2:23 pm. The end of Ramadhan is near. Everyone’s pace has gone a notch down— tired and exhausted. Many already have their luggage out on the street ready to go. Maybe one more round of prayers tonight and off they go.
I just could not put this Ramadhan behind me. The atmosphere was indeed magical. I would recommend for everyone to come and experience Ramadhan in Mecca. Stay a little bit longer, get into the crowd and shove someone once in a while. No need to hike up Jabal Nur because you will hurt your legs and back and will be in a muscle stress for a few days. Then you will miss acvtivities in the mosque. Experience spiritual journey that can only be done here in this mosque. So choose your umrah package carefully to get full impact of your journey.
For the last time I wanted to be here in this part of the mosque. Packed with bags and stuff booking the space but when the time for solat comes bags dont get up, do they? So appeared a lot of empty/incomplete saf. That mentality of self-centeredness remains the main obstacle to this people to move on and develop their potential as one ummah or at least one small unit of community. Heated argument pursued and like many others it died down after a few harakah of dengung and mad salim…. I didnt want to know what they argued about…..mainly about the space, I supposed.
I came to meet and say good bye to the hardworking iftar boys. They served this part of rooftop section. Always kept cool despite the hustles from pakcik2 tua ni. Today was no different as many wanted more than the given portion and hustled this boy ,everyone called him Mohamed, to give what they wanted. His face shown a clear disappointment but never refused the request from this old pakcik, infact, from anybody. He shoved a handful of the handouts(today it was a small packets of date maamol) into him and moved on to do his tasks. The line was still unserved completely although the time for iftar was approaching fast.
Amidst the chaos that drowned the beautiful late afternoon sky, I continued reading the Quran for the second round. Can I count the reading of the solat teraweeh and tahajjud as my round of reading as well? I did follow with my phone verbatim. Hhmmm… don’t need to be so calculative it is yours one way or the other. Tonight will be the final recitations and we expect a khatam and doa to be the highlight and purposely close “our gathering” in this blessed month .
Interestingly, I sat next to a Bangla who used to work in Malaysia. In 1997, when the Asian markets crashed he was laid off and moved to Germany to find another work. Then settled down in Paris until today. So we were in the same wavelength and spent the rest of the time talking a little bit about everything. He lived in Malaysia for four years working in various factories around Selangor. In this brief encounter I found in him a person with great determination to find his “better life”. He loved to call Malaysia a home but Allah has a bigger plan for him. Life in Paris was hard at first, he told me, but the system in France generally supports every single legal resident of her to live a comfortable life. Everyone who works legally in France entitled for a pension, government or non- governmental employee. Even if you worked at a corner shop you can claim a pension upon retirement. The health system is free for everyone and one of the best in the world, he told me with a contented exclamation. With little knowledge of France, I agreed and believed so. Islamophobia is just a media thing and not happening in his community since he was there over 20 years ago. Maybe he is adaptable and have this strong way to live his life in a place foreign to him. I have a few Bangla friends in England and Japan; and they have similar attitudes to survive.
His views on Malaysia and his Malay friends are all positive. His only regret was to see muslim/malay not to do well in business and left for others to get rich. A view similar to Tun M’s….. I didn’t elaborate further. Just left him with his thoughts.
Iftar was good and I will miss this superb Arabic qohwah after today. And as expected the khatam Quran doa was long and elaborate. A signature of Imam Sudais that will be remembered for a long time to come.
I rushed back to the hotel. Exhausted. I think will sleep in until sahur to give myself a good rest.
6:00 am prayed Isyra’. A pigeon came by near my sejadah and I tried to get a good shot. Hoping for it not to fly away. Then this pakcik voiced me out….
“You should pray 10 mins after the time brother!”, he said.
“Oo…okay” I said, As I understood the comment. He kissed my head as a gesture of blessing an old man….. hmmmm stunned….whatever!
I lost my pigeon.
