This morning I woke up, made wudhu and read Fajr with my eyes closed. Today was also the day that my Mamajee and aunty were leaving for home but all of us were k.o. when they left so goodbyes were said the night before.

Look, I’ll be honest. Everyone was very worried about us actually being on time for ziyaret. But once again, our crew was on time and yes, I was the last person down.

Shout out to my cousins for having Karak tea ready for me once I got down. We walked to the meeting point and boarded the bus. Ziyaret is always nice because you end up hearing South African accents the whole time.

Stop 1: Masjid Bukhari

Imaam Bukhari lived in Uzbekistan but when he came to madinah, he would reside in this area.

Stop 2: Masjid Abu Dar Ghifari

Abu DR Ghifari stayed here. It is also known as Masjid Shukr. Nabi ﷺ was here and made a long sajdah. The Shabah touched Nabi ﷺ to see if Nabi ﷺ was alive. When Nabi ﷺ came up from sajdah the sahabah asked Nabi ﷺ why Nabi ﷺ made such a long sajdah. Nabi ﷺ said Jibraeel A.S. came and said that Allah said when we send one Durood for Nabi ﷺ, Allah sends ten duroods on us. “

Amazing is the profile of my Nabi ﷺ

When I send salutations upon him

Blessings descend upon me

Stop 3: Masjid Ijaabah

Nabi ﷺ made three duaas for the ummah. Please don’t destroy them through plague, draught or disunity. The first two duaas were accepted.

Stop 4: Masjid Ghamama

This is the Masjid of the cloud. Nabi ﷺ made 3 Eid salaah here. Nabi ﷺ also performed Salaahtul Istisqaa here – it began to rain and there was a cloud over Nabi ﷺ’s head. Nabi ﷺ also performed janazah salaah in abstentia for Najashi, the King of Abyssinia.

Stop 5: Masjid Suqyah

Nabi ﷺ stopped here on the way to badr. Nabi ﷺ made duaa for Madinah. Nabi ﷺ said “Ibraheem (A.S.) made duaa for barakah in Makkah, I make dua for double barakah in Madinah.”

Ml gave a lot of small advices throughout the ziyaret. Ml told us to make this duaa: “Oh Allah grant us the world but take the love of the world out of our hearts.”

Stop 6: House of Fatima bint Hussain (R.A.)

We passed the house of Fatima bint Hussain (R.A.) the great-granddaughter of Nabi ﷺ, the granddaughter of Ali (R.A.) and Fatima (R.A.) and the daughter of Hussain (R.A.). She was known to be a very generous person.

Stop 7: Castle of Urwa bin Zuhajr

Urwa (R.A.) was told that his leg needed to be amputated. He refused anaesthesia and instead told them to read Qur’aan and this would be his anaesthesia.

Stop 8: Valley of Aqeeq

Nabi ﷺ made two rakaat here. It is a valley of Jannah and a valley of barakah.

Stop 8: Masjid al Jummah

Nabi ﷺ performed the first jummah here as he ﷺ entered into Madinah.

Stop 9: Mountain of Oor

Nabi ﷺ said “Madinah is between the mountains of Thoor (northern boundary) and Oor (southern boundary).”

Stop 10: Masjid Quba

Ml told us to make four intentions here when we read our two rakaah of salaah.

1. Tahiyyatul Masjid

2. Chast/duaa

3. Sunnah

4. Reward of umrah

Nabi ﷺ had a ring. It said Muhammedur Rasoolullah. It was used as a stamp. It was passed down to Abu Bakr R.A., Umar R.A. and Uthmaan R.A. Uthmaan R.A. was sitting by a well and the ring fell in. This well is in the Quba masjid area.

Stop 11: Valley of Budhaan

A sahabi was sick, Nabi ﷺ visited him. He used the sand from the valley and the sahabi was cured.

Stop 12: Garden of Salmaan Farsi

Stop 13: Well of Ghars

It is a well of Jannah. Nabi ﷺ’s ghusal was made with the water from this well.

Stop 14: Uhud

Nabi ﷺ said “Uhud is a mountain that loves us and we love it.”

In the Battle of Uhud, there was a few sahabiya who actually fought on the frontline. Nusaybah (R.A.) saw her own son be martyred in front of her. She didn’t even process it, she threw herself in front of Nabi ﷺ. Nabi ﷺ addressed her after the battle and said “when I looked in front you were there, when I looked to the right you were there”. She said please make duaa that I am with you in Jannah. Nabi ﷺ made duaa for her to be with him in Jannah.

The sahabah buried the 70 shuhadah in Uhud. But years later, there was floods and the bodies of the martyrs were coming up. The bodies were fresh and the blood was coming out. They reburied the sahabah.

3 sahabah are buried individually

1. Hamza (R.A.)

2. Musab bin Umair (R.A.)

3. Hanzalah (R.A.)

Stop 15: Masjid Bilaal ibn Riba

Bilaal (R.A.) had a house in this area. Eid salaah was made here.

Stop 16: Masjid Uthmaan ibn Affaan

One of the masjids of Eid.

Stop 17: Masjid Sheikain

Masjid of the two old people. Nabi ﷺ stopped here on the way to the battle of Uhud. The Muslim army was 1000 people at this point.

Stop 18: Masjid Mustawrah

They stopped on the way back from Uhud to rest.

Stop 19: Mount Uhud

Massive mountain. 300 meters high at the highest point. Nabi ﷺ said: “Uhud is a mountain that loves us and we love it.” Nabi ﷺ and the 3 khalifahs were on the mountain and it shook.

Masjid Hamza / Masjidus Shuhadah is also here.

Stop 20: Jurf

Dajjal will come to the foot of that mountain and be chased away. Nabi ﷺ said there will be seven entrances to madinah and there will be angels at every post and Dajjal won’t be able to enter

Stop 21: Well of Ruma

A Jew owned a well. He charged exorbitant prices. Nabi ﷺ said “whoever buys this well will get Jannah.” Uthmaan (R.A.) went to him and said “can I buy the well?” He said no. So Uthmaan (R.A.) said sell me a 50% share. He said okay. Uthmaan (R.A.) said okay one day your day and one day my day. On Uthmaan (R.A.)’s days, he didn’t charge for the water and the jew realised that no one was coming to buy the water. He decided to sell his share to Uthmaan (R.A.), some say for three times more than the first half and some say seven times more. Uthmaan (R.A.) gave the well in the path of Allah.

Stop 22: Masjid Qiblatain

The qiblah faced Masjid ul Aqsa. Nabi ﷺ used to hope that the qiblah would be changed. Within the first 16-18 months, Allah Ta’alah sent down that they should turn to face Masjid ul Haram. Nabi ﷺ was in Masjid ul Nabawi but everyone didn’t get the message. A sahabi went and told the ja’maah that the qiblah has changed and in their salaah, they changed direction.

Stop 23: Battle of Khandaq

The trenches were 7km long. Nabi ﷺ makes dua every day for twenty seven days. On a Wednesday after zohr, nabi ﷺ’s dua was accepted.

Stop 24: Masjid Fatah below. Nabi ﷺ made the duaa here.

Stop 25: Masjid of the flag

Stop 26: Saqeefah banu Sada

Abu Bakr R.A. was appointed Khalifah here.

After being gifted some Bardisi ice cream by Ml, we re-entered the haram area and walked back to our hotel where we were in time for lunch. Today’s lunch was an all time umrah favourite – Khari Kitchri and all its children. It was really good.

After lunch we walked around the haram area for a bit and then made our way back to the room for asr. After asr, we went to Taiba Centre and walked around for a bit before making our way back to the haram for maghrib.

The best part of life here is that your day revolves around salaah. What time are you having lunch? After zohr. When are we going shopping? After Esha. What time did you sleep? After Fajr. I absolutely love it.

I ended up catching the most beautiful sunset of shades of deep blue, purple and pink. Madinah sunsets constantly leave me in awe.

Between maghrib and Esha, we planned our supper. It was to be a feast from Zaitoon. I met the boys straight after Esha to place our order and honestly, everything was so good.

A few recommendations would be the butter chicken, lamb karahi and chicken pizza. Oh, and you have to get the watermelon juice.

After supper we took a walk to the Green Dome. It’s always great to just sit here and do your thing. I always people watch and it is incredible to just see everyone’s unique love for Nabi ﷺ.

Everyone who knows me knows that I hate missing out on bonding banter sessions. I get an extreme case of fomo. So no matter how tired I am, I end up chilling with whoever is in the lounge. Obviously this also ends up in late night snacks (we ended up having schwarmas from Karak Express which were really tasty).

Before you know it, it’s already time for Fajr. So we went down for salaah and then came straight up to sleep.

Step count: 19 598