Madinah: Entry 3 October 21, 2011

It’s so easy to forget that one is in Madinah, a blessed land. Life has become so routine: living around salaah, and ibadah that one forgets that there is something such as work, washing, cooking, babies! The night-life is particularly striking, especially on Thursday nights, which marks the weekend over here.

The shops are open up until midnight, children are playing in the streets at that time and families with small babies are walking and doing their shopping. When do the people of Madinah sleep?!

I started shopping for those back home and realised just how stressful it can be- especially for someone who hates shopping! Here, shopping seems like a never-ending story. There are so many people that you want to buy something for-all those who have helped you along your journey to this place- and you want to buy the perfect gift. You want to buy something that will mean something to everyone, not just some scarf that was made all the way in China!

But, as usual I have buckled under the pressure of customary norms and so am out buying Sameeras for aunties and Itir for uncles. Rakams are a favourite too.

All this shopping and I haven’t even bought one thing for myself! On that note, I was so inspired yesterday by one of the Arab women who was giving us a naseeghah in English as we were waiting to get into the Rawdah.

She was saying that a woman is not supposed to dress in a flashy manner that will make men look at her. Woman are not supposed to wear perfume outside of their homes, and she quoted a hadith that the Prophet (PBUH) was reported to have said that a women who leaves her home wearing perfume is a fornicator, and he repeated it three times.

Thus I was inspired to not buy myself flashy abayas or scarves and I am being extra careful not to wear perfume out of the hotel room. I hope that I will be able to be strong enough to carry it through once back home. That, I suppose, is the biggest challenge- living back home the way you lived here, despite the test of modern society.

On a different note, I am extremely disappointed in myself. My level of spirituality has dropped rapidly since I first arrived here. Going to the Rawdah has become second-nature and such a common thing that I have begun to take it for granted. I am actually scheduling my time in the masjid so that I have time to shop! How could I let this happen in the city of the Prophet?

I was so saddened by this and then was reminded of a hadith when the companions of the Prophet complained to him (PBUH) that when they were with him their emaan was so strong, but when they went home to their families, it dropped. He (PBUH) then replied that there is a time for everything, including ibadah, family, sleep etc.

So with this in mind I ventured off to visit our beloved Rasul (PBUH) hoping for a lift in emaan.  SubhanAllah, it is like visiting him (PBUH) when he was alive! The mere presence of his kabr and the Rawdah opened up my heart again and it hit home- for the second time- that I was in Madinah tul Munawarah.

It is so important to actually stop what you are doing, breathe, take a long look around you and let the beauty of where you are at seep in. Otherwise it may all just be another day, in another city, living another way of life.

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