Catwalk ! 

Hey beauties ,

                              hope your all well . OMG I have been away from blogging for so long – think its been two months now , and I have missed it so so much ,– college assignments literally had me and plus due to me taking a weeks leave for our trip for performing Umrah , I had to catch up on like three assignments .  Okay so currently it is exactly 06:30am and here I’am with a mug of cappuccino, with no sleep trying to catch up with my posts and as you can see, due to the newest addition of category, today I’ am going to be talking about the trip that me and my family made about a month ago to Saudi ( Makkah  and Madinah )  . I have been wanting to create this post for so long now , and have finally had time so am super excited , so without any further ado, here we go .

 

Firstly, Alhamdulillah , I was blessed enough to go on this journey of  performing umrah with my family which consists of my parents , a younger sister and a younger brother , as well as my amazing grandparents , aunt , and  three uncles ( dads siblings ) . Technically this was my first time actually performing umrah , I have been to Saudi before , but this was when I was five and was for hajj ,and so it doesn’t really count , as I didn’t even remember anything apart from the ka’ba , and so just the thought of this journey and actually being present in the two most amazing places in the world , was just something else . Our trip to Makkah and Madinah was for 14 days in total , so 7 days each , and we didn’t perform our umrah first , but went to Madinatul - Munawarah first , so that my grandparents would not face any difficulties with being too tired or exhausted to have to perform umrah with having traveled and everything . Our flight was from Manchester and took us to Jeddah which was in total, I think 6 ½ hours , from where we drove to Madinah Munawarah which took us - I think two hours , and was so so exhausting , specially having had stopped over at Jeddah for 3-4 hours due to just the amount of people that were present there . We reached madinah at about 12pm and having got there we literally ate , prayed our zuhr and all knocked out .

 

 

So we all know that Medina, the illuminated city of the prophet (PBUH), is a beautiful and peaceful city , but the peace that we talk about is truly unexplainable , it literally cannot be put into words. It is a city where hundreds of thousands of people worship Allah side by side without a concern for differences, and being together and just talking to all the different people from all the different countries just made me think about how important the unity of the ummah is . This city shines and you get a feeling that this city is a holy city before you enter it from hundreds of miles away and I literally mean that from the bottom of my heart .  The feeling when leaving this blessed city is one that leaves a person transformed, wanting to change in order to be worthy of being called to Madina Munawarah again .

 

The amazing days in Madinah were over before we knew it and now it was time to make our journey to Makkah , which took us about 6-7 hours by a mini-bus . Having made our niyaah for performing umrah we set off , and this was the most tiring journey ever , however I have to say that the ‘fish’ that we stopped for literally made me forgot just how exhausted I actually was . See my family are a bunch of eaters – like we can literally eat , so on our like 5th eating stop – yes 5th ( iam not even joking ) we stopped at this little fish restaurant and these are quite common within the route of Makah and Madina –or so I was told , and quite famous too . Upon entering these restaurants , they would come across as quite undeveloped but  guys the fish that they serve is just something else – like I’am not a big fan of fish , but that fish just had me man , think I had about three whole pieces with chips and rice and coke , oh and not to mention the Indian tea after , okay okay enough about that fish , ill stop obsessing now ( 5 x laughing emoji – wish this thing has emojis ) . Okay back to the journey – we finally reached Makah and this was at about 1am and there’s just this unique feeling when your so excited about seeing the Ka’ba and so we were all quite enregised and having settled into our hotel , set off to perform our first umrah which was beyond amazing ( Alahmadulillah ) .

 

Mecca as those of you who have been there know quite well, is a very busy place!  Whether it's pacing between the hills of Safa and Marwa, walking around the Ka'ba during tawaf, or just having to juggle with having to go in and trying your best to pray each salah in the haram sharif ( women ) , and in general I found that Makah was completely different to madinah , it was infact quite the opposite , you tend to get so exhausted at the end of each day , but it honestly teaches you so much and allows you to grow spiritually creating this amazing feeling . And not to mention the feeling of actually being there in front of the ka’ba , something we imagine everyday whilst praying Salah.  I would literally do anything to have even a glimpse of that overwhelming emotion, happiness and that amazing feeling - even for a second  each day.

 

Days in Makah fly by even faster and having to leave and knowing that this journey is now complete is so so hard . Turning away from the Ka’ba , having that last cup of zam zam in the haram , seeing people come in to perform there first Umrahs remembering and saying ‘feels like yesterday this was us ‘ , walking towards the hotel away from the masjid , and sitting in that van knowing that we’re officially saying goodbye to the city filled with life ,  light , blessings - the best there is in the world , is the hardest thing ever . 

 

These were the best two weeks ever , specially because there were 15 of us together and just being in the most amazing place with the people you love so much is just a different feeling on its own .  Probably the most beautiful thing about the trip was the re-emphasis it gives to focus life on the akhira (the next life). Sitting there in the haram  - staring at the Ka'ba feels like getting a little piece of heaven.  It feels as though your Mind, body and soul are completely at peace and I started to think why I sweat the dunya so much?  Why was I allowing the little day to day affairs of my life consume my thoughts?  Why had my goals become all dunya-based goals?  Why was my ibadah (worship) slacking?  Why hadn't I prayed Tahajjud (the prayer in the latter parts of the night) lately at home? Basically, why was my heart attached to the dunya, when it neither gave me the peace or satisfaction that I desired?  Sitting in Mecca staring at the Ka'bah truly reminds you of what lifes focus should be .

 

All in all, this was without a doubt the trip of a lifetime and

I ask Allah to bless us all to visit his House Makah and Madinah Munawarah frequently – the cities that truly don’t sleep .

Allahhuma Ameen.