Feedback From Saudi...

[Abu.Sakeena.Ahmad]

Bismillaah

Feedback from another Canadian

Ponder on the fact that there are tens of millions of muslims all over the world, how many get to make hajj and/or umrah?

Ponder over the limited number of salafees all over the world, how often do they get to unite? Even if just 4,6,7 or eight countries?

Now ponder over the barakah of making umrah and doing it with other salafee brothers and sisters… from the same community… what level of closeness has your friendship now reached? Now multiply that for each country that participated in this dawrah. I hope the picture is taking shape.

So umrah is finished and now we turn to encouraging each other with prayer in the masjid al-Haram, du’aa, dhikr and reading of the Qur’aan. What an environment to be in, with other salafee brothers and sisters, this really makes a HUGE difference. Staying in the masjid after fajr, reading Quran and making du’aa and dhikr until that 15mins after shurook so that you can make the extra ibaadah of salaatul Duhaa --- this was quite often the habit of many if not most of the brothers.

Then we moved from that city to that of the Madinah al-Munawwarah. On top of the favour of Allaah to have an opportunity to visit Madinah, we had the additional opportunity to take directly from one of our present day scholars – Shaykh ‘Ubayd al-Jaabiree, may Allaah preserve him. Likewise from the other shuyookh that participated. How many of us just read books by the ulemaa, listen to their lectures and so on but never get the opportunity to “see” them with our own eyes. Never mind to sit and benefit from them for several days in a row, in a program tailored specifically for you – the visitor.

By the mercy of Allaah the Five Pillars umrah organized by the brothers at SP is a serious venture that brings benefit, layer upon layer. There are so many angels one can describe as beneficial or key highlights --- from the umrah itself, to the knowledge disseminated from the shuyookh, to the countless encounters with brothers that produced those memorable moments.

On a personal note I was very pleased to meet our brothers Abu Yusuf Khalifah and Isa Underdue in a setting such as this one. I ask Allaah to put barakah in our sittings. Not to mention our elder and dear brother Taalib Abdullaah, I must say that I had never met him personally before and was more than happy to have met him and benefited from him in many ways. There were many other brothers that made this umrah a special type of gathering, many of whom were mentioned in the initial post. Some of the brothers at Umm al Qura and Medinah University took time off their schedules to visit us and facilitate different activities that also added to the special characteristics of this type of Umrah. May Allaah reward our brothers Abu Adam J. Finch and Saleem from PA for their continued efforts.

Having participated in last year’s umrah and this one I must thank the organizers for their tireless striving to make each year better than the one before, and a-hamdulillaah this year that was accomplished.

“Is there a reward for good other than good” –al-Quraan

Abu Sakeena