🌈 680 – The Umrah

🌈 680 – Tue 10 May 23:58 2022

London

Continuation from the previous chapter Anticipation Umrah.

Brother said, okay now you can look up.. I didn’t know If I was ready, I didn’t know if I can look up with my guilty eyes. I looked up and there was the presence of something a huge magnitude of stood tall in black a square with perfect dimensions, standing tall, shining with golden border tassels and people like ants revolving around it wearing just white.. I could not take my eyes off it. We went closer and closer and walked around and round.. down Umran we walk around it 7 times and it’s your Umran.. Dad was chaperon to Mother and brother was Chaperon to sis in law and I was with my phone, taking pix and praying. Mother got angry with me at one point for taking pix and not praying and I said, I’m praying in my mouth and sharing it with the rest of the world who cannot be here.. I phoned my sister using IMO, Sis bro in law, niece and nephew were on the call for around while I walked around it.

The crowd got heavier and heavier while we tried to go closer to the walls of Mecca.. I wanted to touch it but there was a wall in between people and Mecca’s mother said when she was here couple of years ago, she was allowed to touch it with her hands and pray closer to it.

At one corner of there was a monument made where the shrine stone and the Blak stone were brought down to Earth from heaven and handed over to Prophet Ibrahim and his son Prophet Ismail to build the Kaaba. It is believed that Prophet Ibrahim stepped on it while he was building Kaaba, leaving his footmarks., Mother said that’s the one, look into it and I saw 2 footsteps deep inside a rock, the foot looked to me like around 7 to 8 normal shoe size but obviously majestic. Some people were trying to touch it and a man was shouting don’t touch it and see.. first in Arabic and then in Urdu.. at one point I lost my parents bother brother and sis in law everyone in the crowd and I found a spot just next to the footstep of Prophet Ibrahim, I said, let them punish me or push me to a side if they want to but I’m for sure going to offer 2 Rakath namaz here and stood there to pray and I offered 2 Rakath Nafeel Namaz and prayed for my brother and son for him.

“Ey Allaha mere bhai ko ek baccha dede. Mere Ma Baap ko khushian dede.”

We walked around and round and finished the Umran and sat down in one corner where we were offered some Zam-zam water and then some hot drink, by the time it was already getting for Magrib and all opened our fast and offered the Magrib Namaz behind an Imam in Kaba. was a wonderful experience.. parents were tired so they didn’t want to move anymore closer to Kaba as they were worried about being crushed by the humans so further down a facing Kaba we offered a few more Salah namaz and then we went to the spot where we had to walk up and down for seven times.. and the story goes like this.

Prophet Ibrahim’s wife Hajira and their son Prophet Ismail. It was a very hot desert summer day and the little boy Ismail was very thirsty and mother Hajira started looking for water and found it nowhere.. so she walked up and down 7 times at the same spot where now all Muslims walk up and down from one rock to another the hills Safa and Marwa looking for water and praying to God for help. That is why walking around Kaba 7 times is an important ritual while performing Hajj and Umrah. Finally, in a state of extreme thirst and frustration, little boy Ismail started kicking his feet on the ground, mother Hajira noticed water flowing out from the spot where Ismail started kicking. She carefully collected some water for herself and started feeding it to Ismail. The water that gushed out of nowhere came to be known as the holy water of Zamzam.

We walked 7 times up and down along with thousands of people with us marching.. When it finished we had to cut our hair. It seems Muhammad had a dream where he and his followers were taking rounds around Kaba and then shaving their heads off.. People performing Umrah for the first time is compulsory to shave their heads off, we were too late for our bus and therefore we cut a minimum of the hair and save off when we return home to Riyadh. Brother cut my hair, Brother cut father’s hair Father cut brother’s hair and Mother cut Sis-in-Law’s hair and there was a lady waiting next to mother asking for the scissor and we gave our scissors and then there was a guy standing next to me with an innocent face asking us to cut his hair a bit.. My brother cut his hair a bit from the front and then a bit from the right side and then a bit from the left side and gave it in his hand, he was happy and said thank you and he left. I felt sorry for him, he was alone and wanted someone to cut his hair to complete his umrah.. Bless him and all the people alone have to perform the Umrah and Hajj.

After we finished it was already time for Ishan’s prayer. We offered Ishan Namaz and then Tarawi Namaz started we joined in Tarawih and asked the guy next to us, how many Rakaths finished and he does not know and we asked another guy who had many Rakaths finished and how many left and he said he does not know.. We just joined the crowd and finished all the Tarawi.. then we walked towards the Bus stop where we needed to take the bus back to the car park where we picked up our car and down the journey back to Riyadh from Mecca at midnight..

Bless my brother who had to drive all over 2000 km up and down.. We stopped at one point and lay the sheets down in the sand and took a nap after every namaz and the next afternoon around 3 pm we were home..

3 things I felt grateful for

• So grateful for the strength that God gave my brother to drive the car taking all the family up and down from Riyadh to Mecca and back from Mecca to Home Riyadh..
• So grateful for successfully completing all traditions of Umrah with the family.
• So grateful for the weather. It didn’t rain, it was hot but was tolerable.

What would it take for me and for you to experience more of the tradition like Umrah and Hajj and to whatever tradition each one eases and believes in.. ? and all negative patterns opposing it, please get deleted across all times dimensions space and reality.