Still Counting My Blessings..

The super duper contagious hajj cough!

Now as I stayed in Makkah I was so conscious of not getting sick! Everyone always says how everyone always gets sick! We took all the vaccinations one could possibly think of prior and we all go in with the mindset that we’re prepared for the worst- yet everyone gets sick! And you hear like the worst stories ever, I was so sick I couldn’t get out of bed and go to the Haram. Man that sent off alarm bells in my head! I was like oh no! Na ah! Not me! I want to spend ALL my time in ‘ibada! No bedridden sicknesses please! SO what do I do? Pull out my handy trick and drink drink drink the ZamZam with that intention. O Allah please don’t make me sick!!!!

Now I swear it worked for such a long time! We were in Makkah for quite a while and all the girls in my room got sick, everyone was coughing the Hajj Cough, it was super contagious; I’m telling you! Nena had it, and she was my bed neighbour & like all night she’d cough and the girls upstairs had it, those that lost their voices because of it, even little habibi had it (aka Farhana’s little boy!) and I was serenading him with kisses and hugs every day! So SubhanAllah the only time I ever coughed would’ve been from chocking as I drank my magic potion of zamzam lol!

WORKED A CHARM!

Right? ;)

Read on people read on! It gets interesting!

Reservations on the tiles in the Haram

Hajj was still a little while away and I was really absorbing Makkah.

It was really amazing.

Now although everyone didn’t like the idea of a TV in the room, it was actually quite handy! We’d switch the TV on and check out how busy it was at the Haram and estimate if it was a good time to head down or not :D SubhanAllah, I went down to the Haram quite a few times, I remember one time I went with Nena and Patty and we prayed on the roof of the Masjid al Haram it was the biggest struggle to find somewhere to pray because you just can’t walk amongst so many people and find three empty spaces next to each other with a view to die for all to ur lil ol selves just lying around somewhere with your names on a reserved notice stuck to the Haram tile- like it just didn’t work like that, unfortunately.

So we managed to find two spots in two consecutive rows not next to each other so we had to separate and the other problem was where was the third person going to fit!? That third person was me of course.

I was like omG like I can’t tell you how impossible it was for me to pray tahiyetel masjid.

I had to pray in front of people who were sitting down and obviously the expectation is hey sister you can pray in my little sujud area but when its prayer time this tile is mine see the reserved sign? Yeah right there? That’s my tile.

 It didn’t look like even if everyone stood up to pray that there would be enough space for all these people! It was people clutter all over and lines were super crooked and people fit in spaces they probably would never otherwise fit into had this not been Haram lol.

 I was apprehensive but I stayed with the girls one in the back row one in the front and me in a very awkward in-between position.

Then the call to prayer rang, and

it.was.so.beautiful.people.like.kill.me.now.as.i.type.this!

I looked up- the Ka’ba wasn’t really visible at this stage- and the Allahu Akbar clock tower lit up!

And for what seemed miles and miles away in this cosmos of a world that Makkah was ,it was as though the entire earth had ceased to listen to and welcome in the adhaan to salatul Maghrib

And unto Allah falleth prostrate whosoever is in the heavens and the earth,

willingly or unwillingly,

as do their shadows in the morning and the evening hours.

Quran, Ar-Ra’d 15:13

So surreal.

As soon as everyone stood up, although the lines were crooked, people, bags and lines were cluttered- a spot appeared to me out of NOWHERE and we all assumed a place in a row! We were all perfectly lined up! It was the most amazing display of organisation after such blatant disorganised anarchy and clutter! I felt at that moment that Allah subhana wata’ala has indeed reserved a place for every person there at the Haram and although I never saw a space for myself Allah made one for me and it was a gift from Him Al-Mighty!

Allahu Akbar.

Most of the time I prayed in the Mesalla upstairs because it was very claustrophobic once one stepped foot in the direction of the masjid from the Hotel. It’s all Haram anyway, but I know that in my heart of hearts praying closer to the Ka’ba is worth more, even if I’m on Haram, there is something about Intense Divine Light the closer you are to the House of Allah. But given I never spent too much time with my brother and didn’t want to grab him 5x a day to go pray at the Haram, I just passed and prayed in the Hotel which I felt was safer for the solo-do-everything-on-my-own-kinda-girl I am. 

Almost got kicked out of the Haram!

One of the days pre-hajj I remember going down with one of the girls, and entering the Masjid and sitting on the first set of steps in front of a column out of peoples stampeding way but with a PERFECT view of the Ka’ba :D

We sat and just recited Quran,

so close to Allah’s House

reciting Allah’s Words <3.

There was a Saudi guard roaming around and he looked at us displeased that we were “in people’s way” which we weren’t! We were sitting with the column to our backs, and as we sat there and recited trying to avoid eye contact with him so he doesn’t persist, he asked us which country we were from, we said Australia and then his expression turned to one of acceptance and pleasure, and he just continued to walk around!

YEHES! Allah!

Once again My Generous Host showed Hospitality only worthy of a King of His Benevolence!

Alhamdulilah!!!