My First Umrah 26.5.2011

Assallamualaikum w.r.t. and greetings ..

The story continued ...

26/5/2011 (Thursday) - Friday night

2.00pm -Me, my husband and my eldest son continue our journey from Madinah to Mekah by bus. We stop in Bir Ali to do intentional for umrah. After the intentional, all the 13th prohibition start. I don't know why but once i perform my intentional for umrah, my heart start beating very fast. I become quite nervous and somewhat scared. It is also the same when i performed my second and third umrah. In addition to that, my scalp start to itch, so is my nose. I have to control myself from scratching for fear of breaking any one of the 13th prohibitions during umrah.

8.30pm - We reached Mekah and check-in to our hotel. Hotel Hajeej is about 300m from Masjidil Haram. My son burst into tears and throw a tantrum when we first enter our room. "He scream hotel pecah. Lets go back to the hotel ".. :) (he meant the 5 star hotel Anwar Movenpick in Madinah). Our hotel is clean but it is an old hotel. The window airconditioning unit was quite noisy and there is no room service during our stay in Mekah. I explain to my son as long as we are together as a family then we should be thankful. And he calm down.

10.30pm -went to masjidil haram. saw Kaabah for the first time. my first prayer that come to mind is that may Allah grant me heaven. I have always imagine this moment, and when the moment come i don't feel anything. I used to imagine that my first time seeing Kaabah in real will make me faint or something.. at least dropped to my knees in tears. But i do not feel anything, i worry for my self. Some of my group members start crying and me ... getting more worried for my soul. (btw .. i get tougher tests in my second umrah, that is when i really cried and appreciate kaabah - i will write about my second umrah in my next entry insha'allah. and please do not be afraid of the tests because from these tests Allah teaches/guide us how to carry on in our daily lives and the feelings we get afterwards is beyond words. This is the reasons why people keep wanting to performed the umrah and hajj eventhough they know they will be tested)

11.00pm - we performed the tawaf led by our mutawif. Me and my husband and son got separated in the sea of people. I am panicking but i don't dare to look for my husband and son because i am afraid if i lost my group, i will be totally lost. I am confident that my husband and son will be okay BUT i am not so confident about myself. During my tawaf, i pray to Allah for their safety and that we will be regroup again. True enough, we regroup again and me and my husband and my son continue the tawaf. We inform the rest of the group to went ahead to performed the saie and not to wait for us because we are very slow ..heehee. We finally went to performed the saie and completed it sometime just before subuh prayer. For your information, my son do not want to walk so my husband has to carry him all the time.

3.30am - just completed the saie and my husband and son went to the barber's shop to perform the tahallul (bergunting). Then we went back to the hotel, where i performed my tahallul. Now the 13th prohibition has been lifted. Guess what, i lose 3 hairs during the ihram ..so i have to pay the dam -SR30.00 ..heehee. Anyway ... I am immensely happy and satisfied for completing my first umrah.

4.ooam - performed the subuh prayer in Masjidil Haram.

5.00am - went back to hotel to eat breakfast.

6.00am - call Malaysia to ask how Hanzallah my youngest son is doing.

6.30am -finally went to sleep. what a full day it is. we actually did not sleep the whole 24 hrs.

Points to ponder:

(1) i believe our first umrah is a test on our physical and mental strength.

(2) i didn't know that umrah is wajib. i have always thought it as sunat. and i also thought that umrah ziarah is some sort of holiday. i am so ignorant.

(3) Just sharing :

Surah Al -Baqarah :196

" Dan sempurnakanlah ibadat haji dan umrah kerana Allah "

Surah Al- Hajj : 27-29

"Dan serukanlah kepada umat manusia untuk mengerjakan ibadat haji, nescaya mereka akan datang ke ( rumah tuhanmu) dengan berjalan kaki, dan dengan menunggang berjenis-jenis unta yang kurus yang datangnya dari berbagai-bagai jalan (ceruk rantau)

Supaya mereka menyaksikan berbagai-bagai perkara yang mendatangkan berbagai-bagai faedah kepada mereka, serta memperingati dan menyebut nama Allah pada hari-hari tertentu, kerana pengurnaiaanNya kepada mereka dengan binatang-binatang ternak (untuk dijadikan korban) dengan demikian makanlah kamu dari (daging) binatang-binatang korban itu dan berilah makan kepada orang yang susah, yang fakir miskin.

Kemudian hendaklah mereka membersihkan diri mereka, dan hendaklah mereka menyempurnakan nazar-nazar mereka, dan hendaklah mereka tawaf akan Baitullah (Kaabah) yang tua sejarahnya itu.


feels happy .. :) :) :) ... Alhamdullilah ...