Hijaama

Jum'aa (friday) 5:00 am Madinah

alhamdolillah, yesterday i performed a sunnah of the Prophet, sull Allaho alayhi wa sallam. it was the first time that i ever had the hijaama.

hijaama is also known as "cupping," and it is the extraction of unhealthy blood from the body. you should be able to look it up easily on-line, but it is very different from what we think of as a medical procedure in the US.

alhamdolillah, it was also surprisingly easy to bear. there was no great lasting discomfort. and it did not make me tired.

so why do it? interestingly, i met people in the Haram who asked me where i had mine done because they wanted treatment for a specific ailment.

my main intention was to perform a sunnah that one rarely sees living in the West. but my lack of familiarity with hijaama, and with the person cutting me, made me limit myself to those cupping-sites which i knew this person had cupped many times over on other men in my group -- without mishap, alhamdolillah.

my love for this city grows, alhamdolillah, though most of my experience is in and around the Haram, and Madinah is much larger, alhamdolillah.

on saturday, inshaAllah, i will see more of it. my intention is to follow the sunnah of walking to Masjid al Quba after fajr on saturdays. after praying two rakat Doha there i will have the sunnah, inshaAllah, and the reward of an umrah.