8:38 am. I was supposed to be in masjid Quba this morning. The plan was to reach there by Dhuha—- by foot. Google said it would take 56 mins walking;so we were going there following the route suggested. But there was a war in my tummy so ,half way through, mission aborted. Went back to the hotel and get myself settled.
Last night went shopping. To tell you the truth (sshhhh!) I love shopping here in Madinah. Hahaha. The jubah for men very fashionable. But last night got con by a bangla selling me 60 riyals jubah for 100 riyals. Kurma is always delicious here with more varieties. Looking for perfumes but have yet to get the right one.
“ O haj here a good perfume for you” said this young man.
“ how much?”,I asked without delay.
“865 riyals but after discount……”
Oppps not for me, I quickly ran out before he finished the sentence.
Dude I was looking for the 20-riyal one la, the cheap cheap one……
One thing I hate when shopping here, is that they lock you up until you buy. I’m not good in negotiation just wanted to go off. So to avoid being lock up I just disappeared before they knew it.That Bangla chased me for a few hundred meters and pulled me back to his store. Aaaishh rimas betul! But if you found a good store and pleasant seller, you would enjoy it very much. Compared to Mecca and Jeddah prices of jubah here are much cheaper. And much more to select too. So must get one before you leave Madinah.
10:00 pm waiting to enter raudhah. Visiting raudhah is a simple thing. You go in , pray and make doa at a designated area called “raudhah” which means “taman”. Our prophet said it is a piece of jannah, a blessed place and the best one on earth. So here I am again, despite the complicated process, put up with everything, arrived at this place. It looked difficult but this is one worthy effort to make your trip meaningful. The process:
1. Download an app called “nusuk”.
2. Register yourself with yr passport and visa.
3. Then register to visit raudhah.
4. Dates of availability will be displayed and you click whichever relevant. Time will be given and you chose which one you like.
5. A qr code will be given together with the permit.
6. Keep this permit and bring it on the day.
7. They WILL CHECK one by one believe it or not. Those without permit will be asked to leave.
8. On the day you will come to the place (near gate 37/38) and wait. The waiting will be agonizing. So do thousands of others.
9. They will put you into a queue like in disneyland and move inch by inch.
10. This worked …….believe me.by the time you reach raudhah you will have ample time to solat(as many as you wish), make doa, take a few photos and selfies.
11. Then you walked out slowly passing kubur nabi , abu bakar dan umar. Sampaikan salam dr yg jauh and move out.
12. Wait before gate open- 1 hour, queueing to permit checkpoint-1 hour, another period of waiting after permit checkpoint- 40 mins, inside raudhah before being told off by guards-30 mins.
13. So a simple pray and doa sitting required about three hours to execute. Something is definitely extremely off. But here you cant complain.
I left raudhah and said goodbye at about 2:00 am. I don’t think will be able to come to say goodbye tomorrow as we will be leaving in the morning.
As I walked away crossing the marble floor outside,my heart sank deep into hopelessness. I felt my return to visit again seemed remote. Next year is a long time to wait.
