Labbaikallah humma labbaik..... Madinah

 We reached Madinah airport late morning. We checked into the hotel which was just 5 minutes away from our hotel. We went there for our first prayers there - zohor. Madinah was still quite empty as it was still the early weeks. We would be here for 8 days and hopefully we'd get to do 40 waktu solat here, if Allah wills it. By the time we left for Mekah on the 8th day, subhanAllah, we managed to get 41 waktu solat at masjid Nabawi including Friday prayers. Alhamdulillah.

I loved Madinah. It's so clean, solemn, peaceful like everybody minded their manners, took care not to offend Rasulullah saw and maintained the sense of calmness and well-being. The men and women were separated at the mosque, even in the hotels. I got nice roomates and we got along fine during our short stay here. Omayah became a friend until now. Alhamdulillah. I wasn't interested in the sight seeing much. I didn't like to be away from masjid Nabawi. The most incredible incident?

We wanted to go to the raudhah to pay our respects to Rasulullah. Women were not allowed to go to the raudhah where his tomb and his two best friends were. So, there was a partition that separated the men and women section of the raudhah. You would notice this through the colour of the carpet. The Tabung Haji tour had arranged for the women to visit the raudhah. Since it wasn't yet packed with pilgrims, we had hopes that we could go near the raudhah. Omayah went with me. We entered the specific section of the mosque. There were so many people and we were quite lost as where to go next. Yet, we wanted so much to go and just pay our respects.  Allah is All Knowing what is in the hearts of his devotees. 
"Berdoalah kepada Ku nescaya akan Ku perkenankan." (Al-Mukmin :60)


By sheer decree from Allah swt, a group of Turkish pilgrims were behind us. They were big and cuddly sized. They simply took our arms and carried us along with them. We were dumbfounded when they put us down, the colour of the carpet was the raudhah. We were put right under the mimbar and facing the wooden partition of the raudhah. We looked at each other, smiled and cried with happiness and satisfaction. We joined them in prayers and doa. Our tears just rolled down freely with the compassion of Allah swt. When we were done, we looked back and saw that there was no way we could get through the crowd behind us. Again, the Turkish ladies just carried us out. We were still in the vicinity of the raudhah. We could just sat there, watch the others struggling, pushing and shoving each other. We cried tears of joy and just continued with our prayers until the coast was clear for us to leave. MasyAllah. SubhanAllah. Alhamdulillah.