Alhumdu’lillah Saqib and I have recieved our passports and visas in our hands.  Our flight is leaving on Monday.  So this leaves us with just a few more days (4, I believe) to really get all our packing done.

This is difficult!  Lots of people have been giving us lots of advice–sometimes it is conflicting.  For example, I had an aunty tell me not to worry about shopping here, because as soon as I get to Mecca anything I need for the days of Hajj I can find there on my own.  Literally five minutes later, another aunty told me the exact opposite!  She said to make sure I buy and pack everything I want and need from here so that I don’t have to waste time looking through a gazillion shops in Mecca.

Packing for the days of Hajj is probably the most difficult part of all the packing itself.  I want to make sure I have everything that could possibly come in handy while I’m “roughing it” in Mina, but at the same not over burden myself with a ton of things I’ll have to carry around from Mina to Arafa to Muzdalifah. 

I’m also confused about what is the best thing to wear during the days of Hajj.  Initially I was told to wear skirts under my jilby’s so that going to a dirty bathroom would be less problematic.  But then I was informed of the dreaded chaffing… no details needed here.  Cotton pajama pants seem messy and kinda of shabby looking to me.  So yesterday I found myself at Sports Authority trying to find some pants that are made for intense physical activity.  I think I may have been swindled, but so be it. 

Packing for my body is one thing, packing for my heart is another.  I’m planning on taking Fortress of the Muslim and a pocket Qur’an.  A very sweet colleague of mine gave me a very very tiny janamaaz to pray on.  And another teacher gave me a tasbih, which I’ll probably use during Tawaf and Sa’i (it’s sunnah to make dhikr on the fingers, not on beads).  Is there anything else I should be taking?

Do any of you Hajj/Umrah veterans have any really good tips??  Please share!  I’ve got 4 days left to pack what you suggest

Insha’Allah my husband and I are planning on going for Hajj this year.  We’re leaving in a week from tomorrow (Nov. 16)   We decided back in July that we’d make the pilgrimmage this fall, and since then the we’ve slowly been trying to prepare.

One of the preparations people make before leaving for Hajj is to seek forgiveness from the people they may have wronged.  This isn’t necessarily an obligatory part of leaving for Hajj, but it’s one that those preparing to leave  like to take.  Hajj wasn’t always easy, and so when people would go, they left expecting the worst–death.  And if they were going to die, they wanted to tie up any loose strings–this included injustices done to others.

With that in mind, I’ve been apologizing to people for the past week or so.  It’s so… strange.  I don’t know how to start the conversation.  It’s kind of a random thing to mention to people.  My conversations usually go like this:

Me:  So… I’m leaving for Hajj.
Person:  Really? Wow!  Mubarak!  May Allah make it easy for you.
Me:  So… I wanted to apologize if I’ve ever done anything wrong to you, behind your back or to your face.  I’m really sorry…
Person:  (cutting me off) You?  Ayesha?  Please!  You’ve never done anything!
Me:  Er… are you sure?   I mean I could’ve said something behind your back that you wouldn’t have liked…
Person:  (cutting me off again) You?  Give me a break!  No way!  All is forgiven.

All of my conversations have gone this way.  I’ve yet to meet someone who has hesitated to think about the very real possibility that I’ve done something wrong to them.  And here’s the killer… a lot of the people I’m apologizing to, I’m doing this specifically because I know I DID do something wrong to them.  But I don’t know want to bring up past grievances, or throw a bad situation in their face, or bring to light something they didn’t know about.  That seems like it’d do more harm than good.

It’s actually really painful and embarassing to realize that the person I’m apologizing to has such a sweet idea of me in their head, and that they have no idea how mean or horrible I was to them when they weren’t around. It’s really starting to get to me.  I’m starting to feel like such a bad person.  I’m constantly thinking about all the times I’ve shared a “juicy” story (juicy because I was eating flesh, I imagine) or even listened in on one.  I’m having to track down people from middle school and high school to apologize to them.   It’s really a terrible trip down “memory” lane.

*sigh*  May Allah make it easy for the people to forgive me–even though I probably don’t deserve it

Ya Allah make my student caring and kind
Open his heart, and open his mind
Make her righteous, respectful and honest
And also pious, loving and modest

Make him appreciate the chance to come to school
And realize that knowledge is his greatest tool
To get what she wants in this life, and the next
And to be considered among the ummah’s best

Let him see the importance of knowledge
Not just as means to get into college
That it can empower him in this life
To help out his brethren living in strife

Show her that she can be a doctor and help save a life
And not just, instead, strive to be a doctor’s wife
Let her not measure her success on her number of purses
But instead the ability to lead a team of fifty nurses

Let his goal not be the best grade on a test
But that he studied and tried his best
Make her do homework and turn all of it in
And study every night with true discipline

Let him see that nothing is given withing out trying
And that cheating is the same thing as lying
Guide her to see that success only comes from You
And attaining Jannah is the only success that is true

Show my student that my goal is the same
To help increase the strength of their name
To make them the best students they can be,
Ya Allah, please answer my dua, ameen!

About a month ago my two parents-in-law left for India and to perform Umrah.  In their absence it’s just me, Saqib and Waasiq at home.  I’d basically been left in charge of cooking dinner everyday.  I got help from Saqib and Waasiq, but for the most part I was faced with the difficult task of answering “What’s for food?” every night.

Usually I don’t cook a lot of different things.  My standard rotation is lasagna or enchiladas, which are basically the same thing from different parts of the world.  Obviously I can’t cook those two dishes over and over again, so I’ve had to branch out a bit.  I think I’ve been rather adventurous, personally.  I’ve tried making dishes I never though I could, primarily desi food. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been feeling recently that getting that Ramadan feeling has been a little difficult for me.  I feel like my Ramadan “Power Hours” are very limited.  What are Ramadan Power Hours?  It’s the time between sunset and sunrise–the time when it really feels like Ramadan.  Why?  Because you break your fast with your family.  You pray maghrib together.  You share a meal.  Then you go to the masjid to pray tarawih in a large congregation.  You get to a hear beautiful recitation of the Qur’an for an hour.  Then you come home, try to read some more Qur’an on your own.  Wake up a little extra early before sahur to pray some tahajjud.  Eat sahur because it’s the sunnah of the Prophet sallalahu alayhi wasalaam.  Pray fajr at the masjid, and then it’s done.  Eight power hours have flown by.  That’s a lot of activity to cram into eight hours, especially if you consider that at a minimum you try to sleep for about four hours of that time.  That’s not a lot of time to feel Ramadan.  And also, try as I might to feel Ramadan during the day time, all I can feel is my hunger and tiredness.

I guess that’s the most important part about the last 10 days or Ramadan.  Really cutting back on the luxury of sleep and using the few eight Power Hours of night we’re given to truly feel Ramadan and worship Allah in the best possible ways.  Here are some of activities that are easy to do, that I like:

1)  Making extra dhikr at any free opportunity–really restrain yourself from useless talk (especially gossip).  Just saying something as simple as subhanAllah wa bihamdihi, subhanAllah al atheem is light on the tongue but heavy on the scales

2) Read Qur’an as a form of dhikr–recite it outloud and try to make your voice beautiful.  Then make sure to read the meaning to get the most benefit from the activity.

3)  Pray in the last third of the night–even if it’s just one set of two rakaah.  Take advantage of your sajjud and closeness to Allah by asking Him for ANYTHING for this life and the next.  Be honest with yourself and realize that He is truly the only One who can give any of us what we want, and more importantly, what we need.

4) Make du’aa for your parents–you and I both know they deserve it.

Allahumma a’inee ‘ala dhikrika, wa shukrika, wa husni ibadatik! (O Allah, help me remember You, expressing gratitude to You and worship You in the best manner, ameen.)