From The Eyes Of My Little Caliphs - The Spiritual Journey (Part 1)

Nabila: Mommy… I feel that Islam is the true religion. I can understand Islam more now.
Me: What make you say that?
Nabila: It is because there are so many people coming here to pray and everyone wants to do it without being forced to.

That was a part of my conversation with my daughter Nabila while we were performing Umrah recently. Four days in Mecca and four days in Madinah had been a tremendous journey for my family. This was not our first time here but the recent trip was more meaningful to Nabila and Hakeem as they are now can understand better the whole concept of the journey.

An “in-house training” was given to my children before the day. There were lots of Q&A sessions from them especially on the ritual part. Alhamdullilah they processed everything that was taught to them well. Though there aren't any Islamic classes at their school, with the lessons and books that we teach them at home, I am blessed that they learned very well.

We arrived at Jeddah in the afternoon and started performing our Umrah after the Asar prayer. As we were walking towards the Kaabah, I looked at Nabila and said “Look.. there is the Kaabah. You always see on TV or books and now it is in front of you” I could see her face was blooming, smiling and she just kept staring at the Kaabah. I held her hand tightly walking towards the Hajarul Aswad to start our Tawaf.

The Tawaf area was quite packed and crowded as it was weekend, Israk Mikraj day and some part of the area was under renovations too. The weather was quite hot and Nabila’s face was red and sweating. At that point I prayed to Allah to give the strength and patience to my children to continue finishing the Tawaf.  We then continued for our Sa’ie ritual and finish our Umrah just right after Maghrib prayer to start

When we were back at the hotel Nabila and Hakeem started shooting lots of questions of what were happening during the Umrah.

“Are you allowed to talk on the phone during tawaf as I know you can’t do that”

“Why do people drink during tawaf?”

“Why do people keep pushing you during tawaf and why do they sometimes being rough to each other”

“Why are there some people read their doa loudly as it was actually disturbing others”

….and more.. more questions..

I was actually pleased and blessed to hear those questions as it showed that they were actually interestingly look, learn and grasp the ritual and surrounding. I could actually see Nabila's face that sometimes almost crying and gave up when being squashed between crowds. I, Nabila and Nurul were already separated with Hubby and Hakeem during our third round of tawaf. Nabila was worried at first but I told her to just continued walking as I will be with her. I know that she was a bit shocked and didn't expect to see all of these.

Alhamdullilah after all the details explanations to all their curiosity, they were happy and looking forward for the next day to come.  I pray to Allah to always protect and bless my children.

Mecca: 6-10June 2013