My Most Generous King

You won’t believe how many things you want from Allah

till you write it all down!

Ramadan crept in that year and I thought, khalas I’m just gonna make dua

One night I went on a feverish writing spree, I was like wow! I have tons of dua to make, I think I’ll just write it all out so I don’t miss anything- it's Ramadan, gates are open! Perfect opportunity!

I compiled one rather unexpectedly long dua

That turned into a booklet,

9A4 pages to be exact

I know. lol. 

I heard some beautiful du’a qunut during Ramadan at Omar mosque in Auburn by Sheikh Omar El-Banna and although I lived one hour away, better believe I went there a few nights in a row just to hear his bismillah mashaAllah beautiful Quran recitation and record it and record that du’a al Qunut he made!

It.was.so.beautiful.

I’ll eat a horse!

Among my duas I had asked Allah to PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE grant me the opportunity to go on Hajj with Daar Aisha and Ahbab al Mustapha! I figured I’ve grown up with Daar Aisha on and off for 5 years studying with them, I didn’t think Hajj would be the same with any other group, and anyone that goes on Hajj with Ahbab al Mustapha will have the most amazing bus ride entertainment and waiting periods ever! Nasheeds by the best nasheed group in the world, who could ask for anything more? Ask for the impossible from Allah, and just wait for it.. 

I made the dua even though Hajj was just around the corner and I was broke as broke as could be and still couldn’t find a job :(

A few nights pass and I had gone to tarawih with baba at the local mosque.

On the way back he said to me...

Shayma, don't tell anyone yet..

but I'm thinking of sending you off to Hajj this year.

*shocked face*

I was like OMG baba are you serious!?

Imagine that was a joke lol

He was off course serious...

But you can imagine how shocked I was!

He said, on one condition though..

whathawhrawahwihawiaehwihawwhatA!? what's the condition!?

Eat proper food.. lol

Yeah ok! I'll eat a horse! Anything you say dad! Heck I’ll eat 10! No worries! Done deal! Let’s shake on it! You grab the horses I’ll grab the butcher on my way to my luggage bags! Done deal! sealed, signed, packaged and delivered! OhMyGod!

So there I was poor unemployed university graduate on my way to Hajj! lol Seriously, miracle or what? My brothers chipped in too..

So I can with all honesty say I have the best brothers and dad in the world!

No one can take that title except them.

No one! 

Alhamdulilah! *weehee*

Oh and my younger brother- Mohammed- who is older than me by a year was coming along too.

The annual pattern...

So here my big trip begins!

I go to the Daar Aisha prep course in 2011,

but this time it's for me subhanAllah *tear*

We had girls in the class attend but they weren’t going on Hajj, and they were really upset hearing all about it and knowing they weren’t going to go.

But Umm AR said, I’ve had girls attend the preparation course one year and the next year they were with me, and that has been the pattern with her every year.

When Allah sees that desire in you He will write it for You.

I was one of those girls.

SubhanAllah! Allahu Akbar!

          The big weigh in!

Umm AR said when we pack our bags, we pack them lightly because our luggage is essentially our sins... You wanna lug around 30kg of sins, up to you, you wanna lug around less, good for you.. Hajj is a spiritual journey, you don’t need fancy copious amounts of clothes...  I kept this in mind and I am seriously competitive, so I was really keen to see how little I could pack lol.

Comes the night before we were due to fly and me being me, that’s when I decided to start packing

I was a little panicked to be honest, it was 2am and I was like omG I can’t figure what to take and what not to take,

I had one of those little hand bags with the rollers on it and I said I’m not taking anything bigger

I had taken a bit of clothes and whatever toiletries.

Next morning came and we were supposed to be at the airport at 1pm, our flight was at 4.

But me and my brother being the Arabs that we are, we left the house at 2 only to arrive at the airport at 3 lol

We were the last people to arrive and the last people to check in

Which was actually what I considered at the time to be quite the blessing, subhanAllah, I was like wow, things are easy already, no waiting in lines no stress, just straight to the counter  while all the early birds nervously wait around for the call to go in to the departure zone..

I was nervous at the weigh in.. funny, but true.. I was really hoping I would win the weigh in for the least luggage ever.

I had 8kg of luggage, lol, I thought, YEHES! Soon as I was done I went to ask my nearest friend how much her bag weighed, it was more; I’m so lame because I know my competitive edge was happy at that moment. I breathed a sigh of relief. *so lame of me*

We hung around for a little longer... Not much to do... Everyone looked so new to me, I’m quite familiar with the community here, but they all looked so different and new... Our call came in, people went to the departure zone and me and my bro said bye to a teary mother and happy father and we waved good bye, thinking wow, I may not actually return to see them.. Such a real possibility, I didn’t cry surprisingly, I don’t think I really fathomed the fact- not then and not even later- that I was actually still going after a year of seeing my dream squashed and annihilated right before my minds teary eyes!

We begin our flight, 14 hours to Abu Dhabi get off pray say hello to some hujaj were all staring at each other in wonderment and amazement, I think we were all looking at each other thinking, O your one of some 2,3,4,5, million that have the same blessing as me... Wow, nice to meet you too..

Then we wait around for the flight to Jeddah and were there in the departure lounge in Abu Dhabi airport early- for once, I’m striking up a conversation with a sister who was with us, now let’s put it this way, I live out in whoop whoop, I don’t exactly live in the hustle and bustle of Sydney city,  I mean, I used to see cows and sheep on the way to work where I live and my friends hardly ever come over because it’s just too far, they get scared seeing so much bushes and trees that they’d rather not come over at all lol... So the fact that I was talking to a sister who lived 2 streets down from where I lived and we had never met till this day was quite the surprise for me! SubhanAllah.