Well, I had
originally thought I wouldn't revisit my misadventures in Mecca on Friday
afternoon, but I happened, a little bit ago, to be replying to something in
another forum, and somehow the story just started spilling out...so here it
is...
~*Sister Aishah's Journey Continues...Friday, July 23, 2004 -
Mecca*~
Oh, my goodness...I was in Mecca on
Friday trying to hook-up with my friend, Noriah, who has, subhan'Allah, brought
me a care package from my adopted daughter, Hanane. I was so excited to go and
find the group she traveled with! (Noriah, her husband and 6-year old son
are here in KSA with a group that came from Virginia on a trip sponsored by
ADAMS Center to visit Madinah and Mecca.)
Before they were scheduled to arrive in
Mecca (on a bus traveling from Jeddah), I would get there way ahead of them, as
I was traveling on bus departing at 8 am filled with 34 passengers/nurses
from the hospital here where my husband works. My friend Nadia (from the
Madinah stories) also happened to be making this trip, but we didn't know
we were both going until we found one another at the meeting place to catch the
bus! Subhan'Allah! We got to Mecca in plenty of time before Jummah
to make the first half of our Umrah (No. 4; Al-hamdulillah!) before
Jummah, and after Jummah we finished Umrah and then I excused myself (after we
came upon some other sisters from our group that Nadia could join), to set out
on my quest to Noriah.
Of course, in the land where, if
anything can go wrong it will, it turned out that for whatever reason, the
"Zam Zam" group did not end up at the hotel they were originally
slated to stay at, which I didn't find out until after I had walked
half-way across Mecca to find the hotel, whereupon I learned that the
hotel the group ended up at was where?
Back over on (what seemed like)
the other side of Mecca where I had just walked from!!!
Then, even though the nice bellman at
the original hotel gave me the name of the new hotel, when I got all the way
back over to the other side again, I learned that there were not one, but THREE
hotels with the same name...Astaghfirullah Al-'Azeem...to add insult
to injury...the place where I was suppose to meet the bus to return home was
where, you ask???
Of course! BACK OVER
ON THE OTHER SIDE OF MECCA!!!
Okay, go ahead and ask the obvious question...Why didn't I take a cab?
Well...because...me and my big-hearted
self...well...during Jummah, I sat one over from the left of a sister who I
happened to notice made her salat sitting on the floor. At first I thought
it was because she had some sort of cast or brace on her right leg/foot.
I also noticed her sweet face...she was so kind looking and beautiful...masha'Allah.
And for some reason I was feeling something in my heart for this unknown
sister...and then I noticed, when she stretched out her other leg to change her
sitting position...that her left foot was deformed in such a way, that it was
clear she was very unlikely even able to walk with it...and that was it...I
lost my heart to her completely...and as I stood to leave after Jummah...there
I was...digging into my pocketbook where I knew I had two bills...a 1 riyal
bill and a 100 riyal bill. The 100 riyal bill being the money with which I was
to purchase a new card for the cell phone....but...well...I couldn't stop
myself...I removed the 100 riyal bill from my wallet, and
moving behind the sister, I passed my hand down over the top of her right
shoulder and slipped the folded-up bill into the palm of her
hand, closed her fingers down over it, and turned to leave before she
could say anything. When I happened to look back over my shoulder...I saw she
had raised her arm...trying to get my attention...trying to return the bill to
me...I just smiled warmly, shaking my head back and forth,
and continued on my way.
There were, it seemed, at least 100 times throughout the rest of that day that
I could have used that 100 riyal bill (and my cell phone)...and there
is surely...oh, my gosh...it just occurred to me at the exact moment that I
am writing this...
I was going to say...there must surely
have been a reason why the rest of my day seemed so insufferable...oh, wow...and
that's just it!!
What I suffered through the
rest of the day was nothing in comparison to the suffering of the sister who
could not walk because she had deformed feet...
May each person reading at this very
moment stop and thank Allah (swt) for the blessings in their life...whether it
be health, wealth, peace, happiness, family, love, employment, nourishment,
etc...because no matter how much we might think we are suffering...there is
someone else who is suffering and enduring more...
Alas, by the end of the day I had not managed to find my friend, Noriah...but I
walked another two Umrah's worth of ground in Mecca during my
misadventure! A journey that started at 8 am that didn't end until our
arrival back on the hospital campus at 12:30 am, delivered one tired Muslimah
to her kind husband, who awoke from his slumber to sit with her on the sofa so
she could snuggle up against him and have a good cry.
Al-hamdulillah, I received a phone call this morning from Noriah's husband,
Mike, and we have made a plan to all meet one another Tuesday after Maghrib,
Insha'Allah! I asked Mike if I could please take his permission to send
an item back for Hanane...she asked for only one thing from Mecca; a new
abaya. I found the most beautiful abaya...but it was 500 riyals (a mere
$133 USD), and my MasterCard advance card only had a balance of 497.50
riyals...major disappointment!
Adding to the disheartened feeling
overwhelming me, was the fact that there should otherwise have been much more
money in the account except for another little snafu...
Thursday afternoon I
discovered when I checked my account online that the storage
building company back home had debited my account for THREE payments
instead of the ONE payment; a transaction made online THAT WAS
NOT AUTHORIZED!! (I had authorized a single payment on the 6th of the
month.) (No, the account was not in arrears.) I immediately emailed
the company to alert them of their dreadful mistake, demanding that the
overcharge be re-credited to my account; but I knew there was no hope of this
correction taking place before Noriah departed KSA to return home...and it was
looking more and more like my hope to send something home to Hanane was
evaporating by the minute...
But, in the end, if it was meant to be,
the abaya I found for Hanane will still be in the shop where I found it when I
return on Tuesday, insha'Allah.
I asked Hanane if she wanted something plain or something b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l, and she said, "I want something
beautiful, Mum." So, beautiful it is! Masha'Allah. Insha'Allah.
So,
that was my Friday (weekend)...what did ya'll do?
I
love you all for the sake of Allah (swt).
Wa'Salaam Alaikum,
~Aishah
P.S.
– I was in Jeddah on Thursday. I got to
go to the bookstore and eat a Whopper at Burger King...(Whoppers make a
whopping mess when you try to eat them) - and the best part of the day was
I FOUND THE CHEESE!!!!!!!
Al-hamdulillah!!!
And we bought 2 kilos wrapped into four separate packages. Masha'Allah...it
is divine! We found an "Irish Cheddar" that
has tickled my taste buds now for the past three mornings!
Overall, I guess I'd have to say it was
a pretty nice weekend. Al-hamdulillah.
The testimony of faith is saying with
conviction,
"Ash hadu an la ilaha illa Allah wa ash hadu anna Muhammadar Rasul Allah."
("I declare there is no
god but Allah and I declare that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.")
The first
part, “There is no true god but God,” means that none has
the right to
be worshipped but God alone, and that God has neither partner nor son.
This testimony
of faith is called the Shahada, a simple formula that should be said
with
conviction in order to convert to Islam.
The testimony
of faith is the most important pillar of Islam.
If
I am right, it is from Allah; if wrong, it is from me.
I
ask Allah Almighty to protect you and me from errors
and
from all that displease Him.
"Al-Hamdu-lillahi
rabbil-alameen"
SISTER AISHAH'S ISLAMIC JOURNEY