Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
| Umra - the lesser pilgrimage |
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| Zara |
| 10/27/00 at 06:47:58 |
| As salaamu alaikum wahrahmathullah I returned from Umra&pakistan on the 24th of August - I had a brilliant time... I hope that all of you are given the opportunity to visit the holy lands soon... The experience of visiting Mecca and Madina invokes a spiritual awakening for those who choose reflect upon their present state in life, and whether they feel that they are in the right state to meet their lord - Allah (SubHanahu Wa Ta`ala ). They say that remembering the grave motivates you to walk along the righteous path - indeed seeing the location of judgementday in Mecca in front of the Ka'aba does invoke feelings of remembrance that the grave is our destination, and we shall remain their until we are resurrected for judgement day. Also we must bear in mind that when we die our good or bad deeds will manifest into illuminous malaikas (beautiful radiant faced angels) or in the case of bad deeds they will manifest into dark faced scary looking creatures.... Above all we must remember that we only have one life and we don't get another chance to correct errors. We mustappreciate the importance of this life..because we were not created in vain. It is possible to enjoy this life and follow the Qur'an and sunnah (ahadith). I think that you will only be able to fully experience the tranquility that I felt in Saudi Arabia when you visit the place yourself - because frankly words are not enough to convey what I felt.... If anyone else has performed Umra or Hajj I would be interested to hear about what they felt after visiting the holy lands. walaikum asalaam Zara (In case anyone is wondering why I sign off as Zara, well that is my nickname and I used to use it on the previous www.jannah msg board) |
| Re: Umra - the lesser pilgrimage |
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| bhaloo |
| 09/18/00 at 11:02:52 |
| slm Could you share with us more details about your Umrah experience and maybe some pointers that might benifit those that haven't gone for Hajj or Umrah. |
| Re: Umra - the lesser pilgrimage |
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| Breeze |
| 09/18/00 at 18:01:40 |
| salaam, Inshallah i will be going to umrah in jan-feb time and i'm still trying to collect information. I hope u can help me...just a few questions if u don't mind... After completion of umrah proceedings can we do tawaf on a regular basis (when not in ihram)? ie. not part of the actual umrah ritual and what is the niyat for such tawaf. Also i've heard that the area between the black stone and door of kaaba bears special significance which is why pilgrims are always crowded there. Any truth to that? Is it easy to get close to the kaaba and find a spot for prayer there? wassalam |
| Re: Umra - the lesser pilgrimage |
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| Anonymous |
| 09/21/00 at 14:22:04 |
| I got back from Umra and Pakistan on the 21st of August..:) I also had an AWESOME time, alhamdulillah. About the tawaf, we did do them regularly after completion of our Umra, and we weren't in our ihram. Since we went during the summer, we were able to find plenty of space right in front of the Kaba..and words cannot express the feeling running throughout your entire body when you are standing right infront of it! and to think that when you are walking through the cities (Mecca and Madina) that you're stepping on the same ground that our role model, Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) walked on so many years ago....it's just an excellent experience that will change you in so many good ways, insha-Allah. I'm not sure about the significance of the area between the black stone and the door of the Kaba, but I know that sisters werem't allowed to touch/kiss the door... I hope this helps, and that everyone will get the opportunity to experience what I have experienced, ameen. P.S. I registered to be a member of this message board, but for some reason, I haven't been able to post..and nothing's been sent to my email..can anyone help me out? |
| Re: Umra - the lesser pilgrimage |
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| jannah |
| 09/21/00 at 14:23:17 |
| Assalaam alaikum, Who are you? :) Check the help and send the moderators an email. |
| Re: Umra - the lesser pilgrimage |
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| fari |
| 09/27/00 at 15:36:09 |
| Assalaam alaikum I went for Umra during Ramadan this yr I gotta tell you it was the most amazing experience of my life! Subhan'Allah there is nothing like it. To hear so much Quran being recited is just an awesome feeling. Tarawih prayers are so amazing when you are surrounded by so many people, as is the qiyam al lail(nightprayer) at about 2am for the last 10 days. You feel so at peace and you dont even feel tired, probably because you are on such a high! It is really difficult to describe but you kind of feel like 'yeah this is it, this is what i have been created for- to worship Allah(swt)' and it all clicks into place. Because we all know how easy it is to get distracted in our lives back at home and when u r there in the mosque you forget everything else. So if u r gonna go for Umra i recommend going during the month of Ramadan because believe me u will never forget it! Breeze- we used to do tawaf after fajr regularly you can do it whenever it is a beneficial thing to do. I dont know what the significance of the area btw the black stone and the ka'aba is i personally have not read anything to show that it would have a particular significance. It is not easy at all to find a space that near to the ka'aba during this time but i know that at other times of the year it is relatively easy. I make dua that we all once in our lifetime have the chance to go the most blessed of places insha'Allah. Wasalaikum asalaam |
| Re: Umra - the lesser pilgrimage |
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| Zara |
| 09/28/00 at 08:13:28 |
| As Salaamu Alaikum all! You may find the following information useful, it includes more about my experience of Umra and what was involved. Firstly you can either go direct to Mecca and perform your umra. This means you have to go into Hiraam at the airport and stay in Hiraam until you get to Mecca and complete your Umra. Or you can go to Medina first. (It is reccomended that you go to Mecca first) However I went to Medina first because there was 12 of us including 2 small children. We arrived in Medina on July 14th ..I was in awe to be walking on land walked on by our Prophet(PBUH) and the Sahabah(RA). We stayed in Medina for four days - I got the opportunity to say my salaams to the two sahabah (RA) buried near our Prophet(PBUH)and touch the jaali of the al rawdah mubarak of our Prophet (PBUH). Even though there were arab women standing guard to stop women touching the jaali (window) because they say we shouldn't touch the jaali. We also visited janath - ul - mala where Hazrath Khadija (RA) and some other family members of our Prophet (PBUH) are buried. I have never heard a more beautiful azaan than in Medina - the call to prayer affects your heart and you leave whatever you are doing to go to prayer. What I liked best about Saudi was that everyone stops there worldly activities to unite in prayer. We then went to Mecca to do Umra, where we stayed for four days. In order to perform Umra you have to go into Ihraam. The men have to wear wear special clothes consisting of a 1-2 white sheets. The women can wear clean ordinary clothes but should be in full hijab, also it is recommended that one covers ones face during the umra rituals. You are not allowed to scratch lest that you should remove a hair whilst scrathing. Clothes worn must be unperfumed and you are not allowed to use perfumed shampoo or soap while bathing prior to your Umra. You have to go a mosque some distance from the Ka'aba to do niyaa' and Talbiya which are mandatory for Ihraam. We stopped at Masjid-a-Quba. The men wore their ihraam. We went to pray two nafls and read the du'a to express niyaa'...It began to rain (it rarely rains in Mecca )Then it was Asr azaan, so we read the prayer. Before leaving the mosque we read talbiyaa - an arabic prayer to commence ihraam and express intention of Umra...It is said aloud 3 times. We continued saying the talbiya and reading dua's until we reached our hotel..we unpacked done wazu ( wash before prayer) and went to Masjid-a-Haram (Where the ka'aba is) Fards during umra - go into ihraam - do tawaaf around ka'aba Scholars say that when you first set eyes on the ka'abaa the first prayer you say is granted. It is important to do niyaa for tawaaf... You then read a duwa at Hijra sood (beginning point of tawaaf) Then you lift your hands close to your ears ( like you do in commencement of prayer) and read a du'a to fulfil niyaa for tawaaf.. During the seven cirles of the ka'aba you can read specific dua's written in Umra books or any dua's which you have memorised. On completion of tawaaf you go to mukaam-a-ibraheem ( the encased footprints of hazrat Ibrahim(AI) where they stood on a stone to build the ka'aba) on completion of the seven circles you go and read the two nafals which are called nafal-a- wajib-tawaaf. We were quite lucky because we were able to pray our nafals really close to the Ka'aba. You then drink zam-zam and go to Safa Marwa - again you read a dua to do niyaa for for walking between safa and marwa..niyaa can be done in your own words or arabic. You have to walk between Safa and marwa 7 times beginning at safa. each time you return to safa you may make dua as this is the place of fulfillment of dua's. On completion of this the women ask their guardian to cut one finger sections length of hair or they may cut their hair themselves. The men have their hair cut - shavingall the hair is reccommended and is be more rewarding. You then drink zam-zam and your Umra is now complete and Ihraam has ended. The actual umra takes about 2-3 hours and we completed it with ease despite having my two young cousins with us. We went to visit the place where Hazrath Adam (AS) repented for disobeying Allah(swt) and they were forgiven..The place is on a mountain and we had to walk up over 100 steps in the arid afternoon heat. However the view of mecca from the top is beautiful. Each time I think about Saudi it fills my heart gratitude and love towards Allah (swt) for allowing me to visit the holy lands... As for the question of tawaaf well you can do tawaaf at anytime, you just need to do niyaa in words or read the arabic dua in umra books...Also you have to read two nafals after each tawaaf( 1 single tawaaf consists of seven circles of the ka'aba). The reward of the tawaaf is even more than that of the umra. You may do tawaaf on behalf of family or friends. I reccommend that you take the a book about Umra Rituals and dua's with you to Saudi because it is hard to memorise the various reccommended dua's. I took the following urdu/arabic Umra book with me: Title Rehnuma-a Umra-o-Zeyarat Author Khalil Arahman Nouman Mazhari Published 1 shawwal 1395 Some bookshops also sell english/arabic translations. If anyone has any more questions don't hesitate to ask. JazahKum Allah Khair. Zara |
| Re: Umra - the lesser pilgrimage |
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| Breeze |
| 09/30/00 at 19:03:09 |
| Salaam, Where can i get more information about the mountain where Hazrath Adam (AS) repented to Allah and what evidence from Quran/hadith do scholars provide about prayers being granted at first sighting of Kaaba? Also are there any stories about miracles happening in Mecca or Medina? My cousin went to Umrah a few yrs back and said that in Medina on the night of mir'aj, some people saw an illumination-replica(something like that) of the Mosque in the sky. JazahkAllah Khair |
| Re: Umra - the lesser pilgrimage |
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| Muhi03 |
| 02/21/01 at 02:37:19 |
| assalaamu alaikum during dec/jan-00-01 alhumdu lillah in ramadhan i was lucky enough to go on umrah. boy was it intense and fun... there were so many people a/L. and the brotherhood was awesome, just the feeling of being there PE@CE OUT masalaamz |
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