MZ Majiet

In ihraam, ready to go

The day finally arrived; it was the 8^th day of thulgijjah. I took my sunnah ghusl and donned my ihram for hajj. What an emotional time this is. Of all the time you’ve spend in Madina and Makkah, these are the days that really matter. After donning my ihram and saying my niyah to go in a state of ihram, I announced my presence by Allah and confirming that o Allah here I am, the call has been made by your Beloved prophet Ebraheem (A.S), as Allah has instructed him to make the call for hajj.  …Labayk Allah humma labayk, labayk Allah shareeka laka labayk…… this is such an electric feeling at such a powerful time.

As we were located very close to Mina we decided to walk, which took us about 15 minutes. Mina is a place where you reflect and prepare your mind for the big day of Arafah.  The weather was overcast and little did we know what was waiting for us on Mina.  After a few hours on Mina there was loud thunder and lightning like I have never heard it in my entire life! Was it scary? Yes, indeed it was scary. After a few hours of lightning and the loud thunder echoed by the mountains, the first rain started to fall.  The rain got heavier and heavier, it was such that our sandals that was outside of the tents moved along the direction that the water was flowing. Of course we couldn’t stay in the tents all day to hide from the rain, we had to get our lunch which was in another tent and of course the need to go to the loo. Many of the hujjaaj was soaking wet. Algamdulillah, although the rain was heavy and pouring on one for a few hours, there was no floods on Mina and none of the hujaaj were injured.

After spending the day on Mina it was now the 9^th day of thul hijjah, the day of Arafah. Immediately after our fajr salaah we boarded our busses to go to A’rafah. On our way to Arafah it was such an amazing sight to behold, wherever you looked there were people coming from all directions, donned in their white ihram, all making their way to the plains of Arafah. We arrived on Arrafah at 07h30 (am) and as I were told that was record time. By that time many hujjaaj had already arrived. Because it was still very early and quite a few hours away from the time of wuquf, I decided to take a walk and see what the rest of Arafah looked like. To my amazement, at that time of the morning,  jabal raghmah was almost completely covered in white and what a sight it was, of this continues flow of hujaaj pouring onto Arafah.  Then the hour finally dawned upon me that I was waiting for my entire life….to be present on the day of arafah, during the time of wuqoof. Before I could lift my hands the tears were pouring hard and fast….”here I am Allah, o here I am Allah! Out of the many millions of muslims throughout the world You have honoured me to stand on Arafah! O Allah I am weak, I am a sinner, but you are most merciful! Shukr Allah, shukr Allah for affording me this great favour…….”And the begging of forgiveness and duah continued for the remainder of the day, breaking for short intervals to refresh and to eat.  

What an experience it was! Now the sun was setting and it was time to leave Arafah in a state of purity like the day your mother gave birth to you. It is regarded as a sin that if you doubt for one minute that Allah has not forgiven you. We made our way to the busses to leave for Muzzdallifah. My mind was set to sit in the bus for a good few hours as was related to me by many the hujaaj before I left home.   Subgaanallah, it took us less than two hours to get to Muzdallifah by bus. Continuing the remembrance of Allah I picked up my pebbles to stone the big Jamaraat. After midnight we left muzdallifah for Mina to pelt the big Jamaraat and again traffic was easy and in no time we were at the big Jamaraat. Again Allah made it very easy and I could go very close to the Jamaraat to pelt. Then we we made our way to the Gharam to perform tawaaf ul I foldah  and saai’i. There was already a big crowd in the gharam, but not as big as I expected and by this time I was very tired, as I was on the move for two days now. Although you are tired you still in a different frame of mind and high state of God consciousness. I completed my tawaaf, saai’i and had my hair clipped and headed for my hotel in Azziziyah. I was so tired that the taxi driver had to wake me up a few times for me to remind him where to drop me. I was back in my hotel by 03h45 in the morning having completed all of the most important manaasik of hajj, Algamdulillah.  

All that was left now was to spend the three days on Mina for pelting all three jamaraats. This again was very easy through the grace of the Almighty. You no longer find the white column as seen in many of the old photos. The Jamaraats is now a big wall, situated in a huge concrete structure that’s five stories high and on each floor the jamaraat can be pelted. The authorities control the crowds very well. You are only allowed to enter in one direction and exit in another.

Of course there was one more thing to do before I left for home and that was to perform my tawaaful widaa. We were from amongst the first SA gujaaj that left the kingdom. I went down to the gharram at about 12h00 in the evening hoping it was going to be empty, but to my disappointment it was extremely full. It was the biggest crowd in tawaaf that I have experienced during my entire stay in Makkah. In my mind I was hoping that, because this was my last tawaaf for 2009 I would’ve loved to get to the gasral aswad and baabur rahmah. In my tawaaf, I appealed to Allah and of course nothing is impossible for the Almighty. Subgaanallah, the way just opened up for me and I could get the gasral aswad and all the other places that I wanted to, Algamdulillah. I was sad during my farewell tawaaf, but didn’t cry as I had this great feeling of confidence in my heart that Allah has accepted my duah that I will be back to once again tawaaf around His sacred house, aamen.

Of the many lessons that I have learnt from Hajj, there’s one thing that I hope will never leave me and that is “ the power of duah”. Never ever give up hope in the Almighty, as nothing is impossible for Allah! He always responds to us in a positive way when we make duah, but we are so weak and impatient that we are unable to hear and see the positive response.

Algamdulillah, I am now back at home with my three favourite girls and pray that the Almighty grant me and all the hujaaj a hajj makbool and mabroor insha-Allah and that we will be able to live our Hajj and that the people around us will be able to benefit from us, ameen.

Shukran again to everyone in whatever role you played in making my journey a success and shukran for all the duahs and comments while following my blog. May the Almighty grant you all your hearts desires and grant you to undertake this journey very soon insha-Allah.

NB. in my final blog on Hajj 2009 there will be no writing, but a lot of photos!  

Excited, nervous and emotional is how I feel at present. The days of Hajj are finally here. Let’s reflect on this wonderful journey so far.

From the very first day it was only an idea to send me for hajj. I had no passport, no accreditation, but little did I know that Allah has long time printed my passport and accredited me to perform hajj in 2009.Off I went in the plane for the first time, experiencing how its not the wings or the engine that keeps the plane in the air, but indeed the by the power of the Almighty.

Landing at Madinah airport you feel as if you are on another planet. The atmosphere is that of calm and tranquillity. Standing at the kabr of our beloved Prophet (s.a.w), what an amazing experience to personally greet the most beloved of Allah. As we know that the Prophet (s.a.w) said that whoever visits his kabr, it is as if he has visited him in real life. Sad it was to say farewell to the prophet, but then I was looking forward to the house of Allah. Again what an experience seeing the kaabah for the first time! Performing tawaaf, touching the black stone and putting my chest against the kaabah begging for Allah’s mercy.

Tomorrow it will be time to don my ihram for the climax of my journey, to present myself on Arafah. Of course we’ll be spending the day in Mina first, reflecting and focussing on the big day of Arafah. Leaving behind the ‘I’ and joining the millions of pilgrims in the same clothing as you, crying out “here I am Allah, I have responded to Your call”. At the time of wuqoof getting out in the sun burning your ego; burning your pride and let only the love for your creator remains.

Please make duah for all of us that the Almighty grant us good health and the strength to fulfil all our manaasik of hajj and most of all that we should be granted sincerity in all our ibaadah, ameen

Ps. I will only blog again after the days of hajj, but tune in every night as I’ll be bringing you live sounds from Mina, Arafah and Muzdallifah. This journey is by invitation only, but Allah has blessed us with this radio, Algamdulillah. So come along and experience it with me!

Jabal Nur

Tents on MINA

Jabal Ragmah

Jamaraat inside the middle building

The big days are getting close…and I’m counting…..

I’m currently in Aziziyah, which is one of the suburbs in Makkah, about 10 minutes drive from Makkah. Here it’s not so busy and the air is much fresher than in Makkah.

Especially at night times it’s a relief from the weather you experience in Makkah. The night before we left for Aziziyah I had the privilege of performing another Umrah. I went in a group, but it’s quite easy to organize it yourself as. You simply take a taxi to masjid Ayeshah and come in from there with your Umrah. We don’t know when the Almighty will bless us again to visit the holy city so have to make sure we make the best of our stay.

Once again it was time to don my ihram and what a feeling it is when you say your niyah and chant the labayk! The taxi was waiting for us and took us back to the gharam to complete the Umrah. The tawaaf took about an hour to complete, but on finishing my first lap from saffa to marwah I suddenly felt very tired. It was such a blessing that I felt that way, because now I could in my own little way struggle to complete the saai’e and feel in a very small, small way what sietinaa Hajierah felt when she was running to and fro to get water for her crying baby( Ismaeel a.s).

I finally completed the Umrah at 1 o’clock in the morning. It took about 3 hours in total. Allow to remind you that you need to have some level of fitness to do all your tawaafs and saa’ies.

It was an eventful week, as we also went for ziyaarats in Makkah, visiting ‘Arafah, Mina and some of the important mountains. It was a wonderful feeling getting off the bus and actually standing on the plains of A’rafah, a place that is the focus of hajj.

It was nice being able to climb on jabal raghmah, which you would normally see covered in white as pilgrims make their way up on the day of wuqoof. I didn’t get to climb jabal thoor or jabal Nur, but it is amazing how high this mountain is where our beloved prophet (s.a.w) was sitting and received revelation.

One thing for sure is that everyone has their own idea of what Makkah look like when you haven’t been here. I thought it was like a desert and that there would be lots of sand, but to the contrary it is very mountainous. Every where you see these black solid mountains that are scorched from this hot Arabian sun. Relating my observation to imam Gakeem Raban, who is one of our spiritual leaders, he made a very interesting remark. He quoted the verse where Allah says that “if the Quran was revealed on the mountains it would have split asunder…..” and it made perfect sense why Allah used the mountains….if you look at these mountains, really it appears very

 Hard and rocky.  So blessed are we on this journey that you are able to see the very places that are spoken about in the Quran and history that are recorded.

Well now I have seen some of the places that we will be travelling to before they are covered by millions of hujaaj on the days of hajj. In my next blog I will be telling you what is going through my mind as it will be the night before we leave for Mina.

Please continue making duah for all the gujaaj that we will be in good health and able to perform all the manaasik of hajj insha-Allah.

Inside masjidun nimrah

Later in my blog you will see why I’ve chosen the heading above for this blog.

As promised I have posted a picture of my “bles kop” and some photos of what the surroundings of the gharam look like at present. Everywhere you look is construction and mountains are being blasted to make way for more modern hotels and accommodation. On the other hand the the authorities really have their work cut out for them in as far as keeping the place clean. Can you imagine cleaning up after 100’s of thousands of people all day? It’s a mission, but they are doing the best they can. People literally camp outside the gharam from one waqt to the next. Well some of these poorer countries can’t afford to stay in the comfortable hotels that we do, they live some distance from the gharam. I guess I don’t blame them, because by the time they get to their place of stay, it’s time for the next waqt.

Now coming to why I named this blog, “which of the favours of your lord will you deny?”

Subgaanallah this is such a wonderful journey full of surprises….should I be the surprised? No, I shouldn’t be, because our Allah is all power full.

Last night I went down to the gharam at about 23h00 to perform tawaaf and what an experience! Anyone that has been for hajj would tell you about the crowds in tawaaf and these days leading up to hajj, there’s not really quiet times to make tawaaf.

To be honest, I didn’t think that I would be able to even get close to the hajurul aswad. If you remember that I told you how the people pushed to get to the rouda tul Jannah. We’ll if you saw WWE wrestling that is how it goes at the hajrul aswad and in the hijri-ismaeel.

While performing tawaaf I thought to myself, that it would really be an honour to touch or kiss this very black stone that my beloved prophet (s.a.w) has touched and kissed. Little did I know what Allah had in store for me?

In the tawaaf I appealed to Allah to grant me the honour of getting to the hajrul aswad and I proceeded. Subgaanallah, I got so close and got to touch it and keep my hand there for some time. I then thought to myself, what about the multazam? Low and behold I could hang at the golden door uninterrupted and make duah. Then there was one more prize, to make salaah in the hijri ismaeel, which is equal to making salaah in the kaabah. I tried and I got in and could spend quite some time there making duah.

All this in one night and one tawaaf!

How wonderful is our Almighty, nothing is impossible. Often we forget that He says “ask and I shall give you”.

So many favours are bestowed upon us everyday, but do we see it and realise that it is all Allah’s work? Allow me to remind you again, never to give up in the power of duah.

In conclusion I would like to say shukran for all those who are reading my blog and for all the comments. I hope that with me sharing this experience with you that those who have been for hajj are able to relive their hajj and those who hasn’t been here yet will make niyah and Allah will bring you soon insha-Allah, ameen.

Greetings to you from the very busy city of Makkah. It definitely takes some getting used to the hustle and bustle of Makkah compared to the very peaceful city of Madina.

As all good things come to an end, so it was time to say farewell to the prophet (s.a.w). Walking down to the gharam knowing that this will be your farewell greeting to the prophet, was not an easy task. Dressed in my new white thobe, and nice smelling attar, I recited as much salawaat as possible. Finally getting to the kabr with tears in my eyes I greeted the prophet (s.a.w) and again begged that he should intercede for me on the day of judgement. I begged the Almighty to please bring me back to the kabr of the beloved prophet many more times insha-Allah. Moving along I had to make way for others to also pay their respects to the prophet (s.a.w.). From a distance I was still standing and once more I wanted to do my favourite qasidah burdah looking at the kabr and reciting the darood taj. So the next time I recite it, the picture will be fresh in my mind insha-Allah. I left masdjidun nabewie sad, but very hopeful that Allah almighty will bring me back again Insha-Allah.

This journey has so much to offer it is unbelievable. From the beloved prophet of Allah I now moved on to the House of Allah, Al Kaabah . Donning my ihram for the first time was an experience! I’ve always heard about making your niyah for ihram at Bir Allie, but now it was my time to announce my presence by Allah— Labayk Allah humma Labayk. Labayk Allah shareek kalaka labayk…… the feeling was electric. We arrived in Makkah at about 22h00. freshened and at midnight we went down to the gharam to do our tawaaf and saai’ie that would complete our Umrah.

I was excited, couldn’t wait any longer to see the Kaabah. We entered the gharam and were told by our guide to keep our gaze down until such time that we were told to look up, at which point we would be at the kaabah. Finally the time came and there it was! Gazing at the Kaabah with my very own eyes! No matter how I try to explain to you what it felt like…I would not do justice.  Here was the very Kaabah I was facing everyday in my salaah, the very kaabah that was tawaafed by the great prophets like Aadam, Ebrahiem, Mugammad (s.a.w) etc. We made duah and then proceeded with the tawaaf. In my very first tawaaf I had a chance to put my chest up against the kaabah, what a feeling that was to touch the Kaabah! After completing the tawaaf we proceeded to make the saai’i and allow me to say that you have to be a little fit to do the saai’i . it took us 3 hours to complete everything , well,… almost everything…..you need to have your hair clipped to come out of ihram. Yes, I’ll post you a photo of my “bles kop”.

What a night and what an experience it was, never to be forgotten!

Makkah and Madinah are complete opposites. In my next blog I’ll share with you a current picture of Makkah.

So quick the days have gone by in Madinah and it’s almost time to say goodbye for now. I’ll be leaving for Makkah tomorrow morning (Wednesday 11 November). Well let me first reflect on this wonderful experience in the city of the prophet (s.a.w).

Nations from all over the world coming together to pay their respects to our beloved prophet (s.a.w). In different languages they say there greetings and pour out their heart to their prophet. The one thing I can say though is that we should be grateful for what our forefathers and ulema of Cape Town has taught us. To do things in an orderly and respectful manner. I might not always agree the way they push you out of the way to get into the roudatul jannah or to get to the prophet’s (s.a.w) kabr. The very person that you are greeting was someone you preached peace and respect. On the other hand who doesn’t want to be close to the most beloved prophet? Perhaps the Saudi’s will workout some orderly system

You try to spend as much time as possible in the gharam reciting quraan and salawaat to gain the most of your stay in Madina. My impression of the people of Madinah is also very good. The shopkeepers love South African’s, because they know we shop till we drop! When you tell them you are from South Africa, they reply…. (In the arab slang) “South Africans very good customer”. Oh and don’t just pay the price on the tag, they just love to bargain. You can bring there price down by even 50 SR depending on the cost of the item. If you leave there shop with out purchasing the item they will put it in a bag give to you and tell you no worries you can pay tomorrow. They don’t like to see you leaving your store without purchasing anything. Where else in the world do you find that when the adhaan goes, that shop owners simply throw a white cloth over the stock and off they go to the gharam and nobody will touch a thing!

I say again shukr to the Almighty for this blessed experience in Madinah. Now its time to move on to the next leg of the journey, to see the blessed Kaabah for the first time.

Just the thought of going to the kabr of the Prophet (s.a.w) and bidding him a temporary farewell brings tears to my eyes! Of course I say temporary, because I will be begging the Almighty to bring me to Madinah over and over again.

In my next blog I’ll tell you all about the farewell and seeing the kaabah for the first time insha-Allah. Make duah that we arrive in Makkah safely and that my stay will indeed be a blessed one insha-Allah.

The salaam will indeed have a new meaning to me the next time I recite the ashrakal….

Salaam, yaa salaam, aalaykum salaam.

A’laa yaa rasoolulah

The last time we spoke I promised to tell you about my experience at the kabr of our beloved prophet (s.a.w). My very first visit was still a sense of disbelief…was it real? Then it all sunk in, it is real.
Two nights ago I went down to the gharam to ziyaarat the prophet (s.a.w) and make salaah in the roudatul jannah. As I came in the roudah was so full, people were queuing everywhere to make salaah in this area as the prophet said this is a peace of jannah. I then proceeded to make salaah elsewhere in the masjied and proceeded with absolute humility to greet our prophet (s.a.w). Standing at the door of his kabr I had this amazing feeling of happiness. I thought to my self, subgaanallah, out of all the millions of Muslims throughout the world the Almighty has chosen me to ziyaarat the illustrious prophet! Tears were coming hard and fast and I poured out my heart to the prophet begging him to intercede for me on the Day of Judgment. Thanking him for all the sacrifice that he had undergone for the perfect Islam we have today. Again I conveyed the salaams of all the family and friends that have asked me to do so. My best salaam that I had to deliver to the prophet was that of my three year old daughter Maahirah. Days before I left I told her that I was going to visit the prophet and what would she want me to tell the prophet. Her response was “daddy please tell the prophet that I love the prophet”. How can you possibly stand there with dry eyes and n deliver such a message from your baby? (As I’m writing this I can’t, but help to cry again!)

The police don’t allow you to stand there to long, so I had to move along greeting sayiedinaa Abu Bakr and Sayiedinaa Umar (Rad..). moving along went to make salaatus sukr to thank Allah for this blessing of bringing me thousands of miles to be in the company of our beloved prophet (s.a.w).

On my way out I passed the roudatul jannah which I explained to you earlier was so full. I passed the gate where you normally exit and saw there such a big space. Normally you find a policeman standing there and it would be full. I looked and looked again and looked at the carpet to see if it was really the roudatul jannah, because the carpet in that area is different to that in the rest of the masjied. In I went and again I poured my heart out and made duah and thanked Allah for blessing me so much. As I eventually left the masjied tears were still rolling down my cheeks.

All I can say to you reading this blog, is that never ever give up in the power of duah! Nothing is impossible for Allah. My duah for you is that the Almighty should bring you to Madina over and over insha-Allah, ameen.

My humble apologies for only writing a week after I did my last blog.

Well getting an internet café in madina was a bit of a problem.

Well let’s continue the journey. I will skip a lot of the detail and bring you straight to madina. I flew on the 1^st November at 09:50 to JHB and then the evening on an 8 hour flight to Cairo where we arrived at about 5:00 in the morning. Our flight to the kingdom was only scheduled at 16h30. Because of all the time between flights we were taken on a tour of Cairo. One of the sites that we visited was the pyramids, but from my side there was absolutely no excitement….because I couldn’t wait to be in the presence of my Prophet! Can you blame me?

16h30 our plane took off and then was all curiosity. Looking through the window to see if I could perhaps get a glimpse of the Gharam or the lights of the minarets. Finally the plane touched down and it was real I landed in Madina! From Cairo to madina the atmosphere was chalk and cheese.

Contrary to all the stories that I heard about the Saudi authorities, we       were cleared at the airport and on our way to the hotel in less than an hour. I was extremely tired and the plan in the group was to freshen up and rest and then in the morning we’ll make ziyarat of the prophet (s.a.w).

I took a shower and being me very ‘bus’ I went downstairs to see what Medina was like.Lo and behold I saw Mufti AK and was he happy and surprised to see me. The first thing he asked was” did you visit the prophet yet? I will take you” of course my answer was yes, please take me! Approaching the Garam it was almost disbelief, looking at this beautiful mosque. Reciting salawaat all the way and finally we entered through baab salaam. I’ll give you more details of the inside in my next bog. Finally we approached the kabr of our beloved prophet and here I was standing in his presence saying assalaatu assalaam wa alayka yaa rasoolallah, assalaatu assalaam wa alayka yaa gabieballah!

Words could not explain what I felt. I don’t know why, but I didn’t cry.

Little did I know how much I was going to cry day’s later, subgaanalaah what an experience I had! I’ll tell you all about that in my next blog.

(There was a lot of crying that’s all I can say)             

It’s 3am and it’s the only time I have to write. We’ll in Cape Town its traditional where friends and family visit those leaving for gadj and usually sits till late at night. So let’s start this wonderful journey……..
We’ll it all started with an sms while visiting Robben Island. The sms read ” can we send you to cover gadj?” I had my wife with me and showed her the sms. She responded by saying “this is something you wanted to do for a long time, go my darling”.
I didn’t have a passport nor did I have accreditation to go on gadj. The very next day I made application for a passport and was told that it could take about two to six weeks, but sometimes if you are lucky it gets processed in 10 days.
Then all the crying began. Lots of crying! You don’t know where this feeling comes from, but the tears just keep on coming. I made lots of duah and begged the Almighty make this journey come true. Everyday I would check with home affairs regarding the progress of my passport and things don’t look good, but I never gave up. I would go on my musla and make dual and every day the progress got better. In the meantime I was also celebrating my birthday on the 22 October and what I birthday present it was when I received an sms to say that I was accredited to go on gadj.
14 days later i’m sitting with a passport, visa and air tickets. (subgaanAllah!!). For me it’s going to be an entire experience as it will also be my first time on an aeroplane. I’ll be flying from cape town to jhb to cairo to medina. Just one more sleep then off I go!
First stop will be medina where I’ll be visiting the kabr of the beloved prophet Mugammad s.a.w. Every day in our salaah we send salutations upon the beloved prophet and here I’ll be given the opportunity to personally greet the prophet. It is recorded in hadith that the one who visit the kabr of the prophet, it is as if you are visiting him in real life. I can’t wait!!
In my next blog I will be sharing with you my experience visiting the kabr of our beloved prophet in medina. Join me on this journey and let’s make this gadj 2009 a memorable one.

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