My Umrah Trip - Part 4

Visit to Historical Places

Waiting for the coach to take us to visit Jabal Tsur. The plastic bag contained my Ihram clothes, which I used at a Miqat on the way back to the hotel.

Jabal Tsur

Left - Photo of Jabal Tsur and on the Right is Photo of Jabal Tsur - closer view

The tour package also included visits to historical places around Mecca. One of the places that we visited was the Jabal Tsur (Jabal means mountain). This was where Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and his faithful companion, Abu Bakar As-Sidik hid themselves from their enemies in a small cave for 3 days and with the help of Allah SWT, a spider spanned its web and a bird nested itself at the entrance to the cave, thus creating an impression to the enemies that no one had entered the cave.That was also the beginning of the Hijrah for Prophet Mhammad (PBUH) from Mecca to Medina. To avoid detection, he stayed in the desert during the day and travelled only at night. When he finally reached Medina, he established the Islamic Kingdom whichquickly spread the religion of Islamic to the world.

The Peak of Jabal Tsur

Jabal Nuur

Jabal Nur with Hira Cave at the Peak

The Jabal an-Nour (also Jabal an-Nur or Jabal Nur) is the name of the mountain which contains the Cave of Hira at its peak. The cave itself is about 4 meters in length and 1.75 meters in width.
It is notable for being the location where Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) received his first verses of the Quran from Allah SWT through the angel Jibraile.
Before the Prophet PBUH received his first revelation in this cave, he always climbed to this mountain to be on his own and to meditate in the Hira cave. He felt sad at the state of affairs of the Mecca people then - they worshipped deities and statues, killed their new-born baby girls, gambled, got drunk, killed and robbed each other with no law and order.

An optional trip was organised to climb Mount Hira at night because it would be unbearable to climb it in the day time due to the heat from the sun. Since my eye-sight was not good at night, Salmiah and I decided not to join in the trip. But the descriptions by fellow Muslims who climbed the mountain to reach the cave was good enough for me to picture the situation there. According to them, the cave is not large. There was enough space only for one man to pray standing, and another immediately next to him to pray sitting. There was a long queue of those who were able to make the almost 1-hour climb to get to the cave. They were queuing to pray at the same blessed place where revelation of the Qur'an was first given to our beloved Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) 1,440 years ago.

Jabal Rahmah

Jabal Rahmah, the mountain of love (kasih sayang) is the place where Adam and Eve met after being separated from each other for 200 years. It is said that from Heaven, Adam landed at India and Eve at Jeddah. Our mutawwir suggested that those of us who were still single, could climb on the hill and pray to find his/her life partners. I wonder whether the single people in our Umrah group had managed to find their life partners after they returned to Malaysia. The Prophet (PBUH) also delivered a speech on his last pilgrimage from this
mountain, the most famous message being, "O' people, reflect of my words. I leave behind me two things, THE QURAN AND MY SUNNAH (HADITH), and if you follow these, you will not fail."

At background is Jabah Rahmah

Climbing up the Jabal Rahmah.

Salmiah with a "taxi"camel at Rial5.00 per ride

End of Part 4
Click here for Part 5 (last)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------