Sallu ala Rasulillah, Habibil Mustapha
Peace be upon the Messenger, The Chosen One
Khairu-khalkiillah
Sallu ala Rasulillah, Habibil Mustapha
Peace be upon the Messenger, The Chosen One
Khairu-khalkiillah
Madinah is a peaceful place. The people are friendly, courteous and always smiling. The shop owners would greet us with ‘Malaysia baguuzzz!’(Malaysia is the best!) and 'Lihat dulu' (Come and see first) in all the glory of their Arabic tongues and slangs. The weather was cool – wonderful, for Madinah was about to enter its cold season. Madinah wasn’t humid – the air was dry. It was however, pleasant to walk in the vicinity of Masjid Nabawi. There were hardly any cars during the day and the peace and splendor of Masjid Nabawi beckoned one always, enticing and drawing hujjaz to its blessed courtyard and even more blessed occupants, Prophet Muhammad s.a.w, Saidina Abu Bakar r.a. and Saidina Umar r.a. By its side, the graveyard of Baqi reminds one of all those departed souls who have been chosen to be laid on the Land of the Prophet s.a.w. These are the souls who on the Day of Judgement, will be the first to receive the syafaat of Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. Indeed, these are the blessed ones. One goes about one's daily live always with the consciousness that one is within the presence of Allah’s Chosen One, his family, and his blessed, trusted Companions.
My husband and I would wake up at about two in the morning and walked to Masjid Nabawi, a mere five minutes’ walk from our hotel and it was safe – for there were already throngs of other pilgrims making their way there too. The men and the women would enter by different gates here in Masjid Nabawi. I would be greeted as usual, by the lady guards – and they were fastidious in searching the Mulimahs’ bags, looking out for camera handphones and video cameras. My Blackberry more than once was to be sent for ‘Titip amanah!’ (safekeeping), of which I promptly went out that gate and went in through another gate. These lady guards were something – I always wondered who they were behind their black veils – they were very thorough in their work – so trustworthy were they that no ladies could go by them without our bags being searched. Some were task-oriented but some were very kind and apologetic. These ladies could speak a splattering of Malay phrases albeit in the Indonesian slang. They would address us with ‘Ibuk! Ibuk! Jalan Ibuk, jalan!’ (Mum, move on please) or simply pushed us if we failed to understand them! Their voices were shrill and high-pitched and my room-mates remarked that if I were to put on the dark veils, I could pass as one of these guards easy enough!
My favourite place was to the left of the mosque, right up to the partition that separated the ladies from the Muslimins’ side of the mosque. I would sit there and spend the time reading the Qur’an, as did the rest. We would also do our non-obligatory prayers tenaciously, for there was blessing if one is able to perform 50 prayers at Masjid Nabawi. I might be off regarding the number of solat, but there we were, spending every waking minute at the Mosque praying and reading the Qur’an.
To say the Mosque is vast, is truly an understatement. The Mosque is always cool – for the air-condition units are inbuilt in the pillars and so cool air is released at height, not ceiling or wall level. When you enter the Mosque, the first thing that caught my eye would be the neat rows of Zam-zam mineral water containers. Some containers contained cooled Zam-zam water. Some pilgirims even washed their faces at the spot with the blessed water, of which the ever hardworking cleaners would mop dry the floor. Most of the cleaners, if not all, are from Indonesia and I looked at them in admiration of their luck to be working in Madinah, in the Mosque of the Prophet, while people like me had to save a lifetime to be there! MasyaAllah! Truly, Ya Allah! You choose who You want to be close to You and to Your Beloved...