Umrah in Ramadhaan 1432 (2011) - Part 1

As you all know, we chose to go by bus for Umrah this Ramadhaan. Well to tell you all it was indeed a bad choice Qadarallaah Masha Allaah! Why ? Because the journey from Qatar to Makkaah took us 28 hours and it was really tiring and frustrating. We had to just be in the bus for 7 hours at the Saudi Border, mind you this border is just 1 hour from Qatar. It was a Friday and we had to just sit and wait till the authorities could do the stamping and checking of the baggage and stuff. If you go in your own vehicle this procedure takes only less  than 15 minutes. The authorities in Saudi are very slow and take their own cool time to do things : ) so while fasting and having a child it was kind of too much, subhanallaah! So we have decided that we would not travel by bus any more : )

Inside the bus, ready to leave

Then after 7 hours of waiting finally passed through the border and after about another 7 hours we reached Riyadh. We broke fast inside the bus.While going you do not see any cities only the desert and a lonely road. In Riyadh they stopped  for Magrib and for dinner. Prayed Magrib and Isha. The places they stop for Prayers and food are not that great. Meaning the toilets are really bad, not clean at all and the places are not maintained. Its so sad but I hope the authorities will look into this and do something about it Insha Allaah! I know its too much to do but it is very necessary. 

Inside the bus putting Abi to sleep!

Then the journey continued and stopped again for Suhoor and Fajr somewhere before the place of Meeqaat. Then at about 10 am we reached the place of Meeqaat near Taif. What did Maimoonah do all this while? Masha Allaah we had a nice group of Filipino revert sisters in the bus and Maimoonah was adored by them as she was very much socialising and did not trouble any of the people in the bus. She was tired and most of the time she was sleeping on my lap. She was thrilled as some sisters called her "Shaikhah Moona" (The Amir's wife of Qatar is called Shaikhah Mozah and everyone loves her too, masha Allaah) Maimoonah knows this and she was thrilled that they called her this way !!!

So at the place of Meeqaat we rented a room and a toilet for one hour. (yet again the room and toilet was not that great but ok to a certain extent) Had a bath and got into Ihraam, then went to the masjid where you say your intention for Umrah. We all did that and got into the bus to go to Makkaah.

Reached Makkah after 2 hours and went to the hotel in Makkah, the hotel the travel agent gave us was very far from the Haram. This was another issue as it is very difficult to get taxis for a reasonable amount to the haram. The walk is about 45 minutes with crowd and about 20 minutes without crowd.

Any way I was unable to enter the Masjid and perform Umrah for about 7 days. So I told Maimoonah I have to wait and if she would like to do Umrah with her Abi. She said ok, but she was too tired and actually made her Abi angry : ), so Abi decided he was going to do it alone and Maimoonah said she will wait in Ihraam till she could perform Umrah with me. Masha Allaah she observed everything of Ihraam for 7 days : )

Hotel Room in Makkah

We had some sleep for few hours and Abi went to the Haram and completed his Umrah, Alhamdulillaah. He came to the hotel with his head shaved and Maimoonah was like , what happened to your hair Abi : )

So for the next 7 days we were in the Hotel, only once we went to the Makkah Hilton, and I was looking for some books, meanwhile Abi took Maimoonah to the Haram for the first time. She said she saw the Ka'bah, she prayed 2 rakah, and also she said the Mutawwahs were tough with the people and the people were fighting!!! Will tell you more about fighting in my next post Insha Allaah!

So at the Book shop in Hilton I had a surprise. I found the books of sis Umm An Nu'man there.

 Maimoonah just loved both of them and so did I. I could not get the other two books of sis Umm An Nu'man Hafsa and Faiza's Dua. I also got the Madeenah Arabic Books for kids there which I needed very badly for this school year, Alhamdulillaah!

Stay tuned to the next post on what we did for few days in the Hotel and my Umrah Insha Allaah!....