My Umrah Trip - Part 5

Visit to a Camel Farm

Well, a visit to Saudi Arabia is not complete without a visit to a camel farm. Our tour bus stopped by this camel farm before proceeding to other historical destination. Visiting this camel farm really made me wonder how such a nice and gentle creature is brought up in a surrounding, which is rough, tough and environmentally unfriendly. Here they are in the middle of a desert under the punishing heat of the hot afternoon sun without any shelter. Yet, they greeted us amicably when we approached them. No wonder, it is quoted in one of the Hadiths that the camel is one of the animals to be guaranteed a place in Heavens.


The farm that we visited was run by an Arab single-handedly. While we were there, we had the chance to taste and drink fresh milk taken from the she camel. At first, we were thinking we would probably "throw up" after taking it, but after the first sip, we found that it tasted like "santan" (coconut milk) but more gentle. We paid 5 Rial for a small bottle and Salmiah and I consumed a bottle each. We also applied some of it on our face' Our guide said that it's good for our face. Wallahu'alam......

The Treaty of Hudaibiyyah

After the visit to the camel farm, the tour coach brought us to the historical site where the Treaty of Hudaibiyyah was signed. It is considered a very important historical site because it was where the treaty was signed between Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and one of the Meccan Quraish, who were the enemies of Islam then. Even though the treaty seemed to be more like one-sided in favour of the enemies, it turned out to be good for Islam because when the treaty was signed, there were only about 1,400 Muslims who accompanied Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). But about two years later, when finally the Prophet (PBUH) marched into Mecca to perform the Haj, he was accompanied by 10,000 Muslims. Mecca was finally conquered without much bloodshed. Without the treaty, there would probably be more bloodshed amongst the Arabs before the Prophet (PBUH) could finally take over Mecca.

We visited the place of Hudaibiyah, which looked like it needed some improvement. It also explained why no snapshots were taken by us of the place. It looked like a building in a ruin. The Saudi Government should do something to improve the place. However, there was a mosque nearby where we went in to perform solat sunat tahayatul masjid before we left the place.

The Museum

After we left Hudaibiyyah, our last stop for the day before we reached Mecca was a museum. Here we found the historical relics of Mecca, especially those of the kaabah. A picture paints a thousand words. So we are going to show you some of the photos that we took in the museum.
Former Maqam Ibrahim Former Steps to Kaabah

The former casing for the Hajarul Aswad

The former door of Kaabah

Time To Go Home
After spending 6 memorable days in Mecca, it's time to pack our clothing and other personal belongings into our luggage to leave Mecca for Jeddah to catch a plane for our trip home to Malaysia. We had done our very best in performing our umrah and we hope that Allah SWT accepts our ibadat.

The night before, we had been told to place our luggage outside our hotel room before 6.00 am, so that they could be collected and loaded onto the bus that was going to take us to the airport in Jeddah. In the morning after we had performed our last solat Suboh at Masjidil Haram, we also performed our last tawaf around the kaabah. We went back to the hotel to have our breakfast and then waited at the lobby for the bus to come and fetch us.

We arrived at Jeddah around noon time. We were taken to a beach where we had our lunch. Whilst having lunch and facing the Red Sea, I couldn't helped but recalled the journey made by Prophet Musa r.a. and his followers who crossed the sea with the Pharaoh and his troops closed behind him.

The "Floating Mosque" at the background

Having a rest under a hut after having lunch

After lunch, we went to the mosque to perform our solat, but unfortunately the mosque was locked. Fortunately the place for taking ablution (wuduk) was opened and we used the outside part of the mosque to perform our solat (jamaq takdim). After being used to the good service provided by Masjidil Nabawi and Masjidil Haram, it was quite difficult to accept the condition of this mosque.

The hut and the mosque and the Red Sea as the backgroundAfter we had performed our solat at the "floating" mosque. we boarded the bus to take us to the airport. There was some waiting and confusion at the airport, but our travel agent managed to resolve it. We managed to take a group photograph at the airport before we finally boarded the plane. Our trip back to Malaysia was uneventful and our plane safely landed at KLIA in the early hours of the morning (Malaysian Time). Alhamdulillah...

Me & Salmiah on the 1st and 2nd left. Ustaz Mahmud, who led us during the umrah, was standing 7th from the left

The End.
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