah" "o Allah send Your peace and blessings upon the prophet" etc also when we drew nearer to Makkah they had this big sign were the famous ayah was written "Ina awala baytin wudi'a linasi laladi bi Bakkata Mubarakan wa hudan Lil 'alameen" "Verly the first house (of worship) that was established for mankind was at Bakkah (Makkah) the blessed, and a source for guidance for the creation" and I could feel the excitment increasing inside me. Some people call New York city the City that does not sleep although I feel that Makkah is more deserving of this title, kids were playing fotball at 1am and the town had just come to life. When we drove down Ibrahim Khaleel road I saw it, it was incredible with all its nuur MASJIDULHARAM it took my breath away, the proportions of the masjid. We made our way to our hotel and checked in the people were very tired so we decided to preform our umrah early next morning.
At Duhur the following day we finished our umrah alhamdulilah and I tought now I got spare time to "stalk" the shuyukh, inspired by brother Abdullah Saoods success in going to their houses I tought it wouldnt be to difficult, so the first week I was there Shuraim led all salah even all the Janazah and the number of Janazah salah are many after each salah the is at least one or maybe two even. So the plan was to pray our salah and then as soon as the salah was finished try to make our way near to the shaykh for janazah salah. We got very close to the shaykh alhamdulilah saw his face very clear subhanAllah very handsome he was aswell. Nevertheless when shuraim said his "salamu alykum wa rahmatullaaaaaaah" signalling that the janazah was over the group of people split into two parts a group followed the dead person for the burial and a group ran after the shaykh I turned my head for a second to look for my little brother and my cousin and told them shuraim is on the move quick! Although when I turned my head back he was gone just like batman you know very frustrating, and like this it carried on for days with shuraim dissappearing into the crowd without a trace.
After being in Makkah for a few days I decided to look for a internet cafe to get access to the internet so i was walking close to the haram and asked people about where I could find a net cafe, one man I asked looked at me very strangly and said with a puzzled voice "Internet?" and tought oh dear but said yes Internet, so he replied making a gesture with his hand "telephone?" I said no no computer and made a gesture with my own hands as if I had a keyboard just to make him understand, then he said oh Internet! "Ma Fi internet" (no internet here) I kept asking people then this one person told me you will have to go to Al Aziziyah so i just left it for the time being.
I went to Umm Al Qura the University there to apply for it and even prayed at the the small masjid there very nice place and people. But didnt bother to look any internet cafes. The heat is very intense and at every corner there is water fountain thing with very cold water, in such conditions one appreciate the verses of Allah that are oft repeated "Janatin Tajri min tahthil anhar" (Garderns underneath rivers flow) the importance of water cant be over exaggerated. And wearing the imamah or at least a kofi (hat) is quite important or else you might suffer from sun stroke.
Inside the Holy Masjid one will se many things that are upseting however one must have much sabr, some people come to beg right near the kaba, you might think being in the house of Allah one should ask Allah only for sustance but again you must over see this and try to think good about people. Another problem is the guards, to us they might seem very harsh and hostile but again try to understand their situation so many people praying, and its up to them to keep the safety for the guests of Allah. Also the ladies can be a problem *hides before the sisters scream khaldun* lol what I mean is the masjid is very mixed even though the guards try to do their best to keep abit of seperation, specially when your leaving the masjid it gets very cramped and the sisters turn around if you get to close, not watching were they themselfs are going but keeping an eye on you. Even though they wear niqab you can clearly tell what they are thinking, "one step closer mister and ill make sure you wont remember your own name" mashAllah may Allah reward them. So those are a few issues to keep in mind you might experiance people who shout in the haram and argue as happened to me its not unusual it is sad but yet again its a sign of the Qiyamah. And believe or not outside the masjid there was this man selling fruit and I saw this "dodgy" man walking about and when no one was looking he grab one fruit and ran, the owners screamed after him but he was gone. At times like these one remembers the hadith of the prophet:
Ibn Abbas narrated that one day he was riding behind Allah's Messenger and he said, "Young man, if you are mindful of Allah, He will be mindful of you, and if you are mindful of Allah, you will find Him before you. When you ask for anything, ask it from Allah, and if you seek help, seek help in Allah. Know that if the people were to unite to do you some benefit, they could benefit you only what Allah has recorded for you, and if they were to unite to do you some injury, they could injure you only with what Allah has recorded for you. The pens are withdrawn and the pages are dry.
When one does tawaf you see so many faces and dont really pay attention to people around you, when I made my way to shaykh Shuraim I say this somalian brother who was talking to a friend he said thats shaikh shuraim imam of masjid Haram etc, I spoke to him and introduced myself quickly and lost him in the crowds later, however little did I know then that our paths would cross again. Similary I meet another somalian brother only gave salam to him, however when I went to the University it turned out that he was a student there and was very helpful mashAllah.
We only stayed in Makkah for a week and went to Medinah after that. InshAllah in my next part I will tell about my stay in Medinah. And then my return to Makkah again. So stay tune *smiles*