..medina al munawarah...city of radiance and peace...

...there is something about Medina that enthralls...its spanking clean boulevards and streets, shining cars and polite drivers...its tingling air... Nabawi Mosque...and Prophet Muhammad PBUH....

...and as pakmat put his foot down upon the shining boulevard, he realised that within this earth, cradled a someone upon whom he had testified for as long as his memory took him.....that there is no God but Allah and Muhammad is His Prophet...he felt awed...and he was humbled....

..even earlier, after a few hours on the bus...after taking in the bleak scenery of hot sand, black boulders and naked mountain ranges...he rose from his seat, peered through the window....no....no ordinary man can do it...no ordinary mortal...he took 8 days of travelling in the nights...on a flight from Makkah....enemies close upon his heels...on the back of camels...and here we were, in an air conditioned coach...feeling weary after a few hours...can we ever be worthy, Lord?...

.after the soul-searing of Makkah, the breathlessness and the tears in front of the Kaabah, the lessons of Arafat and Mina, the single-mindedness of the tawaf and saie, Medinah was a contrast...

..it was almost a relief....and that first night upon arrival, he rushed through the simple procedure of checking-in..got the electronic doorkey, a quick shower and change and off to Nabawi...and met head-on the congregation who had ended their Isyak prayers and was on their way out...he struggled to get it, but once inside the crowd thinned...

..

....peace be upon you, O mightiest of all Prophets.....pakmat bid thee greetings...salam, O the One who is Illiterate...I hereby testify that there is no deity, no god but Allah...and you are indeed, His Prophet...May the Lord keeps you with Blessings, until the Final Day...grant me, Lord, a moment, that we shall meet....

..missing someone...

.we never really left the Holy Land, my wife and I....after more than two months from the day of our return, we were still there...sometimes alone together at home, little things trigger off our memory...a touch, a prayer, Zam Zam water...and we were back in MasjidilHaram...the fragrance of a memory that lingers...oft times we wished we were back there...taking that brisk walk to Haram in the early hours before dawn...amid the constant din of cars honking...the crowd of purposeful pilgrims...the smell and the dust...we missed Misfalah...we missed the constant call,' Hajji...Hajji..Hajji...


....most of all we missed the Kaabah....

..back to Makkah..

..we came back from Mina much relieved and with a measure of freedom...no more bounded to wearing ihram, we were back to robes and kopiah....but we have not yet cleared the final hurdle of the haj, the tawaf and the saai....

.it was a much cleaner Makkah that we came back to...the authorities used our absence to clean up the city off the rubbish and litters left by us...water tank were replenished...over flowing septic tanks were flushed of scum and sludge....the squares were washed and swept clean...even the air smelt clean...

..pakmat felt invigorated...the time in Arafat and Mina recharged him...he could see that the missus felt the same way, too...the next day, after the tawaf and the saai, and thereon the final tahallul,  he kissed her on the forehead..congratulations, makhajji...may the Lord accepts our haj...insyaAllah....

..water tanks being replenished..

....signs of overflowing septic tanks..

..now for the umrah....which we both did with gusto...woke up before dawn, a quick bath and the donning of the ihram...out of the hotel onto the main road...haggled with the cabdrivers...anything from 10 to 15 rial per head and off to Tanaim Mosque, the choice miqat of the day...2 rakaat solat..the niat and off to Haram for dawn prayers...most times led by Imam Sheik Abdul Rahman Al Sudais, the man with golden voice...later the tawaf and the saai..a brief cutting of hair...and a leisurely 2km walk back to the maktab for breakfast of roti and hot coffee served by Ahmad....

..
Ahmad from India manning his eatery..

                                   

..miqat at Tanaim Mosque..

but for some, it was time for packing and heading for home...but for us of KT49, it was awaiting the day when we would be heading for Medina...and the Prophet...

..the stoning..

..Mina was from where we trekked to the Jamrah for the stoning ritual, through the Muasim Tunnel, which is 2.6 kilometers long...from our tent, it was about 800 meters to the entrance...from the exit, it was another kilometer to the Jamrah.... and so, in all we walked 10 kilometers each day to the Jamrah...

..but it was not as daunting as it sounds...the crowd, and the singleminded of purpose made light the trek...

..the plains of Arafat have prepared us for Mina...but to my mind, it was our prayer upon touchdown in Jeddah when we first arrived....that we came as Your guests, Lord...and we did not expect for much...eat whatever is served and rest at whatever places shown to us...

...as for pakmat, for my resilience and patience, I was rewarded with a sitting bowl on the last day...and I thought that all toilets were the squatting type..which was a bit difficult for this old coot, lacking balancing skills somewhat in his old age...on the last day, I entered the last toilet on the right..and there it sat...a beauty of a sitting bowl...gleaming white...ahh...thank you, Lord, for Your little Mercies...

..an open letter to thirteen..

..reading lc's blog must have got to me...lc is fond of writing open letters in his blog, which you can access here...but his concerns will always be about sports, being the conscientious sports critic that he is... and I just have to response to anonymous', thirteen,  comment, being the conscientious blogger that I am...so here goes..

..salam thirteen...I think, to get a single person who is without sin to throw the first stone is nigh impossible...for we  are all sinners, one way or the other..and God, in His Greatness, knows all the weaknesses of Man, His creation, in that we will sinned.....and He created Purgatory, to my mind, not for sinners...but for those who committed sins knowingly or unknowingly but do not repent...


..pakmat looked at the Haj as an opportunity for us who sinned, to repent and be close to Him...so, thirteen, make the trip...regret, they say, is the first step towards repentance...dwell upon your regrets...wake up the last quarter of the night and do the night solats...think well of Him...insyaAllah...for He is the Most Compassionate and the Most Loving...