Baitullah Al-Haram, Praise Be To Allah

Bismillahirrahmannirrahim,

Assalamualaikum w.b.t. & Alhamdulillah,

Baitullah Al-Haram...

I never thought that 2011/1432H would be the year that Allah s.w.t would send me to Baitullah, the biggest mosque on earth, the holiest place for Muslims, which surrounds the Kaaba and can accommodate up to 4 million people in a single period. Al-Haram covers an area of 88.2 acres and is located between the hills in Mecca.

Our trip started from Kuching(me and my grandmother), where we flew to Kota Kinabalu to meet my father and his mother in law, before we adjourn to Brunei Darussalam to board the Brunei Royal Airline to Jeddah, the second largest city in Arab Saudi. The flight flew for about 8347 kilometers or 5187 miles or 4507 nautical miles (according to http://www.timeanddate.com) and took about 9 hours which was one of the longest flight I've ever boarded.

From Jeddah International Airport, we continued to Medina (332 kilometers) for about 3 hours. In the middle of the route, I remembered us stopping for breakfast to taste the local menu. My dad ordered 5 Pita Bread to be served with lamb curry, and astonishingly we were served with 5 packs of 5 Pita Breads making it altogether 25.

We were speechless gazing upon our breakfast, 25 Pita equivalent to 25 Roti Canai and they were only 5 of us. 'Aiyyaaa, siapa mau makan ini?' In the end, we manage to finish nearly 2 packs and brought the rest along our journey.

In Medina, we checked in at the Anwar Movenpick Hotel,

which is located very near to Masjid Nabawi @ also called the Prophet's mosque. For the few days we spent there, the mosque was our main place of visiting. We went there 5 times a day, and that was not even enough. From someone that only performed solat once in a while, I started to appreciate them, and from then I know what was this 'hidayah', a very wonderful thing one may receive from Him, or which is translated by http://www.islamic-dictionary.com/index.php?word=hidayah as "The actual guiding of someone to the true path.". Without hidayah from Allah, I would have still be the common me, someone not very serious about life and was less considerate on akhirat. For me, this 'hidayah' is much better than the earth and all its content combined.

Behind me is the Masjid Nabawi, from outside it's magnificent, inside it's even more beautiful. The mosque have lots of domes, and if you notice the green one behind me, below it is the tomb of our beloved prophet (Peace Be Upon Him), and between his tomb and the Pulpit or Mimbar is the Raudhah or some may call ar-Riaz-ul-Jannah, one of the sacred place believed to be part of heaven, where prayers are never rejected. During our stay in Medina, never during any Solat Fardhu was the mosque below 3 quarter occupied, and people flooded until outside the mosque during certain prayers especially Jumaat Prayer. Perhaps during every prayers the mosque was over-occupied since sometimes I prayed inside and was looking for opportunity to pray within Raudhah area, unaware of the crowds outside.

We stayed in Medina for 3 days and soon it was time for us to perform the Umrah. On the third day, we put on the ihram, checked out and proceeded to the Mosque of Bir-Ali to say the Miqat(Niat) before embarking on a 337 kilometers journey to the Holy City of Makkah.

** To be continued in the next post.. InsyaAllah..

(^_^)

Assalamualaikum w.b.t.