UMRAH WAL ZIARAH 2015

Umrah and Visit to two Holy Cities
18-23 Feb 2015

After few months of planning, the day has come for Abah and Ibu to perform small Haji or Umrah.
Unlike typical folks who bought package for Umrah-Ziarah, we adopted to purchase flight tickets and then took "ground package" from Ajwa Travel and Tours.

The flight is MH 150 using boeing 777-200, Dep; 15.25, Arr: 19.35 (Saudi time).
The 8.5 hours flight was full with Malaysian and Indonesian bound for Umrah.

The seats and the foods were nice, we were served twice, 1 hour after depart and 2 hour before arrival.

Jeddah, Day 1

We arrived at Jeddah International Airport, where all the umrah passenger were carried to Haj terminal and we went for commercial passenger to Jeddah International Airport. Its important when we check-in at Kul to clearly informed the check-in officer that we are commercial passenger, so that our baggage will be carried to International Airport. 
The Airport was not so busy, so we are out in no time.

Then we bought 2 SIM cards "Zain" for 30 SR each, that gives us new Saudi no. and about 10SR of credits. Next thing is to find a taxi to Madinah. 

What a shock! I had budgeted for 300 SR, it turned out to be SR 600-700, probably because it was already 9.00 pm. So we proceeded with a nice Hyundai Sonata Taxi and a good driver to Madinah at SR 600, Khalass.

Then a short stopover to pack our dinner and buy some hot coffee.

At about 1 am we arrived and stopped at Feyrouz Shatta hotel, Mr Humaidi Geound was already there waiting. He told us that he has upgraded the Hotel to next Hotel Al Ansar Golden.

After a copius supper and Solat |Jama' we sleep until qabl Fajr at 4.00 am.

Madinah Day 2

Then we went to beloved Masjid Nabawi to start our Ziarah, the mosque entrance is just at the doorstep of our Hotel. Ibu entered through Bab' Afnan and abah entered thru Bab' Fahd.

Some of the activities in Masjid Nabawi after solat Fajr.

Mihrab Rasul, Abah got the spot for 4 rakaat solat sunnat, Alhamdulillah.

Raudhatul Jannah and maqam Rasulullah SAW.

After the Ziarah, we looked for Juadah.

Below are the famous tents for having meals or just drinkings.

The foods are acceptable, no complaints.

Then its time to Ziarah Luar, Abah booked a taxi to take us to; Maqam Shuhada', Masjid Qiblatain, Masjid Quba' and Pasar Khurma. All for 150 SR..Khalass.

Jabal Uhud and Maqam Shuhada',

Mosque Qiblatain,
The only Mosque on earth originally built with qiblah facing Baitul Muqaddis and then later divert to face Ka'abah in Makkah.

Sab'ah Mosque or Mosque of Seven,
It was named after 7 control posts during the Khandak War, It has also served as a Solat place, the posts are named after 7 Sahabah and the prophets daughter; Post Salman, Post Abu Bakr, Post Umar, Post Usman, Post Ali, Post Fatimah and Post Al Fath. The one shown on the photo below is post Al- Fath.

Quba' Mosque,
The first mosque built by Rasulullah

My good friend Mr Abdul Aziz Abdullah, he even brought me to buy some foods for lunch.

This lunch only cost me SR20.

 After Maghrib I was suddenly surrounded by a congregation of indonesian scholars with its Murshid, I guess, The learned murshid taught lesson on Futuhal Makkah.

Madinah Day 3

After Ziarah Wada' and in Ihram ready for Umrah in Makkah, thru Dzulhulaifah or Bir-Ali.
Farewell ya Habibi Ya Rasulullah SAW.

Our friend Nabir bin Salim, a young arab dedicated to learning english.
And Bir-Ali Mosque.

Makkah Day 3

On our way to Makkah, Labbaikallahumma Labbaik...

We arrived in Makkah at about 2.30 pm, in the Hotel lobby we were told the check-in will be after 5.00 pm, So we stored our luggage at the lobby and walked to Bin Dawood Mall to take our lunch before going to Al Haram.

Baitullah Al Haram

We started our Umrah about 15 minutes before Asar and we finished it about 20 minutes before Maghrib, so we too about 1h 30min for Umrah. 

Alhamdulillah we just completed our ibadah Umrah.

We stayed at Anjum Hotel (5 stars) in Makkah about 600m from Bab' Fahd. Finally after Isya' we returned to the Hotel to Check-in and have dinner.

 The dinner buffet was delectable.

Makkah Day 4
Our first ziarah destination for the day is the Thur Mountain.

Jabal Rahmah.

The plane of Arafat.

In Mina we were shown the spot where the slaughter of Nabi Ismail a.s by his own father Nabi Ibrahim a.s took place.

View of the 3 Jumrahs from the observation platform beside the elevated highway.

Jabal Nour, where the venerable Hira' Cave perched on.

Ma'la mausoleum only rank second to Baqi' in Madinah.

A short visit to our Makkah friend's house, Mr Mukhlis and his wife Bu' Sholihah somewhere near Ma'la mausoleum.

It was so nice of them to receive us at their home and serve us drinks and fruits.
Then we proceeded to Mosque of Jins.

Then we walked to Haram and sheik Muklis showed us Jabal Qubais where once Siti Khadijah's r.a.h house with Rasulullah SAW was situated. Now the government has demolished part of Jabal Qubais and built a Government office.

The same fate also goes for Mawlid Nabi, the place of Birth of Rasulullah SAW, demolished and replaced with a library.

Makkah Day 5
Then we went to a Al Rajhi Bank and to a make-up shop.

Our target for the day is to visit the History museum, but the driver had mistakenly brought us to Hudaibiyah Mosque which turned out to be worthwhile. This is a great and important place where the Treaty of Hudaibiyah was sealed in the 6th year of Hijrah. The original mosque was partly ruined and had been replaced by a new Mosque. The old mosque was built with rocks and mud and had withstand 1,430 years!

Somewhere around the plane at the foot of these mountains the Well of Arrow had stood against time but eventually has been demolished by the government.

Well of Arrow

Then we head to the History Museum.

Below is the first manuscript of Al Quran believed to be written at the time of Caliphate Usman r.a.

A night walked around Hilton and Darul Kauthar areas.
On the eve of our departure to Jeddah we took few photos of the mosque basking in the light.

Makkah Day 6
The next morning, after breakfast we went for Tawaf Wada' and went straight to Hotel to get our luggage. By 11 am we went down to the lobby area and proceed to find taxi to Jeddah.
We found an old taxi driver willing to take us to Jeddah for SR 60.....Khalass.

By the time we arrived in Jeddah we had changed our plan and head straight to Omar Bawazir's house in Baladiyyah street, so the old man asked for SR 100 which we agreed.

After few twist and turned and few asking around the old man grew impatient and stopped another taxi and ask us to pay him and jump into that taxi. We obliged and in 10 min we are at the entrance of Omar's house, Alhamdulillah.

 Jeddah Day 6

How I missed my old friend Omar Bawazir and his dedicated wife Sumayyah, they have been so kind to treat us royally even sending us to the airport, Jazakullah Khoir my friend, May Allah blessed your beautiful family.

Then we went to Balad, a place of shopping and sightseeing.
By that time most shops are closed and only few Khurma, Food and clothing shops were open. 

We went for a quick lunch at Al Tazzaj.

When we arrived at Jeddah International Airport, at the check-in counter we were asked to go to the Haj terminal, they explained that all the Umrah passenger will only be accepted at Haj Terminal, so we had to take a taxi to go to Haj Terminal and it costs us SR 100 just for the 10 min ride....hmm.

For the benefit of those who wants to emulate our journey, I tabulate below the itemized and total costs;

Alhamdulillah we managed to do what we have intended to do even at short period and limited budget and we were well taken care of and sadly we bid farewell to land of Two Holy cities, Haramain and may Allah and the prophet pbuh welcomed us again soon Insyaallah.