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)