Daily Prompt: Journey

Tell us about a journey—whether a physical trip you took, or an emotional one.

I’ve taken physical trips several times. My most memorable journeys are those we took to Makkah and Medina.The whole atmosphere was special, there were people from all over the world, we all had one purpose pray for ourselves and for our near and dear ones.

We got ready for prayer at the call of the muezzin daily, we came out of our dwellings and walked towards the mosque in Ka’aba, after prayer we came back and had  our breakfast.

We’d congregate in the early and late afternoon, then sunset and the last one hour and a half after the sunset prayer.

In between the prayers we made our rounds around the Ka’aba seven times and a place called Al  Safah and Al  Marwah, here also we walked the whole length seven times.

In Medina we visited the prophet’s grave, it was open for women at 11 am daily.We prayed in the large mosque five times a day. We stayed there for a week.

We had a wonderful experience.

 

365 days Writing Prompt: Tell us your story

Tell us about a journey– whether physical trip you took ,or an emotional one.

It was a while ago my husband and I took a trip to Saudi Arabia for pilgrimage. It was the month of September, the days were scorching hot, we landed at Jeddah airport early afternoon. There were no chairs in the lounge, we sat on the floor waiting to be called at the customs, many hours passed , there were flights coming in with passengers from all over the world.

Finally at 3 am  in the morning we were called, we were told we needed to pay one hundred  riyals each to go through, we paid the required sum before we started on our journey, but there was a change, we didn’t have riyals and they refused to take   US dollars, my husband’s cousin who was supposed to pick us up, but for some reason he was not there,his friend came forward and lent us the required amount.

We were glad to be out of the airport on our way to the cousin’s apartment. Five days later we were on our way to the city of Makkah, our accommodation was same as the other pilgrims.

Next day we went to the Kabah for circumambulating seven times, the day was hot the sun was shining, there was no relief from the heat. We had to hold on to each other to avoid getting lost, there was a sea of people praying and walking around, every stranger we saw spoke a different language, which we didn’t understand, this is why we had to stay close to each other, if we lost one another, we wouldn’t be able to find us and the language barrier wouldn’t help.

Thankfully we completed the rounds, then there was a place called ‘Safa Marwa’ where we had to walk seven times it was inside but the walk was not easy. We completed it and went to the mosque for prayer.We stayed in the tent for five days, after completing all the rituals we went back to Jeddah and to Medina for a week.

At Medina we visited the mosque where the prophet was buried, I met a very young girl she was so sweet, she asked if I would share the the piece of paper with the prayer written on it, she had such a gentle temperament I remember her and her face to this day.

After a month in Saudi Arabia we went back to Chicago, and then to Canada our home!!

 https://sabethville.wordpress.com/2014/05/25/365-days-writi…-us-your-story

 

 

DP Daily Prompt: Journey Post by Ranu

English: A picture of people performing (circumambulating) the . This picture taken from the gate of Abdul Aziz seems to divide the Kaaba and the minarets into mirror images of one another. Français : Pélerins en train de réaliser la Circumambulation (ou Tawaf) autour de la Ka’ba. Photo prise depuis la porte Ibn Saud, d’où la vue présente une symétrie en miroir presque parfaite. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

One year my husband and I decided to go to Makkah for pilgrimage. We applied for our passport and applied to the Saudi Embassy for visas. We left the children with their uncle in Chicago. We took a flight from Chicago. We had one stop at Amsterdam. We waited  an hour to catch the next flight. I felt great watching all the passengers praying, the flight was going to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.We got off the flight and went to the lounge.There  was no place where we could sit. I saw other passengers coming in ,it seemed they knew how the system worked, one family took out a large sheet and spread it on the floor and sat down.I was amazed to see how calm they were. One member of the  family took out an apple and shared with people around her.

After clearing customs we went with my husband’s cousin to his home. The wife gave us instructions,what were the things we needed to do. My husband and I were excited. His cousin’s family accompanied us to Makkah. We visited the Kaaba we went around it seven times.From there we went to Safa Marwah .We walked back and forth seven times. We stayed in Makkah for five days.

Our next place of visit was Medina,we stayed here for two weeks.During our stay we visited the grave of Prophet Muhammad and other holy shrines.

From Medina we flew back to Jeddah . After a couple of days, we were on our way to Chicago. We got our kids and flew back to   Gander,via Toronto, Canada.

It was a wonderful experience for us.

DP Daily Prompt: Helping Hand Post by Ranu

This experience takes place in Makkah. My husband,his cousin,  his family and I were travelling on the bus. The bus driver was supposed to take us to  Muzdalifa where we were supposed to spend the night and come back to Makkah,the following morning. Suddenly the driver stopped and told us to get off. We had no idea where we were. My husband’s cousin,knew a few words of Arabic,he tried to explain,we won’t find our way.It was dark and deserted. The driver kept yelling and told us to get off. Miraculously someone showed up,he was an Egyptian. He had a heated dialogue with the driver and was able to convince him to drop us off at the taxi stand. To be sure he boarded the bus with us. We all got off to hire a cab.The nice man called a cab driver, told him in Arabic to drop us off  in Muzdalifa. We thanked him and got in the cab. We reached our destination safely. I will always remember this.

Tunnel from Makkah (Photo credit: Wikipedia)