We flew on the Saudi Arabian airlines. Not that we consciously picked the carrier; it came with the date selected - pilihlah tarikh yang sesuai untuk umrah, to me there is no sense visiting Madinah or Makkah pada hari2 uzur - and the fact that we wanted to enter Madinah first. I like that they read doa musafir, doa naik kenderaan at take-off and recite Alhamdulillah at arrival. Itu antara kelebihannya. I suppose food and other services are rather comparable. We've got no complaints.
The flight was filled with Arab families yang pulang bercuti di KL in fact. Bila makanan tiba saya asyik menjeling cara wanita Arab makan di sebalik tutup muka mereka. Saya berpendapat mereka makan sungguh sopan - at least the ones I watched were. They examined the food, spread the napkin on their lap, then carefully twirled the noodle on their fork. And then ate. Slowly. In a way I rather like the way they are dressed too. Kita, entah apa yang nak dibungakan sangat. Semua baju berbunga.. Anyway.
I was glad I didnt cry when saying goodbye to the kids. We were in a rush so we hugged quickly as I said, ingat pesan mama (semua pesanan dah dipesankan pun berkali2 berhari2 sebelumnya). But I did shed tears semasa mutawwif membaca doanya. Sebak pulak masa tu.
We arrived in Madinah close to midnight after a short stop at Riyadh (most of the families boarded off here). Madinah airport was smaller than I expected. The heat hit us as we stepped down from the plane to the bus. As we weaved through the city streets we saw Masjid Nabawi in between the building blocks. It was bathed in glorious lights at midnite.
We were taken on the masjid nabi tour the next morning. The dataran outside is vast. We were shown kubah yang berwarna hijau, terletaknya makam Rasulullah saw, Abu Bakar & Umar as. Namun kaum wanita tidak lagi dibenarkan masuk ke kawasan makam.
(kubah hijau di antara payung masjid)
We were also shown Baqi', perkuburan Uthman Affan, para isteri nabi, keluarga nabi dan sahabat nabi yang lain, which is just across from the masjid. And again women are not allowed entrance here (saya beranggapan mungkin kaum wanita kadang2 beremosi keterlaluan). Note : I couldnt upload the Baqi' photos at this time. But Baqi' looked lapang and tenang and definitely different from our tanah perkuburan.
Next we went to wait entrance to the raudhah. Dont be surprised, but women are granted entrance according to negeri masing2 (pengiring akan membawa plaque nama negara!) Malaysia & Indonesia are gathered into a group. And you wait a long time at different spots as directed by mak-guard arab (yang garang pada pendapat saya - maybe they have to be that way to manage such crowds). No such thing for the men's section I am told.
Raudhah di bahagian lelaki berkarpet warna hijau. Di kawasan wanita karpetnya berwarna hijau dengan bunga berwarna kemerahan. Lain2 bahagian masjid karpet berwarna merah dengan bunga2 (that's how you tell if you are in the Raudhah).
(sementara menunggu giliran masuk ke Raudhah, ada ceramah oleh penceramah dari Indon; satu2nya penceramah yang bukan berbangsa Arab. She is standing against the column clad in black. The sign above her reads something like, you dont need to push. If you are patient, your wishes will be granted, InsyaAllah - or something akin to that)
(Raudhah di bahagian lelaki)
Entrance to the raudhah is never as I imagined it to be. The area of the raudhah is limited and there are MANY that wish to solat sunat dan berdoa di situ. Jadi keadaan amat kelam-kabut. But my personal opinion is, if you are patient and berdoa dipermudahkan Allah, InsyaAllah akan tercapai niat untuk bersolat dan berdoa (dan dengan panjang!) Biasanya Msia & Indonesia adalah yang terakhir dipanggil jadi tiada lagi pengunjung lain di Raudhah selepas itu maka adalah sedikit masa untuk kita berdoa dengan lebih tenang. InsyaAllah.
(dataran masjid dan payung. Doesnt it look beautiful?)
I love the payung di Masjid Nabi. And I love the blue skies in Madinah (these I will repeat many, many times I am sure).
The flight was filled with Arab families yang pulang bercuti di KL in fact. Bila makanan tiba saya asyik menjeling cara wanita Arab makan di sebalik tutup muka mereka. Saya berpendapat mereka makan sungguh sopan - at least the ones I watched were. They examined the food, spread the napkin on their lap, then carefully twirled the noodle on their fork. And then ate. Slowly. In a way I rather like the way they are dressed too. Kita, entah apa yang nak dibungakan sangat. Semua baju berbunga.. Anyway.
I was glad I didnt cry when saying goodbye to the kids. We were in a rush so we hugged quickly as I said, ingat pesan mama (semua pesanan dah dipesankan pun berkali2 berhari2 sebelumnya). But I did shed tears semasa mutawwif membaca doanya. Sebak pulak masa tu.
We arrived in Madinah close to midnight after a short stop at Riyadh (most of the families boarded off here). Madinah airport was smaller than I expected. The heat hit us as we stepped down from the plane to the bus. As we weaved through the city streets we saw Masjid Nabawi in between the building blocks. It was bathed in glorious lights at midnite.
We were taken on the masjid nabi tour the next morning. The dataran outside is vast. We were shown kubah yang berwarna hijau, terletaknya makam Rasulullah saw, Abu Bakar & Umar as. Namun kaum wanita tidak lagi dibenarkan masuk ke kawasan makam.
We were also shown Baqi', perkuburan Uthman Affan, para isteri nabi, keluarga nabi dan sahabat nabi yang lain, which is just across from the masjid. And again women are not allowed entrance here (saya beranggapan mungkin kaum wanita kadang2 beremosi keterlaluan). Note : I couldnt upload the Baqi' photos at this time. But Baqi' looked lapang and tenang and definitely different from our tanah perkuburan.
Next we went to wait entrance to the raudhah. Dont be surprised, but women are granted entrance according to negeri masing2 (pengiring akan membawa plaque nama negara!) Malaysia & Indonesia are gathered into a group. And you wait a long time at different spots as directed by mak-guard arab (yang garang pada pendapat saya - maybe they have to be that way to manage such crowds). No such thing for the men's section I am told.
Raudhah di bahagian lelaki berkarpet warna hijau. Di kawasan wanita karpetnya berwarna hijau dengan bunga berwarna kemerahan. Lain2 bahagian masjid karpet berwarna merah dengan bunga2 (that's how you tell if you are in the Raudhah).
Entrance to the raudhah is never as I imagined it to be. The area of the raudhah is limited and there are MANY that wish to solat sunat dan berdoa di situ. Jadi keadaan amat kelam-kabut. But my personal opinion is, if you are patient and berdoa dipermudahkan Allah, InsyaAllah akan tercapai niat untuk bersolat dan berdoa (dan dengan panjang!) Biasanya Msia & Indonesia adalah yang terakhir dipanggil jadi tiada lagi pengunjung lain di Raudhah selepas itu maka adalah sedikit masa untuk kita berdoa dengan lebih tenang. InsyaAllah.
I love the payung di Masjid Nabi. And I love the blue skies in Madinah (these I will repeat many, many times I am sure).
*****
1 comment:
Ya Allah, rindunya. Kalau diizinkan Allah, lepas balik UK nanti nak bawak my mom umrah pulak, insya Allah.
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