My Umrah Trip - Part 1

To perform the Haj (pilgrimage) is one of the five (5) pillars ("rukun") of Islam and must be performed by a Muslim if he is fully capable, not only in terms of health, but also in terms of his financial capability. Verse 196 of Surah Al-Baqarah of the Al-Quran states "Perform the pilgrimage (Haj) and the visit (Umrah) for Allah." Thus, performing the Haj is a must, but performing the Umrah is optional ("sunnat") for a Muslim. However, the Umrah can also be performed during the Haj or separately. I don't have the chance yet to perform the Haj but InsyaAllah the chance will come soon enough. I have myself to be blamed because I didn't register myself with Tabung Haji early enough to ensure a place for me when the time has come to perform the Haj. So my advice to you young people, please open an account with Tabung Haji now and register yourself to perform the Haj, so as not to regret it later on when you get older.

So my wife and I decided to perform the "Small Haj" (Umrah) first and wait until we are offered a place to perform the Haj in the near future, insyaAllah.

After some enquiries, we decided to go to a travel agency recommended by my friend, Dr.Halim Abd Rahman to purchase a complete Umrah package for about RM5,500.00 each, which included flight to and from Jeddah with Saudi Arabian Airlines, accommodation in a hotel room for 2 persons, food, transportation and visits to historical sites. We had to add in RM300.00 due to the recent increase in the price of oil. Otherwise, the package would have cost RM5,200.00 each.

After all the necessary immigration and health requirement had been taken care of, the day for us to begin our journey to Mecca and Medina has finally arrived. We left KLIA at 2.55 pm (Malaysian time) on Wednesday, 30th July 2008 and reached Jeddah at about 6.30 pm (Saudi Arabia's time). There were 42 of us Umrah pilgrims in our group. The Customs and Immigration procedures at the Jeddah Airport went on smoothly. However, when we wanted to collect our luggages, that's when our first "challenge" happened. A group of airport porters claimed to represent our travel agency and offered to fetch and carry our luggage from the airport to the bus waiting outside. Observing that something was not right, one of us phoned the local travel agent representative to confirm whether he had arranged for the airport porters to handle our luggage. He said there was no such arrangement and unless we wished to tip the porters exhorbitantly for their service, he advised us to get our own luggage back.

Everyone in our group therefore immediately arranged to retrieve their own luggages from the porters. We were earlier advised by the travel agency that we had to pay 30 Rial for each luggage to get the service of the airport porter.

After getting over our first challenge, our second "challenge" came when we were met by someone at the airport, who claimed to be representing our travel agency, and later by two (2) tour guides (muzawwir) at the bus, who also claimed to represent our travel agency. You see, they did not wear the travel agency's name tag and the situation was not made better when they insisted on collecting our passports for "safe-keeping". After going through the porter experience at the airport, we were somewhat doubtful whether we had the right tour guides. After some deliberations and discussions amongst ourselves we finally surrendered our passports to them. It turned out later that they were genuine representatives of the travel agency, Alhamdulillah.....

We then moved on to the next phase of our journey, which was to take the air-conditioned bus to Medinah. The journey from Jeddah to Medinah took about 5 hours. We stopped halfway to have dinner and perform the jama' takhir (combining maghrib's solat with ishaq's). The dinner was typically Arabic, where five of us shared one big plate consisting of what looked like fried rice, chicken, fish and vegetables. It was quite delicious. Maybe, it was because we were very hungry then :-). After the dinner, we continued our journey and finally arrived at our hotel in Medinah at about 2.00 am (Saudi Arabia's time). After getting our room keys, we went to our respective rooms to get a "proper" sleep. Not knowing where Masjid Nabawi was and not wanting to risk getting lost in a new place either, we did not venture out to look for the mosque to perform our Suboh prayer the next morning. Instead, the two of us performed the solat berjemaah in our own hotel room.

Infront of the Al-Fayroz Hotel, Medinah

After breakfast, we were taken for a tour of Mesjid Nabawi. History has it that when Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) first arrived at Medinah when he hijrah from Mecca together with his loyal and reliable companion, Abu Bakar As Siddiq r.a., the Prophet PBUH released his camel to allow it to go wherever it wished to go. The camel made it's own way and stopped at a piece of land upon which now stands the Masjid Nabawi and where the Prophet (PBUH) built his own house next to the mosque. Masjid Nabawi is the second most important masjid, after the Masjidil Haram in Mecca.

Masjid Nabawi
Our guide took us to tour around the grand mosque and after some briefings, we were left to venture into the mosque on our own to visit the tombs (makam) of the Prophet (PBUH) and his companions, Abu Bakar As-Sidiq and Omar Al-Khatab. The tombs were enclosed in walls and therefore inaccessible to everyone, except the mosque authorities. I offered my salaams to the Prophet (PBUH) and performed solat sunat there. The rest of the day was used up by commuting between the mosque (for prayers) and the hotel (for our meals)

Masjid Nabawi at the back

The next morning after breakfast, our guide took us for a tour ( menziarahi) of a few historical sites. We first stopped at Mount Uhud, the place where the Muslims battled with the Non-Believers (Kafirs) of Mekah. At first the Muslims won the battle, but later lost it because the Muslim archers, who were not supposed to leave their position on the hill, abandoned their position to join in the rush for the spoils of war. They went against the instruction of the Prophet (PBUH). The enemy took advantage of this situation to gather and launch a counter attack on the Muslims. Hamzah Abdul Mutalib, known as the "Lion of Islam" and also uncle of the Prophet (PBUH) was also killed in this battle.

After the visit to Mt.Uhud, we went to visit Masjid Quba', which was the first mosque that was built by the Prophet (PBUH) when he first arrived in Medinah at the early stage of the "hijrah". Then we went to visit Masjid Qiblatain, the mosque that has two directions of prayer (kiblat). Before Allah SWT instructs the Prophet (PBUH) to face the Kaabah in his prayer, the Prophet had been facing the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Palestine when he performed his prayer . After he was instructed to face the Kaabah when praying, he then changed his direction to face Kaabah in the same mosque. Since it was a Friday, we missed visiting another historical site, which was the Masjid Al-Fath. The guide explained to us that during the Ahzab War, where a trench was built around Medinah as a military strategy, the Prophet (PBUH) prayed for Allah's help for three consecutive days in this mosque, asking for help from Allah SWT to win the war. Consequently, a strong and cold sand storm wind hit the camps of the enemies that night that scared them so much that they decided to leave their camping area and forget about capturing Medinah. Masjid Qiblatain The bus then proceeded towards the place where fresh dates (buah kurma) were sold. There were many varieties being sold. Among others, we bought the "kurma Nabi", which was the Prophet's (PBUH) favourite during his time. It was sold to us at RM60 per Kg. After that the bus brought us back to our hotel for us to prepare for the Friday prayer at the Nabawi Mosque. In Saudi Arabia, they allocate a space in the mosque to allowthe women to participate in the Friday prayer too.

After the Friday prayer came my third challenge- my pair of slippers were not to be seen where I had placed them before entering the mosque. The urge to take someone else's pair of slippers at that time was indeed very tempting, but I managed somehow to decide against it, preferring to walk back barefooted to meet my wife at an agreed place to buy a new pair. Little did I realize or rather, how foolish I was to under-estimate the temperature of the ground. After taking a few steps with my bare feet, I realized that I couldn't take it - the ground was too hot or was it because my "spoiled" feet couldn't take the heat? I had to hurriedly walk back to the coolness of the mosque and called my wife over the phone requesting her to buy for me and deliver the slippers to me at the mosque.

Talking about the weather in Medinah, it was really hotter than the hottest days in Malaysia that I had known and experienced. I had to literally cover my face and eyes against the rays of the sun. No wonder the Arab women cover their faces. It's not only because it's customary to do so, but it's the practical thing to do too. No wonder the Arab men wear the "turban" wrapped around their heads. It also functions as a protective cover to their faces. I remember reading about how Bilal was tortured by his Master to give up Islam; at that time he was forced to lie down naked on the ground and weighed down with a boulder for the whole day without food or drinks. I was imagining that it was hot like Malaysia and therefore couldn't appreciate the burning pain that Bilal had to go through. After standing under the sun in Medinah and experiencing its effects, only then did I appreciate the hell that Bilal had to go through when he was subjected to that kind of torture.

When you are shopping in Medinah, especially buying from the street peddlers, always carry some small change with you. My wife and I almost had a bad experience with a street peddler. After bargaining for a piece of clothing for 18 Rial, my wife handed to her a 200-Riyal note. The peddler gave back 30-Rial as the change, whereas it should be 182 Rials. It was quite tough to get back the total correct change from the peddler as she returned the correct change little by little and only after much persistence from us did she finally return the correct amount. The peddler most likely deliberately did that because from her previous experience, Malaysian shoppers probably did not check their change after paying for the items that they had purchased :-). I also had the same experience later on in Mekah, where the peddler gave me a 30-Rial change for a 10-Rial item that I paid using a 50-Rial note. Only after much persistence did I get back the other 10 Rial. On another occasion in Mecca I bought a box of grapes for 10 Rial. After paying for the grapes, I was left waiting for some time and the peddler only entertained the other customers, "ignoring" me. Finally, I picked up a box of grapes and literally shove it to him to have it packed; only then did I manage to get his attention. Or maybe that was the right thing to do when doing shopping there? :-) End of Part 1. Click here for Part 2