29.07.2022

My birthday and our last night in Makkah, morning we’d leave for Madinah. It was also our last planned Umrah. You see, no matter how (non)pious the person is, once in Makkah, we all try to set a small target for number of tawafs and umrahs to do, number of qurans to finish, number of hours spent inside Haram. Our last umrah we had planned for the last night (also because what better way to celebrate birthday, if at all, right?) and we had already been to Masjid-e-Ayesha and were in ihraam since Isha, we read Isha at Masjid-e-Ayesha.

We attended a lecture in Makarem hotel.

We saw the changing of kaaba ka ghilaaf.

We did our last Umrah.

We spent the night at haram doing tawaaf and duas.

And we left around 8 o’clock, after tawaaf-e-wida, not because we were tired but because we had packing to do. For Madinah.

What a day! Allah ka shukr ki uss ne iss muqaddas shaher mein itne din qayam karne aur apne ghar ko itne roz dekhne ki taufeeq ataa ki. Subhan Allah!

NOTE: THIS IS A BACK-DATED POST, PUBLISHED AFTER COMING BACK TO INDIA.  

Shabana Mukhtar