Questions: "Should I visit al Aqsa?"

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحِيمِ Bismillah hir Rahman nir Raheem

monday 4:37 pm houston

...I have three pieces of advice for you... based on my experience and what came afterwards.

1. Surely, Allah is with the sabireen. If you strongly fear that you will not have sabr with whatever may come, then do not go. The Muslims I met in Filisteen have such patience that they inspired and humbled me. What they go through is extraordinary to hear about, and if you stay in al Quds as I did, you will only witness a tiny portion of their ordeal. So only go if you are ready to try and be as patient as them.
2. In the time of RasoolAllah, sull Allaho alayhi wa sallam, a pious man did not make the journey to meet him and make bayah, yet RasoolAllah sull Allaho alayhi wa sallam praised him and told Omar radi Allaho anho that that man's dua would be accepted. What was the extraordinary activity of that man that he could be so loved by Allah, and yet have not traveled to meet the Prophet Muhammad, sull Allaho alayhi wa sallam? The man stayed in Yemen to care for his ailing mother, and the Prophet sull Allaho alayhi wa sallam died before the mother's illness ended.
   If your parents need you to be with them, or if they would cry over your travel, do not go. There are many hadith narrated by Sh. Waleed Basyouni in his lecture, "Parents, the Middle Gate of Jannah," that support this position. WAllaho 'Alim, I believe if I had heard the lecture and been softened by it before this summer, then I may have not gone to al Quds given the extreme fears of my parents.
3. If neither of those considerations stop you, make istikhara no matter whether you have reached a decision or are still undecided. In "Rays of Faith," Sh. Basyouni taught us that istikhara is not just for issues in which you are undecided, but even for decisions in which you are firm. InshaAllah, making istikhara should relieve you of stress and doubt because whatever happens, you will know that it is best for you in this life and in the next.

And if there is any error in what I have said, then it came only from me, and I ask Allah subhanahu wata ala to forgive me for it, and remove from your path any harm from it. And if there is good in it, then it is from the Mercy of Allah, and may He forgive me for whatever of it I have not acted on, and may He increase the good of it for you, for me, and for the ummah.

السلام عليكم

time to increase duas!

bismillah.  monday 10:22 pm houston

no power exists to change a person's situation other than Allah, and He loves that His slaves make dua (supplication) to Him, seeking from His Bounty and Mercy.  verily He is no need of anything from us, and we are the ones who are lost without Him.  so if you have made dua for me before, please increase your dua now.

and if what i seek is not in my qadar, then alhamdolillah alaa kulli haal, for He is the Most Wise and the Most Just, the all-Knowing, and He never does any injustice to His creation.  it may be that He will give me better than what I have asked for, and for Him it would be easy to surpass my greatest dreams.

Allah Ho Akbar.

Questions: Got pics? Hi-res pics?

bismillah. alhamdolillah, when i made the intention to write this blog, i intended to maximize the use of my smartphone.

so, i left my laptop, my digital camera, and my dv-corder at home. and i used one device -- my t-mobile dash -- to write almost every post and take every pic and vid.

alhamdolillah, it worked pretty well for me. it seriously cut down on luggage weight and volume. and i only had to worry about one piece of equipment (which could fit in my thawb-pocket easily) instead of four (laptop+camera+vid+phone).

but i did not push the limits on my dash for resolution. and the pics in this blog, that's as good as mine get.

alhamdolillah, the person who asked for hi-res pics is putting together a presentation for Hajj participants, so I have passed his request on to people I know who did take higher-quality pics. if you want me to ask them to post their pics, let me know.

one last note: so far NONE of these QUESTION posts have been written on my Dash.

Questions: Visas for travel to Jerusalem

1. Since you took the route from Jordan, when you reached the border and you gave them your pasport was it your amercan passport or any other? Because Israel does not have relations with any muslm country accept turkey. Did you take visa from the israeli consulate. I also heard that they do not allow entry for someone who is below the age of 40. If thats the case then it would be very hard to get in to Jerusalem.

Bismillah. The State of Israel insists that Jerusalem is its capital, and so to visit Jerusalem the Israelis will insist that you have their permission. You can apply for that permission from the Israeli Embassy/Consulate in your country of residence, or you might be able to get permission at the border -- but that depends on your nationality(ies).

If you are Muslim, your experience might be like mine. I met at least 15 non-Muslim travelers at the border during the two days it took for me to cross. The Americans seemed to cross easily -- at least they did not have to sit in the waiting area. The Europeans and Asians (Koreans) I met at the border were all forced to wait for at least several hours, but in the case of the Europeans, each of them had visited Syria or expressed their intention to do so.

Alhamdolillah (ala kulli haal), I only have an American passport. US-Israeli relations are such that Americans visiting Israel normally can seek permission at the border. So, that's what I did. I'm under 40, and I got in.

I did not have the problem that, for example, a Pakistani citizen would have. Pakistani friends and relatives assure me that Pakistan-Israeli relations are such that a Pakistani would be punished by Pakistan for entering Israel, and Israel might not even grant a Pakistani permission to enter even if he applied to an Israeli embassy in a third country.

I do not have a lot of information on travel requirements for people from other countries, but my understanding is that Jordanians and perhaps Egyptians are able to travel to Israel.

Here is a very resource-and-information-packed web page that I never visited before today: http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1064.html Despite that ringing endorsement, I really do recommend that you read that page.

If it makes you feel better, I did visit this page: http://www.israelemb.org/consular_Visa.html , and if you want to go to Jerusalem you should visit it, too.

(Added after initial post)
Although I briefly mention the fact here, since this question was about visas, it bears repeating: if you ask the Israelis nicely, they might not stamp your passport on entry. A lot of people worry about this, and not just Muslims. Every time someone was asked about the stamp in front of me, each person replied that they did not want the stamp in the passport -- Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

As far as I know, the decision is entirely up to the Israelis. I was asked no fewer than three separate times whether I would permit the stamp. Each time I asked them to stamp a separate piece of paper. In the end, I was given a small piece of paper indicating that I had been given permission to enter Israel, and the immigration officer stamped it with my visa.

A guard at the end of the hall, asked for the piece of paper, tore it to show it had been used, and then threw it in a trash can when I did not ask for it. Apparently, I was supposed to ask for it. So you should do so if the guard does not hand it to you on her own. Because that paper was my only proof of permission to enter Jerusalem. Not having that proof made me very hesitant to travel far from al Aqsa, so alhamdolillah, it worked well for me.

No mark was put in my passport.

But my passport and luggage did have stickers placed on them by the Israelis to track them while I was at the border. I removed all of them by the time I returned to Jordan.

Questions :-)

Bismillah hir Rahman nir Raheem -- (I begin) in the Name of Allah, the most Merciful (the One Whose Mercy transcends by far what anyone else can imagine), the always Merciful (the One Who is Merciful at all times).

Alhamdolillahi Rabbil 'aalameen -- Praise is for Allah (alone), the Lord of all the universe.

Now that I have finally uploaded all the posts, pictures, and video from my Umrah, I have started to get some questions.

At least when the questions are those which other people may ask, I intend to post the questions and answers here in the blog. If you have a question you'd like to ask, you can:

(1) e-mail me if you know my e-mail address -- but I will probably just post your question and my answer here.

(2) or click on this link "post your question."

(3) or you can use the link at the end of the post -- right now it reads "0 comments." Every post has a link like that, and you can submit your questions or comments directly to the post that interests you.

A few questions have been submitted already. So as soon as I have written answers to them, inshaAllah, I will post them.