Blogger Guest Post: Reflections on Umrah

While I am away on my holidays I am sharing some fellow bloggers posts. To start off sister Areej shares her thoughts about her recent trip for Umrah.

At your house, we are
What we ask of you now
We have Love
confidence to bear
Fearlessness after long
peace at last

I have always been very hesitant to go to Saudi Arabia but when Rehan asked, do you want to go? Yes. He was loud and clear about his intentions as well. Like he composed, “I want to ask him why I have a child like this” That’s it. I felt it’s a call. Not only he took me there but he and his brothers assured that I get full benefit out of this trip. Saying nafls on Mukame Ibrahim and Mukame ismaiel, visiting ghare e hira and mosque quba and qibla tain. I can not be more thankful for so many blessings in my life.

I feel everyone should visit Makkah and Madina once. Chip in money and visit. Qibla in Makkah is magical. One feels like he has entered the safest private home. It gives a feeling of a small comfy place although it is Huge. Added as you go in the round you almost feel empty. As if ones mind is cleared and washed of all hassle, trouble and tensions on purpose and then a questions is raised, or rather I should put it as it is a sort of feeling when one’s most loved one asks, are you okay? What do you want? What bothers you. And then a person realize the most beautiful love of Allah and a desire that is hard to deny, “oh Allah I just want to stay like this, spoiled in care and protection. May I?” And the answer is yes till you are in peace. My husband got his answers and I am so pleased by his changed attitude towards life. Everything is eased. You are rehearsing all the duas but there you are almost made to say out your heart. I can’t describe the feeling of holding my baby in a carrier and doing tawaf besides my husband.

Go there. Your most beloved awaits you. Go there. I miss the nearness, love, protection and control I felt in Your house oh My Lord. I almost felt as if I am a small kid again.

On the other hand, in Madinah, everything was opposite. Huge. It gives a feeling of immense vastness and competition. People do not stop at anything. I was filled with guilt of not being able to keep up Sunnah but I was welcomed with love. The mosque is exquisite and beyond any expression. The pillars and ceiling extends across 7 miles and it appears to the eye as a seaside whose end is hard to find. I missed visiting roza rasool. Two things, I learned. First the mosque washrooms and everything within them are made purely purpose built. Not an inch of any excess or luxury. Not even a mirror, no diamonds and excesive designing. It is imperative that we give up luxury too and invest our extra income in the way of Allah. Secondly, one must struggle against laziness, get up for all prayers and be righteous. There are many Sunnah ibadah that we must perform. The competition is really huge and we are lagging behind, saying Sunnah in namaz is just basic. If you have read and want to believe in real in Shadah, then boost up your energy and ride the horse along the others as Ummati and not just barely believers.