My Arabia: An Umrah & Ziarah Travelogue

With my sister CY and two other friends, we joined the Umrah & Ziarah group tour of Ibtisam led by Ustadz Haji Hassan Mahmud Al Hafiz in July 2009. (The Umrah is the lesser pilgrimage or shortened version of the Haj).

Allow me some introductory notes about the Umrah. The 3 pillars of Umrah : Ihram (intention of starting umrah; "Actions are but by intentions", Tawaf  (7 circuits around the Ka'bah), Sa'y (7 times; start at As-Safa and end at Al-Marwah). The 2 obligatory duties of Umrah: Entering Ihram for it from outside the sanctuary (Haram) and shaving the head/cutting the hair to exit Ihram.

Day 1: We board a Saudi Arabian Airlines plane at KLIA in the afternoon and reach Jeddah around 6.00 pm local time there. We board a bus to Madinah, stopping at Wadi Toreiq (?) for isyak/maghrib prayers and dinner of lamb mandi.

Minaret of mosque at ... (CNB 2009)

My plateful of Lamb Mandi (CNB 2009)

Day 2: We reach Madinah in the very early morning and checked into the Hotel. Subuh prayers (at 4.05 am) was at the Masjid Nabawi or Prophet's Mosque. After our prayers we had breakfast at the hotel; Indonesian catered food. (There was noticeably, a large number of Indonesians from Kalimantan. I found out that they had had a good harvest and so many could afford to come for Umrah.)

My sister and I then went to the Raudhah (the Prophet's grave/tomb). It was pretty chaotic there, with the female guards raising their voices to keep order and persuading the large crowd to enter by 'region', (Asians last, after the Arabs and Persians). The Masjid Nabawi was just a stone's throw from our hotel, so all prayers were done there.

After the isyak prayers, we had dinner (Indonesian food would be our staple for the rest of our stay in Arabia) and then went next door to the Souq Al-Saha for a bit of shopping. The shops there offered books*, the Quran, prayer mats, tasbih (prayer beads) and clothes, especially the abaya. (You can also buy these from the street peddlars in front of the mosque, although they are constantly being asked to move by the police).

The Prophet's Mosque (CNB 2009)

Inside the Masjid Nabawi/Prophet's Mosque (CNB 2009)

Women in Masjid Nabawi (CNB 2009)

Day 3: We visited (and prayed in) the Quba Mosque, and also stopped by the Jabal Uhud (Mt Uhud). At a date farm/orchard, we bought fresh dates and I think I had the best chai (tea) there. We also visited and prayed at the Al-Qiblatain Mosque, the mosque with two Qiblah. Before going back to the Hotel, we stopped by a date souq; a whole souq dedicated to dates of all kinds.

The Quba Mosque (CNB 2009)

At Jabal Uhud (2009)

Colourful 'not so ripe' dates (CNB 2009)

CY, me and a friend pose with dates (2009)

The Al Qiblatain Mosque (CNB 2009)

Day 4: After subuh prayers and breakfast, we walked around the area. The buildings were mostly hotels, all quite recently built. We also revisited the Raudhah. (Meticulous search of bag, and body, by the female guards, meant that no handphones or cameras could be brought into the Masjid Nabawi. But some do get through).

In the afternoon, after a sunat ihram bath, we left Madinah for Makkah. We prayed asar at Bir Ali (miqat) where we went into ihram. On reaching Makkah, we checked into a hotel within walking distance to Al-Masjid Al-Haram (Haram Mosque). At 11.50 pm, we went to the Haram Mosque to do our Umrah under the guidance of Ustadz Mastor. Our tawaf and sa'y took us till 2.30 am. My first sight of the Ka'bah was indeed surreal (as in a dream). Allahuakbar!

Iranian theology students at Bir Ali (CNB 2009)

The Bir Ali Mosque (CNB 2009)

The Arabian sunset on our way to Makkah (CNB 2009)

The Ka'bah within the Haram Mosque (CNB 2009)

Day 5: All our prayers were done in Al-Masjid Al-Haram; we walked back to the hotel only for mealtimes and short rests in between. The Haram Mosque was always crowded and sometimes there were saf (prayer row) discomforts (like being squeezed in between very large Arab ladies). On our way from the hotel to the Haram Mosque and vice versa, we pass by lots of shops and a supermarket in a mall. I sometimes stop at the shops to buy Arabian confectionary and get the Saudi Gazette or Arab News. Once at the Bindawood Complex, we were perusing in a bookshop and as we paid for our purchase, we were given a Quran each. A gift from an Arab gentleman whom we only caught a glimpse of. "Shukran (thank you) for the kind gift and may Allah bless you".

On an access road to the Haram Mosque (CNB 2009)

One of the many entrances into the Haram Mosque (CY 2009)

Day 6: After subuh prayers, we went on a tour of the outskirts of Makkah. We visited Jabal Thawr (Mt Thawr) where in a cave here, the Prophet Muhammad sought refuge from his persecutors, the Quraish. We  also visited Muzdalifah, Mina, and 'Arafat. Mt Arafat, a granite hill, also known as Jabal Rahmah (Mount of Mercy), is where the Prophet delivered his farewell sermon. It is also believed to be where Adam and Eve met again after 200 years following their expulsion.

We stopped at the Masjid Al-Ji'ranah/Jurana (miqat) for prayers and enter into ihram for our second umrah. Enroute back to Makkah, we stopped to look at Jabal Nur or 'The Mountain of Light', where in the Hira Cave, the Prophet received his first revelation from Allah through the angel Gabriel.

At the Mt Thawr (2009)

Pilgrims on the Jabal Rahmah (CNB 2009)

On a decorated camel in Arafat (2009)

Jabal Nur (CNB 2009)

Day 7: In between prayers at the Al-Masjid Al-Haram, meals and rest at the hotel, we also did the occasional shopping in the vicinity, for yashmak, rosaries, attar (perfume), habbatussaudah (blackseed), dates, nuts, and dried fruits. I also tried the local ice cream, breads, and mixed fruit juice (this last item was not a good idea, because I had a massive stomach upset after that).

Day 8: In the morning we went to the Al-Masjid Taneem/Masjid At-Tan'im (the nearest miqat) to pray and enter into ihram for our third umrah (this is for Ba). Back at the Al-Masjid Al-Haram, at the end of our sa'y, we rested on Mt. Marwah after tahlul (cutting of hair). The Haram Mosque complex is big and a couple of times we forgot from which entrance we came in and where we had left our footwear!

In the late afternoon, our group visited a camel farm along the old Jeddah-Makkah road, where I had a taste of fresh camel milk. Eerr... it is an acquired taste. Ali, our Arab Bedouin van driver was a speed maniac and the more we told him to slow down, the more he would revv up the engine of his old van! After the camel farm we went on to Hudaibiyah Mosque for prayers and to enter ihram from this miqat. Nearby is the remains of the old mosque where the Prophet used to pray in. There was an old man there selling rosaries made from some unusual material - date seeds and camel bone. We also visited the Museum on the architecture of the two mosques (Al-Masjid Al-Haram & Masjid Nabawi) before going back to Makkah.

Al-Masjid Tan'eem (CNB 2009)

At the camel farm (2009)

Two Arabs and a few camels (CNB 2009)

Serving up fresh camel milk (CNB 2009)

Day 9: The day was spent in prayers at the Haram Mosque.

Day 10: As in day 8, we went to Al-Masjid Taneem to pray and enter into ihram for our fourth umrah (this is for QJ).

Day 11: We spent the whole day and night at the Haram Mosque, and in between prayers we made friends with our fellow pilgrims. There was a family from the UAE with an English speaking daughter who told us that they had visited Malaysia a few times. A lady from Syria said she comes to Makkah annually by bus with her husband. One young lady, from another Malaysian group, was complaining about the Arab ladies who squeezed into prayer safs and literally sat on her. In the holy land especially, patience is a virtue.

Day 12: We did our tawaf wida' (farewell) at 8.30 in the morning. Then in the afternoon we boarded the bus to Jeddah, King Abdul Aziz International Airport. At 8.45 pm we left by Saudi Airlines to Dammam, and thence home to KLIA. The umrah & ziarah has been an eye-opener, and I look forward to Haj in the near future, insyaallah.

Early dawn at the Haram Mosque (CNB 2009)

* I bought these two books: History of Al-Madinah Al Munawwarah and History of Makkah, prepared by a group of scholars under the supervision of Shaikh Safiur-Rahman Mubarakpuri.