Landing at Jeddah - A Journey down the desert to Madinah tul Munawwarah ...

[Continued from the Previous Entry]

PIA flight 786 landed in Jeddah Airport at 9:30 AM local time.

We, two brothers and three sisters, were following Ammi huzoor towards the exit where Abbu was waiting.

I saw a lightful face with a dark black and thick beard on it and with that a usual smile decorating the beauty of that very face. Wearing his usual Jinnah Cap on his head and his regular shalwaar qameez attire, Abbu was waving at us. The emotions of that moment can not be encompassed by few mere words.

One of Abbu's friend had come to pick us up in his big chevy impala.

Soon, our car was running on the barren land of Arabia under the fire throwing sun. The small rocky and sandy mountains were passing by without any sign of a human life around.

Ocassionally, after every few miles, a car or a jeep could be seen upside down in passing by trenches. God knows, if any one would've survived to those accidents.

Air filled with desert sand was whispering about history that consists of several centuries, and was reminding me to the glorious past our fore-fathers had. This was the land where Prophet of Allah had fought against the evil of all time. This was the place where people whose hearts filled with Imaan, raised the flag of Islam and took it to the end of the world. Without whose efforts, none of us would've been muslims today. Sad that we have forgotten those lessons and have become ignorant of our duties to our coming generations.

This was the place where Syedana Siddiq-e-Akbar Abu Bakar kept the company of the beloved of Allah during Hijrah. This was the place where Syedana Umer Ibn ul Khattab al Farooq al Azam became the sole reason for handful of Muslims to pray in congregation in Ka'abatullah. This was the place where Syedana Usmaan ibn-e-Affan showed with his charity how a muslim can be "Ghani" and thakful to Allah at the same time. This was the place where Haider-e-karraar Syedana Ali Ibn-e-Abi Taalib let his sword talk about his courage in the battlefields.

We were driving through the land of Arabia which became the source of guidance some 1500 years ago for the whole humanity to come.

It was Zuhr time when we reached in the valley of Uhud. Place where Sydedush Shuhadaa Syedana Ameer-e-Hamzah got martyred so that we after 1500 years would born and be raised as muslims. Jabal-ul-Uhud [The mountain] was standing up high touching the sky. Abbu's friend's house was in the valley. There, we stopped to pray Zuhar .. [After Ramadhaan, once we visited him again, he offered us goat milk, that too without sugar and amazingly we felt that we did not need sugar anyway. The milk was sweet already without the sugar. This is my personal experience and one could've many doubts about the truth of what I'am saying but I certainly do not have any.]

Soon, our car was again running on the highway leaving the valley of Uhud behind and our destination was the city where 1400 years ago, the young girls sang to welcome the most perfect man ever to come:

Tala Al Badr-O-AlaYina
Min Suni Yaatil Widaai
Wajaba Shukro AlaYina
Ma'da aa Lillahe Da'ai

I was hearing clearly those words in my ears when we saw the minarets of Masjid-e-Nabawi at the time we reached the outskirts of the city and were only a mile away.

The heart started beating fast. That green dome was about to be visible that I'd seen in pictures and the beauty of which is un-describeable.

The minarets started to coming close as we were getting close to the city. I started gazing at them... minutes had started passing in hours .....

[To be Cont'd]