Trying to rest this morning was really difficult. I had butterflies in my stomach and I couldn’t seem to doze off even though I really need the sleep. I went to the lounge set aside for ladies and made myself some tea. I came back to the room and stayed awake until Fajr. My mind was all over the place. The Ka’ba was literally a 5 minute walk away from our hotel, yet I had not seen it yet. After praying Fajr in the room, I took a quick power nap before heading to the lobby. As part of the condition of Ihram, we could not look in the mirror, nor spray a fragrance, nor cover our faces even whilst sleeping. But because we would take these things for granted, it was difficult even though so simple. It taught us to be so much more aware of our every movement.

Walking downstairs, my legs were feeling jelly. The last time I had felt like this was when we were boarding at Heathrow airport, when I couldn’t believe that I was actually going for Hajj. And now, this was in anticipation of the climax of this whole journey. How would it be, seeing the Holy Ka’ba for the first time, ever?

Read more

11:10PM – This journal entry is being written as we are enroute to Makkah.

Today was our last day in Madinah. Bittersweet. I woke up at around 3:45am (it’s surprising how awake I felt after just one hour of sleep!) and made my way to the Haram with Asif. It was our last Fajr prayer in the Haram of the Holy Prophet (s), and we would be watching the sunrise behind the walls of Baqi for the final time. All this made me so sad, but Makkah awaited us, and that stirred different feelings. After Fajr prayers, we went to Jannatul Baqi to recite Ziyarat-e-Wida (Salutations bidding Farewell) of Baqi. Whilst we were walking back, we were talking of our anticipation and anxiety of Makkah and the Wajibat that we had to perform when we reached. We were fortunate to meet Akil Mama who was encouraging of our upcoming journey. The more we thought about it, the intense anxiety that was there a few days ago was not as much, and now I was (and still am), extremely excited to see the Holy Ka’ba.

Breakfast was the usual – Paratha with butter and honey and a strong cup of black tea. It was my standard breakfast since I had arrived, even though the aroma of Mince Curry and Paya was very tempting! I then headed to our room where my roommates were sorting out their bags, as we had only half an hour before we had to put them in the lobby, tagged with our group tags and details. The group accommodated us wonderfully. Male volunteers had stepped forward to gather the suitcases from each floor and then take them down to the lobby where a truck was waiting to take our bags to Makkah, well before we even departed. We were told to keep a few necessities with us as we would get our bags in Makkah, maybe even after we had performed Umrah-e-Tamattu.

Read more

We were looking forward to Thursday in Madinah from the time we arrived as we had been told that we would be going to the only Shi’a Mosque in the area for the Thursday evening program. In a small Shi’a village not too far from the Haram stood Masjid Shaykh Al-Amri.

My day began at 3:30am. I met Asif in the lobby and we made our way to the Haram for Fajr prayers. We had been told by others in our group that if we walked around to the left of Jannatul Baqi, there were small cracks in the wall coverings where we could see into the cemetery from. So a few of us walked around. We were so far away from the main entrance of Jannatul Baqi that we could not see the graves of the Holy Personalities, but just being able to see into the cemetery was something.

We recited Ziyarat of Baqi in peace Alhamdulillah. Many people had told us that if there was commotion in that area the guards would ask us to move away but it seemed as the crowds were less, we could stay for quite a while. Shortly after completing our Ziyarah we went back to the hotel for breakfast, and then I went to rest.

Read more