Umrah In Hamza's Own Words

Week 03	January 12, 2015	January 18, 2015

1.     Preamble:

Apart from Hajj, Umrah is one of the finest rituals of Islam. It is a strong symbol of Muslim piety. While being able to perform the Haj or Umrah is already a great blessing, taking the whole family along just adds to the completeness of the experience. It adds to the understanding of the religion Islam, if children after coming of age are taken to perform Umrah, visit Masjid Nabvi in Madina  Munawarrah and shown around various sacred and historical sites  in and in the vicinities of both the holy cities. The early Islamic history then becomes ever so clear and a joyous experience to follow. Recently (27th Jan - 08 Feb 2015) our second son Omar took his entire family comprising his wife Sadaf, sons Hamza and Yahya and daughters Hiba and Rehma for Umrah. Owing to the constraints of travel arrangements they first flew from Karachi to Madina Munawarrah and then travelled from there by road to Makkah Muazzama to perform Umrah. This week we will celebrate their accomplishing the feat and listen to the narration of 12 years old Hamza describing the journey to the holiest if the holy places in his own words.

2.     Umrah in Hamza's Own Words:

On my first trip out of Pakistan, my family chose the holy land of Saudi Arabia where we could divide our time between performing holy activities as well as having loads of fun. On the morning of 27th December 2014 I woke up feeling on top of the world, took a shower, ate breakfast and we all drove  to my nana, nani’s house after locking up our home. We ate a light lunch and stuffed our luggage in two cars. Our flight was scheduled at 07:00 pm and we reached the airport four hours before, we were one of the first passengers to check in. While the rest of my family was bored, I had the time of my life gazing at aircrafts landing and taking off. 

After we took off on our Saudi plane which was fully packed with people who like us were Pakistanis going to perform Umrah. The plane flew along as I took in the sights of a lit up Karachi, the Arabian Sea and the gulf of Oman both drowned in darkness. We landed at Riyadh at 10:30 pm where we had a one hour stop then took off again to our final destination-Medina. After a short flight we landed in Medina, went smoothly through immigration and found a mix of Muslims from all around the world which consisted of Egyptians, Turkish, Africans and Desis. We drove to our hotel, Bahauddin which was right opposite Masjid-e-Nabwi. The minarets of the Prophet (S.A.W) mosque were clearly visible from our room, but I could not stay awake for it was almost 01:00 in the morning so I slept soundly through the night. 

We spent the next day exploring the stalls and markets as well as going to Masjid-e-nabwi for prayers. The geometrical arches, tall pillars and umbrellas were fascinating and beautiful to watch. The echo of ‘‘AMEEN’’ and the beautiful qirat was also astounding. We went on ziarat the following day visiting Jannat al Baqi,  Saba’a Masajid,Masjid-e-Quba, Masjid-e-Qiblatain, an Ottoman era railway station and the site of the battle of Uhud. On our last day in Medina Abbu woke me up at 01:00 am to go to Riaz-al-Jannah. We went to the Masjid which was still crowded with people who like us chose that time of the night. We managed to pray nafil in Riaz-al-Jannah, and visit the Rauza of Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W). After praying Fajr I got an hour or two’s sleep, only to be awakened again by Abbu to go to the library which was now turned into a museum in which Hazrat Usman (R.A) was martyred. The museum itself was filled with copies of old Qurans and the accessories with which they were written, but the Quran on which the blood stains of Hazrat Usman (R.A) were spilled at the time of his shahadat was taken away by the Ottomans to Turkey. 

After praying Dhuhr at Medina we wore our Ahrams and set off on a four hour drive to Mecca. The driver of our minivan, an Arab who lived in Medina was very polite. When he was asked if he liked football he cursed the Saudi team but told us that our cricket team played pretty well. He was a pleasant company to us but we couldn’t understand most of the Arabic and he couldn’t understand English so we mostly spoke with the help of hand gestures. Before we had entered Mecca we could see the light of the tall Clock tower in the distance. 

After we had checked in our Hotel Movenpick which was at least more than 15 floors high, we went to perform Umrah. The majestic sight of Ka’aba was breathtaking as we saw scores of people performing Tawaf around it. It was brilliantly lit up by the lights surrounding it. We performed Tawaf and then prayed nafil. After resting for a minute and drinking Zamzam, we performed Sae’e. At last, to finish our Umrah, we got our heads shaved and headed back towards our hotel in Abraj-al-bait through a series of mazes’ inside Masjid-al-Haram. It was truly the longest and most tiring day in my life as I at last went to sleep at 01:00 am The next day, a marvelous spread of food was seen in the breakfast lounge, I actually ate more than I was capable of and afterwards spent a long time holding my stomach. We performed Tawaf daily and I made sure that I did not eat too much. The next day Abbu, Ammi and I went to Masjid-e-Ayesha, where we would again wear Ahrams to perform Umrah again. While Hiba and Rahma took care of Yahya, cleaning the places where he threw up mouthfuls of food, we had a smooth and quick Umrah. 

At lunch and dinner, we went to AL-BAIK and TAZAJ which we all loved very much and ate to our heart’s content. It was all very exciting and wonderful, but in the blink of an eye all of it was behind us as we were cruising at 30,000 ft back to Pakistan.

MashaAllah! Great read Hamza! We pray Omar and family will perform Umrah again and again. Like Hajj, the act of Umrah is amongst the best deeds one can perform when pleasing Allah (SWT). Allah (SWT) loves those who strive in his path in hopes of pleasing Him alone and Umrah is an act in which Allah (SWT) considers the pilgrim to be answering His call. Ibne Umar (R) narrates that Prophet (S) said, ‘The warrior in the cause of Allah, the pilgrim and the one who is performing Umrah are all the delegation of Allah. He called them and they responded and they will ask of His bestowals and He will give it to them.’ (Ibne Majah, Ibne Hibbaan)

Celebrating Anjum's B'day

Week 02	January 5, 2015	January 11, 2015

1.     Preamble:

Although it is too early for the blog of this week, 8th Jan as always is a special day that can not go un remembered. This particular blog as such is being issued early, solely to celebrate Anjum's B'day. Since last many years both of us could not be together on this day as she travels to Karachi on account of extreme cold winter with her mother, who herself escapes from Canada for identically the same reason. I myself however don't mind cold and prefer to stay back at our farmhouse. Before leaving in mid December, she makes sure, I will not go hungry and stuff both the fridge and deep freezer with the boxes after boxes of cooked meals of all possible types and combinations. She would even leave a sufficient stock of  clothes, towels and bed linen, all washed and ironed, stashed in the cupboard. Could there be any person more considerate other than a loving life partner, especially for the one who occasionally could be as difficult and grouchy as myself? On her birthday, which is just about to dawn, I would like to go through the memory lane a bit!

2.     Family Event:
2.1.  Celebrating Anjum's B'day (Born: 8th January 1952):

I am older than Anjum by seven or so years. I still remember seeing her as a little girl with two pony tails and a flatter nose when we all were spending our summer holidays at our nana's place in Saidu Sharif (Swat). I of course didn't worry about her then and even much later in 1967 when in my capacity of family driver I picked them up from the Kotri Railway Station on their return from Kuala Lumpur and subsequent brief stay in Hyderabad, on way to Sudbury, Canada. She by then had grown big and her nose, I noticed was a little less flatter. She was dressed in 'parrot green chooridaar slacks' and was constantly directed and drilled to walk straight by Shaheda Khala Amman (her mother). I still didn't think much of her. She had grown a bit chirpy but seemed none the less 'happy with her life' kind of girl. When the time came for their leaving, I drove them to Karachi for them to take the flight to London and onwards to Toronto. I then didn't have the slightest inkling of things to come only a couple of years later. We were married in September 1971.

Anjum, over a number of years has changed much but she remains loving and very caring as she always has been. She bore us four lovely boys and mothered them through difficult times. She chose to go through the difficult life with me in Pakistan away from her parents, brothers and a sister in Canada. I now ponder with much respect and appreciation for her, what on earth prompted her to do that? She left her studies midway in Canada with much better prospects, to come and live in Pakistan and to spend her entire life with a person, whose future was uncertain and who had just embarked on a career as a scientist in a poor country. I remember our early days together. We lived in a shared house with only a bed room and a living room to ourselves. I had to sell my books to buy a cot bed, two easy chairs and a smallish dining set. In spite of the two chairs, we always sat huddled up together in harshest of winters to watch TV in its infancy in the evenings. In spite of her much happier life in Canada, she always smiled and appeared ever so contended. I remember our daily walks to the market place, our trips to Murree and friends places. We were a happy couple barring occasional 'border skirmishes' which always ended up in enhancing our fondness for each other!  All in all we have had a wonderful life.  Our best times were a couple of weeks together in Sudbury, where I had gone from Copenhagen to be with her and our sons, Hasan and Omer. I was never more homesick as much as I was on my returning to Denmark (where I was then working as a visiting scientist with the Danish Atomic Energy Commission).

We as a family have over the years lived, apart from Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Karachi and back again in Islamabad and Rawalpindi. We Enjoy outdoors. Apart from going to scenic places in the country itself, we went together to Beijing and twice to Istanbul.

Among the places we would like to go again and again is surely Istanbul. We have fond memories of being together in that very old yet an enchantingly modern city!

We have sailed through calm seas but also occasional rough ones. I often think, rowing and propelling the boat of our life often striving very hard, this voyage has brought us to the shores of contended happiness. She has been an equal contributor, in my estimate, to this fruitful and successful journey. We now live happily together in our farmhouse, which we have built together. In the following picture she is seen laying the first brick in its foundations.

We have had our life. We now live for our dear sons, adorable daughter in-laws and masha Allah some of the most awesome grand children. Come to think they would not have been there for us to enjoy, had we not married each other! What a great loss it would have been?

To you Anjum, I would say, I am no longer the young man I used to be. However, I am never too old to say I love you and show you how much you mean to me. Happy Birthday Anjum!

Haji Samar Khan's Fish Dhaba

Week 01 December 29, 2014  January 04, 2015

1.     Preamble:

We are now in the year 2015. The New Year! Would it be any different? We should hope it will be. A lot of people start it with the revolutionary resolves aimed at improvements in their lives but end up where they originally were and often worse still! What I can try and achieve for this blog in the New Year, without hopefully lowering its character, is to make it more diverse by from time to time bringing in varied topics that might attract more readers. Starting this week, we will first talk about the Fish Shop adjacent to the Khanpur Dam Lake in the near vicinity of our farmhouse. The shop is owned and run by one Haji Samar Khan. We will mostly be talking about him and his product, both the fried as well as baked fish. We however will also describe his dilapidated and shabby yet delightfully relaxing Cafe de Phoos (a hut made from bamboo and dry grass) too!

The weather in the meantime continues to be (for this part of the world) quite cold. The minimum is now touching freezing point. The coldest is just before sunrise. Although the sunset time is enhancing day by day, the sunrise is not taking place any earlier. The length of the day light hours are therefore essentially the same, around barely ten hours! (Today on 3rd Jan, when I am writing this blog, the sunrise at Taxila is at 7:14 AM and sunset at 5:11 PM with the day length of 9 hrs 57 min). 

It is the mating season of Francolin Partridge (Teetar). All through the morning walks, I keep hearing the loud and very shrill calls of the male Francolin and response of their female counterparts. A pair of birds will often engage in a duet. The female call is a tee ... tee ... tee repeated and sometimes akila akila ... kila .. kila in a duet. They are usually seen in small groups. They run very swiftly and gracefully  and seem to glide rather than run. As I pass aside a bush, a pair of them would suddenly whiz pass in low flight, leaving me stunned but marvelling at the same time!

2.     Sites and Scenes Around Our Farmhouse:

Our farmhouse is situated in Khyber Pakhtoon Khawa adjacent to the 2,500 year old Taxila Budhist ruins. Besides the treasured ruin, which we will keep visiting in this blog from time to time, we first take a trip to the nearby (7 km) Khanpur Dam and Haji Samar Khan's (HSK) Fish Dhaba in its vicinity. The picturesque Khanpur Dam was built in 1983 on Haro River. It is at a 15 minutes drive from our farmhouse and is a popular recreational venue, especially over the weekend. The associated  lake (water reservoir) provides some breathtaking views to the visitors. On one side stand is the lush green Margallas, while on the other lies the vast expanse of the lake’s sapphire blue waters. Along the shores, several birds can be spotted, including white cranes and waterfowl. In the winter, migratory birds can be seen soaring above the water. We often take our friends and relatives to the lake for a boat ride. There is a very old  mosque of now submerged village on the far bank of the lake, where we we get down from the boat for  a brief stop over. 

Although the waters of the lake are not swimable, for the dense under growth at several a places. Saad never however forgets to have a dip with his little daughters during such a brief stop over, while some of us stroll down to the mosque to enjoy scenery and the views.

Kanpur Lake is well known for two types of fish: masheer and rohu. Many people grill their fresh catch by the lakeside, and then have a picnic, while others dine at one of the many desi dhaabas located nearby. Specialities include fried and barbecued fish, which, along with naan and spicy vinegar are simply scrumptious. The Fish Dhaba, which we go to is Haji Samar Khan's Hut at which we never forget to stop on our way back.  The hut made with the looks of an open pavilion without any doors but slidable curtains. It is provided with rope cots (Manji) and rickety tables. Haji Samar Khan is a broadly smiling Pathan, belonging to the rare hospitable breed of the old.

Haji Samar a Khan and his clan welcome us, literally with open arms. As soon as he sees us, he would arrange a special parking place for our cars right Infront of his hut and shout to his clan for making us comfortable in his raw Pushto style Urdu while he himself will proceed to show us his wares stored in his ice chests. While the selected fish is prepared HSK will sit with us for a while to talk to us about any matter of mutual interest before commencing his own job of personally baking the fish for us.

It always is a great treat to be with him at his Dhaba and enjoy the fish which he so diligently prepares for us. Often he would ask his boys to fetch for us his home baked delicious bread, which too is extremely delicious and goes well with the baked as well as fried fish.

A visit to the Khanpur Dam and HSK's Dhaba has now become a ritual of our lives at the farmhouse. It is a joy we all relish a lot!