Monday, December 28, 2015

Hajj - August-Oct 2015


August 2015, my hubby and I went to do our Hajj !  Yes, 40 days in Madinah and Makkah. Okay, only 8 days in Madinah, the rest spent in the holy city of Makkah.  We stayed in a hotel full of jamaah from our tour group Rayhah.  So, we made new friends that we still keep in touch via Whatsapp till today.


Sleepy, this is around 9am, just arrived Madinah. On the way to hotel.  We leave KL early morning,  for our flight from KLIA to Madinah. Flight was at 5.30am.... Aug 26, 2015. Happy & Excited.





 sand storm !

Surprise Bday for hubs!
 
Breakfast with Sulaiman and Noraizan. Friends from IBM days!
 
  
It was of course memorable days for us.

  
Visit to Quba mosque.  Hubby with our Ustaz Dzulkarnain Hamzah, fondly known as 'Ostadd'. A favourite among the ladies especially.  He he he.

Preserved wall of the old market place (souk) from the Rasullullah's (saw) time.


The Prophet's garden

 
The Green Dome, The Raudah. Our last night in Madinah.

 

There are many other pictures of our visits. To the Quba Mosque, Jabal Uhud, the historical but well maintained Prophet's Garden next to the Al-Nabawi mosque, etc but not possible to post them all here.

We leave for Makkah, early September, on the 3rd, I believe.  By bus, to Bir Ali mosque for the beginning of our Umrah. The mosque's toilet has been renovated and much improved! No pictures though, we were in a hurry. Drop in, do our sunnah prayers, niat, and off we go.........



Our room at the ReTaj Safwah Hotel
First glimpse of the Kaabah!
Umrah completed.
Pic of hubby with Hj Radzi (our neighbour!)
New Wing, King Abdullah Gate. Very Grand!
Hubby met up with an old friend, Raja Azhar.


TRAGEDY IN MAKKAH


The crane that fell and kill 175 people during the storm.
Sad reminder and its in front of the Prophet's saw birthplace.



 
Ustaz in front of the Library which is built on the Prophet's saw house of birth.
 

  
Ma'la graveyard.  The 'green' gate, is where the grave of Saidinatul Khadijah ra, is located.

 
The main events :

WUKUF IN ARAFAH

Our Tent.

Prayers and prayers while you wait.

Jamaah on the ground, makeshift surau. Anywhere, everywhere, between the tents. This was early morning just before Fajr.
 
 
MUZDALIFAH
 
It was God's will that we were able to stop and collect stones by the roadside of Muzdalifah. Some buses did not make it, so they just passed by Muzdalifah.  From here we went back to Makkah to do our 'Tahalul Awal'.
 
 
MINA
 
Unforgetable Mina.  Because of the stampede tragedy that happened early morning on that first day of stoning, ALL roads leading to Mina were closed. So in the end, we who happened to be in Makkah, we not able to travel by bus to Mina. Instead we had to walk for about 3 km to our camp 115.  Our bus took us from our hotel up to the farthest it could take us and we walked from there. But since we went late at night, we were spared the hot hot sun.
 
Alhamdulillah, we made it !
 
Entrance to our Camp 115
 
Up the escalator to our stoning floor (4th floor).
 
Mina - some of the tents for 2 million ppl.

Our group of 400 Rayhah's jamaah, on the way to our stoning event at Fajr.

The stoning complex.  Huge, huge, huge.

Our tent. For 3 days this was our home. Now its time to leave. Hajj completed, we pray that we all got Mabrur Hajj. Insya'Allah.
 
Before Going Home
 
Some of the 'merewang' ladies. Prepared quite a few dishes for our in-house kenduri.
From left, Ema, Noraizan, Amy, Fairuz, Yours Truly, Zainun

Ustaz giving a speech and makes dua. Food spread waiting....

A few days later, a group of us went to Azaziah and had a Arabian dinner.

The meal above, for 4 people. Rice with baked chicken and lamb.

There.... pour the whole thing on a sheet of plastic and dig in !

 
GOING  HOME 

Haji Harun, Rayhah's MD, saying farewell to us on the bus leaving for Jeddah.

At the Jeddah airport, waiting for our turn to check in.
Got there at 1am, flight leaving at 7 am.
 
One last photo on the flight (Saudair), with the stewardesses who has looked after us
on the Upper Deck.
From left, me, Rozie with Fauziah in between the two hostesses.
So sorry can't remember their names.

KLIA! Just arrived! Little Aryan on the baggage!
 

So happy to be home.....












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