Towards Haramain

CHAPTER 4 - The Sacred Pilgrimage

After we finished our breakfast around 9:30 AM, we head towards the lounge area and sit on the couches, as Abbu instructs few details and hands over the hotel cards to each of us. Abbu and Fazal looking divine in their Ihrams. We consistently recite Talbia as we head from the hotel and walk on the streets of Makkah towards Al-Haram.
LABBAIK ALLAHUMMA LABBAIK, LABBAIKA LA SHARIKA LAKA LABBAIK, INNAL HAMDA, WANNIMATA, LAKAWAL MULK, LA SHAREEKALAK "Here I am O Lord, here I am, you indeed have no partner, here I am no doubt, all praise and bounties are yours, and so is the absolute domain, You indeed have no partners, here I am."

We reach the courtyard of Al-Haram, awestruck our eyes witness the Masjid and inside after we put our footwear in the shaper. In we walk with our heads down and take the escalators to reach the Mataf area.

I lift up my head to see the magnificent Kaaba standing at its rightful place. I am tongue tied but after a few seconds I pray "Ya Allah Make me among the Mustajab-ut-Dawwaath. Allah grant me Jannat-ul-Firdose, forgive my sins, grant me Maghfirah, and save me from hell fire. Ya Raheem, I'm once again standing at our center of manifestation and I'm gratified you brought me here."

Siddiqa's mother lifts her head up, with no number of seconds, unconditional tears fall down from her eyes. she always prayed to come here and again with her family. She begins her supplication " Ya Allah make me among the Mustajab-ut-Dawwaath. You bring this poor soul again to your sacred place. I'm blessed, My family is blessed and you are the most merciful. I'm thankful to you."

Tehreem sees the Kaaba, the black cloth with the Ayahs of the Quran inscribed on it. Allah created the world with the most beautiful nature green and many more fascinating colorful things any human could think of. But his house, The house of Allah is black, a simple building nothing colorful yet the most wonderstruck thing which excels everything. It has The Noor, The Rahmah, The Barakah. The lord of the worlds wanted his creation to think this black Kiswah and the monument Ibrahim AS made did not want attraction but true believe perseverance in human beings to say that Allah is one and only, and what worldy colorful things attract is mere illusion. His creation has the smallest creature existing to something gigantic anyone could think of. He only shows us what he wants and has many things hidden from his creation. HIs denial has severe punishment and this house of Allah if witnessed in the eyes of an non believer forces him willingly to believe in his oneness.

After Fazal finished his Dua for his first look at The Kaaba, he gazed the crowd performing Tawaf, some in the Ihram while some in their normal wear, they were circling around the Kaaba some were crying, some in groups reciting dua's loudly, another crowd he stared were the people praying in the area behind Maqam-e-Ibrahim, some were just sitting gazing the kaaba. It was overwhelming for him, for the fact that he was right there. This was not a video he was seeing. It was real, he was there, where thousands of muslims pray to come. He knew the next few days would be the best days of his life. Fazal knew he would be experiencing this Noor and this gave him utmost peace to his heart. He felt complete.

Abbu had done Umrah several times. But every time he visited, he would get more contentment than before but most restlessness on going back home. The urge to come back to this place nothing but only increased massively. But on the increase of the urge the thanking to the Lord of the worlds also reached at peak every time. And he was here again trying to please his Lord and seeking forgiveness from him. He did a Ijtimae Dua before we all could leave for the first step of Umrah that is to do the Tawaf of the Holy Kaaba.

We all stand at the Hajar-al-aswad and raise our hands up as if saying takbir and do our Istalaam as we say "Bismillahi Allahu Akbar Walillahil hamd." Then we start circling around the Kaaba in the direction of the flow. We do our Dua, Zikar, Adhkaar,read few Duas from the books we carried in the seven rounds. We finish the Tawaf after half and hour and do our last Istilam and walk forward and stand behind the area of Maqam Ibrahim to perform two rakat salah which is the second step. There was enough space there with no crowd and we performed our salah, first Rakah we read Surah Kaafirun and the second Rakah we read Surah Ikhlaas. It is Sunnah to read so.
Then we proceed towards the ZamZam Water taps and drink it after reciting a recommend Dua "Allahuma inni asaluka ilman nafian wa rizqan wasian wa shifaan min kulli da". We drink the ZamZam as much as we can and drink it until we are no longer thirsty.
We have the second major part of Umrah to complete. We have to perform Sa'ee. It is a Wajib(Obligatory) act. Sa'ee literally refers to Run. And it legally refers to going between Safa and Marwa seven times.
We head towards Mount Safa reciting the dua.

We see a huge crowd performing Sa'ee. We stand there and face our direction towards the Kaaba and raise our hands and recite Allahuakbar, Lailaha Illallah thrice, recite Salawat and do Dua for few minutes.
We start performing The Sa'ee once we finish our first round, all of us gather and sit aside and make dua.
One can continue performing Sa'ee without stopping but these places are sacred and virtous. We need to take time and take the blessing in the places where Allah has promises for Dua to get accepted.
We perform next few rounds of Sa'ee making sure to stop, take a moment, make abundant du'as for ourselves and the ummah.
When it is our fifth round of Sa'ee, all of us are thirsty and stop in between near the green lights to drink Zam Zam. We pull out the plastic glasses and The Tap pours out The Holy Water for us. We quench our thirst and resume walking.
We finally finish our rounds of Sa'ee and a wave of happiness is seen in the air as we complete The Umrah. Truly Allah blessed us. We look towards the Kaaba and make Du'as. It is the process where we don't feel tired doing Du'as and want to do more and more.

The final step of Umrah is to Cut our Hair. All of us women gather and My Mother cuts her hair first. Three inches from the finger and then cut our Hair. We are out of the folds of Ehram now.
The men go to the Barber and get their Halaq(remove hair) done. They are all bald now :)