As Masjid an-Nabi has expanded, alhamdolillah, many masajid like this one that were once some distance away, have found themselves surrounded by the hotels that house the many pilgrims.
Above: Pictures taken at the meeqat for those leaving Madinah to perform Umrah or Hajj.
monday 5:00 pm just outside Madinah
the road to Makkah. our bus just left the meeqat of Madinah a few minutes ago. and we've passed the first road checkpoint on the road to Makkah.
the natural excitement of making ghusl and donning the ihram helped take the sadness out of leaving Madinah, alhamdolillah. even the sunnah of wearing ithar before making the neeyat for Umrah gave the sense that we were getting ready for a very important appointment.
and we are: inshaAllah, we will arrive in Makkah as guests of Allah subhanahu wata ala, and no more generous or praiseworty, merciful and terrifyingly awesome host as ever been or ever will be than the Creator, Lord of all the universe, and all that is beyond it.
i have traveled this road by car and by bus. by day and by night...
Below: From the bus to Makkah.
monday 8:00 pm road to Makkah
we're back on the road after a stop at maghrib. most of my group chose to wait to pray inshaAllah in Masjid al-Haram. i remembered a similar point on Hajj when people assumed we would reach the Haram before isha.
that day we did not even get to aziziyah by 3 am, much less to the Haram. so tonight i prayed at the roadside masjid.
we learned about a great hadith in today's class. the gist of it was that a sign of a person's faith improving was that he went from hating the people around him for their faults and mistakes to looking at himself and recognizing that he had a great deal to fix in himself.
i think of that now because traveling by bus gives one many chances... to reflect on the subject of faults.
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