Friday, January 19, 2007

I'm back in Manchester and I still cant believe I have been and gone, it's like a dream.

I'm so tired and I have this cough but I'm loving it cause I had this cough since the first day of hajj and its been with me since and I feel like its a part of the hajj that I have brought home with me and I don't want it to go away... The actual rituals don't exhaust you its the travelling that does and we did a lot of travelling to get to Saudi but it is so worth it and if some one told me that I had to do it again then I would without any hesitation.

remember that week where I was moping around all depressed because I thought I wasn't going, I was convinced that it was postponed for a whole year, and subhanallah out of the blue we get a visa, but the problem was obtaining flights, everything was packed and we where told to be on standby because any minute the phone will go off to tell us to get ready and to be at a meeting point, so our bags where packed and it was a case of waiting..... Me and my mum had gone to Asda to get some provisions and stuff and we got back home around half past 3, my dad announces that we are leaving tonight at 9:30 pm after that it was dashing here there and every where, I was meeting a couple of friends at 7 cause one of my dearest friends was going back to Malaysia forever so it was a going away dinner, half an hour before I was leaving my mum says to me:

mum: white African did you have your shower?

me: shower? Why, can you smell something? (at which point I was getting all paranoid sniffing myself exageratingly)

mum: (slaps me on the head) don't be silly, I mean the shower where you do your niyah for ihram?

me: oooooooooooooooh, no am I supposed to?

mum? Yes, my god I thought you new

me: apparently not, stop assuming I know things.. And with that I ran to have the fastest shower known to mankind....

with all the preparation and what not it still had not sunk in, at 9pm I was at didsbury mosque waiting for the coach to arrive, mashallah people had come to say there sallams and the atmosphere was truly amazing, we had an introductory talk by the brother in charge of the group, it still didn't sink in...
















coach arrived and at around 3 am we got to heathrow airport, our flight to Damascus airport was not until 8am, so we played with foil from someone's sandwich and made different shapes out of them as well as generally get on each others nerves, especially me and my youngest brother..

this is just a portion of peoples luggage:



eventually it was time for checking in and then of to departure, where it felt like we had to sit and wait forever but as always nothing really is forever so we boared the plane to Syria. 5 hours the flight was and eventually touch down at Damascus airport, where we had to spend 14 hours at transit, lets just say that we really got to know the staff at the airport, I didn't realise Syria was so ummmmmmmmmmmmmm..... airporty....

eventually we boarded the plane to take us to Jeddah, it was a flight like no other, every single person on the plane was going to perform hajj, at a certain point the pilot announced that we had crossed the miqat, all the men got up and changed into there ihram, we all made wudu and prayed to rakas on the plane then started the takbir labbayk allahuma labbyk, labbayka la sharika laka labbayyak'.. That's when it started to hit me, I'm nearly there, subhannallah looking around me on the plane brought about such unexplainable feelings.

I wanted to post more pic but blogger needs a case of jamarat type of punishment...

will type up some more...

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

WOW! what a start whitey.

Suhanallah we plan and Allah plans and is plan is most assured.

Anonymous said...

^
So true!

WOW indeed! Amazing.....your experience was beautiful mashaAllah. I knw your kinda depressed and didn't wanna come back an' all, but we r glad u r back...we missed u so much!

Do something about that cough....

Anonymous said...

Totally know that feeling!!! I had that same feeling on the plane when I went this year. Mashallah.. it was the most amazing experience ever!!! ....miss it so much! ..oh..and I love my cough too! but i think mine was from the cold in Muzdalifa!!!

Anonymous said...

what a journey! why did you have to be at the mosque at 9pm when the coach was coming at 3am?
anyway it was so worth it at the end, I am happy for you and your family and really looking forward to reading a lot more, you only gave us a taster and hopefully lots of pictures inshAllah.

Lebeeya said...

:) Nice. Thank you for sharing this with us. I got goosebumps reading the part when everyone started the takbir labbayk allahuma labbyk, labbayka la sharika laka labbayyak. It must of been amazing!

14 hours transit! Arghh! Hope you guys had a lot of foil to play with! Waiting for the details of the rest of the trip :)

Monday's Child said...

thanks for sharing... please tell us more :)

Brave Heart said...

it's long journey,I'm wondering why there isn't direct line from Manchester to jedeh.
the other thing why any one go to hajj must catch the flu.it's a little bit strange,all people i knew they bring flu with them ,this year,last year,many years ago

white african said...

true nm,

native i missed every 1 loads, it really is strange to be back though, i will get used to it with time inshallah, i dont want to do anything for the cough :D

annon it was freezing in muzdalifa but what a night eh? subhannallah.

anglo we arrived at heathrow at 3am, coach came after 10pm, the flight to Syria was delayed though but not to much, i gues sthey said to be atthe mosque early cause knowing muslims they thought we might be late :)

14 hours indeed lebeeyah, but we didnt feel it cause of all the excitment and what not,

your wleocm monday and will type up more inshallah

brave there usually is direct flights to jeddah from manchester but because we got the visas last minute that meant we had to get whatever flights where available.

im not surprised that people get ill when coming back form hajj, millions of people are constantly coughing around you your bound to catch something..

Anonymous said...

Well done!
I was there too, sort of saw you there in Mecca, Surprised!? cuz I thought you are not going. First time to get cold and cough like this, ? removing sins ? Purifying ! Muzdalafa was the most!

There are two things in your post which are brand new to me:

1) mum: (slaps me on the head) don't be silly, I mean the shower where you do your niyah for ihram?

I thought niyah of Ihram is from Migat!

2) The pilot announced that we had crossed the miqat, all the men got up and changed into there (their) ihram, we all made wudu and prayed to (two) rakas on the plane.

This is new to me, two rakas !? I read some where that Ihram better to be after Faridah salat if possible but there is no thing called two Ihram rakat!?

I might be wrong, Allah and his messenger knows better.

Ahmad

white african said...

sallam ahmad, which ahmad are you? and hajj mabroor, dhanb maghfoor and sa3 mashkur inshallah.

i was surprised myself that i was going but it was meant to be alhamdullilah.

you are right niyah for ihram is from miqat, i meant the ghusal for ihram we had to do it from manchester because there are no shower facilities on the plane to do it so we where in a state of physical ihram in our shower but we hadnt done the niyah yet until miqat was announced, sorry bout that.

it is sunah to perform 2 rakkahs before the niyah, perferably after a faridah prayer, th eprophet used to pray and then would do his niyah on boarding his transport i.e camel at the time.

that is what we did on the plane and lik eyou said allah a3lam.

hope your hajj experince was brilliant, which group did you go with?

Anonymous said...

Lovely to have you back Haja!
Elf Mabrouk!
Errrr.. shall we call you Haja WA ???

white african said...

thank you trabilsia.

uuuum hajja wa seems old doesnt it lol, the hajis are getting alot younger these days....