Monday, November 14, 2011

We completed Hajj!

Meet the new Haji and Hajah

Mecca 6:37 am Kuala Lumpur 11:37 am Monday Nov 14th, 2011

We completed our tawaf ifada and saei haji. Alhamdulillah. Allah fulfilled his calling and my 20 years of yearning.

We are now Haji and Hajah.

We still have few more days in Mekah to do whatever we need to do. The primary purpose of performing the Haj have been fulfilled.

Since last week, I have been missing Malaysia. It is strange. All my life, I've lived and travel abroad many times. Never have I missed Malaysia like this.

I love Mekah and Medinah. But perhaps, God has a mission for me back home.

I missed my family, my comrades, my friends, and Malaysians back home.

Mekah and Medinah are the holiest place in the world. Today I realised Malaysia is still the best place in the world to live.

The exchange rate maybe in our favour. But food, transport, medicine, etc are very expensive.

Oh yes ... I missed Malaysian food. Nothing really wrong with the food. I just can't consume and even smell the Maktab cafeteria food anymore. I've been taking only bread, dates and fruits.

I'm yearning for asam pedas, masak lemak, watery kacang panjang masak asam, ulam and sambal belacan, my mother's world greatest sambal ikan bilis, my mother-in-law's rendang Minang, nasi lemak Tanglin, Mee Curry at Uptown PJ, Cantonese Mee in Batu Caves, Loaves in Bangsar, .... and the list goes on.

Even nasi Arab in Hadramaut, Jalan Raja Laut and Safa, Jalan Jelatek taste better than any of the modified Arab food near Masjidil Haram or Masjid Nabawi.

What happened to the Arabs? Why are they taking lots of chicken? Where are their kambing dishes?

This must be another Arab conspiracy to deny the likes of me good food. It is a conspiracy against those with gout.

I missed peaceful, laid back, and orderly Malaysia. Unlike in Malaysia, embarrassing to say of Muslims, people here don't queue and are very impatient.

If they queue, they think product and services will be denied of them. So they have to rush and berebut.

They probably think that if they do not get it first, the Hajar Aswad, Hijar Ismail and Rawdah would disappear at their very eyes.

They say, some Malaysians, especially Malaysian Chinese mums, are kiasu. No ... they are hardly compared to the Asian sub-continentals.

After a month of heat, I missed the rain. The rain clears dust in the air and keep the atmosphere fresh and filled with negative ions. When I return, I wanna walk in the rain and sing Singing in the Rain.

For the rest of my stay in Mekah, I hope to do more umrah and tawaf. I hope I am up to it. The dhoby service can't handle the huge number of Ihram sent for cleaning.

I have about 10 juzu to go. Rather slow, but I hope to khatam here in Mekah and in Masjidil Haram.

Before leaving back, I need to visit the Saudi side of my extensive Malay-Javanese family. Insya Allah, I'll write about my grandmother's adik whose a Saudi citizen.

19 comments:

  1. Assalamualaikum Tuan Haji,

    You took the words out of my mouth word for word. Except for a few differing yearnings, I can vouch for all that you have stated here!

    I miss Malaysia and all my loved ones. As you said, Makkah al Mukarramah is the holiest spot on Earth for us Muslims. I have yet to step foot at Madinah ~ am scheduled to go there in the next 3 days but I miss home.

    I miss it terribly and just like you I feel the same anout our homeland.

    It may not be perfect ; what with all the always crying foul ingrates we have back home creating all kinds of unnecessary troubles.

    If I have my way, I'd love to group them all up and send them packing off to here or Timbuktu for them to get a taste of what they should?

    Insya Allah, by next Sunday, I'll be flying home to our beloved nation and my darling.

    May Allah accept our Hajj and make it Mabrur.

    Ameen.

    Best regards,

    Zainol Abideen @ Mahaguru58,
    Tabung Haji Makkah HQ,
    Abraj Al Janadiriyya,
    Makkah Al Mukarramah,
    Saudi Arabia

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous8:21 PM

    Alhamdulillah.... Tahniah, brother...

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  3. Alhamdulillah Tuan, once you are back, do take a few days rest before getting back to political action.

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  4. Pok Su

    Maybe I write less of politics, more of something else ... :)

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  5. Tahniah la Tuan Haji, balik nanti teman belanja tuan haji nak makan apa saja!

    Salam Tuan haji!

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  6. Anonymous9:49 PM

    Sdr Congratulations to you and your wife. Glad that you have achieved your 20 year ambition. Hope to see you soon.

    Regards

    wee choo keong

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  7. putra merdeka9:52 PM

    beriani gam ya hajj...
    tahniah dan selamat dalam perjalanan kembali nanti..

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  8. Anonymous10:19 PM

    Bro,
    Tahniah..and syukaran that you survived one piece the trial and tribulation of Arafah, Mudzalifah & Mina

    Pak Su Dollah Menguap

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  9. We miss ur political posting, too.

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  10. Tuan Haji Sebiji Bata Dalam Tembok Al-Toweli,

    Alhamdulillah. Congratulations. Your late father must be very proud of his first born. So must your former teachers and ustaz, especially the ones who taught the religious school you attended.

    God bless.

    Hey, I introduced the Uptown curry mee to you!

    You must come home soon. I'm dying for a good bowl too, plus the freshly friend chicken.

    I bet you must miss Nasi Kandar Yaseen as well. And of course The Loaf and the 'maksiat' place we often go after Jumaat and our bi-weekly meatballs-in-brown-sauce fix :)

    The Malaysian world of culinary and SOPO blogging awaits you.

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  11. Haji Lama12:47 AM

    You mean tawaf ifadah, don't you, pak haji. The typo is understandable. Pasal rindu sangat lah tu.

    Pasal makanan ni, cuba syorkan kpd. Tabung Haji supaya Jemaah beli kupon setakat yang mereka perlu. Kalau tidak, banyak pembaziran berlaku. And this is not in keeping with our religion's teachings.

    Portion untuk se orang boleh disher dengan keluarga atau kawan. Lagipun kita hendak juga makan makanan-makanan Turki, Lebanon, Pakistan, dll. A group of five can save a least a thousand ringgit thereby.

    Selamat balik ke Tanah Melayu, Pak Haji.

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  12. Sri Tribuana

    Will need one month to catch up with the political scene.

    Secondly, nak kena tunggu "setan" datang balik hehehe ...

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  13. House PK

    Let's go Ikan bakar and ulam next to Ipoh Stadium.

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  14. Tahniah Sahabat.

    Semoga kembara rohani saudara akan berpanjangan, diteruskan di Malaysia.

    Carilah rakan yang mahu mencari keredaan Allah SWT sekembalinya ke tanahair, bukan rakan yang tidak mahu mengejarnya.

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  15. Congratulation Haji dan Hajjah !

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  16. Syabas. Haji dan Hajjah !

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  17. Alhamdulillah Bro , get you to ' Mimpi Mour ' , the best of Asam Pedas delicacy in KL .

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  18. assalamualaikum tn hj 'voice' ;-) tahniah & syukur kerana dapat sempurnakan haji. selamat kembali ke tanahair. looking forward to the resumption of yr blog.

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  19. Tuan Haji... Salam n Selamat kembali ke tanahair... Sebulan? Lamanya nak warm-up. Yr readers bagi 1 minggu je

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