Yogurt and hot bread - the best of times

Shaykh Jamal Zahabi, Shaykh Hamza Yusuf and the Rihla participants climb Mount Uhud, of which our Beloved Prophet (saw) said, “Uhud is a mountain that we love and it loves us.” © Farhan Syed. Please do not re-use without permission and proper credit.

Each moment of the Rihla has imprinted in my mind the fondest of deep memories. Each of these memories will take at least a lifetime to recount. When my friends and family ask me the generic question, “How was it?”, how do I explain my inability to summarise the multitude of feelings and lessons that I have felt and learnt in the past month?

Amongst the dearest of times was the second trip to “Masjids and Wells”. Our relatively smaller group of the day was led by Shaykh Hamza and Shaykh Abdullah and we began as Masjid Istijaba. What followed for the remaining of the morning were visitations to twelve different significant locations in the life of our noble Nabi (صلي الله عليه و سلم).

Amongst other places, we saw sites of wahi (revelation), we prayed in the Masjid of Banu Unaif upon the hot sand, we were greeted by a group of children at Masjid Bani Haram and were told there resided in close proximity an elder woman who was a faqih in the Maliki tradition and knew all 7 qirat (recitations) of the Holy Qur’an.

We also climbed Jabl Uhud, of which our Beloved (صلي الله عليه و سلم) said “Uhud is a mountain that we love and it loves us”.

Before returning to the hotel, we were taken by Shaykh Mahir Ali to the house of his late Shaykh Muhammad Zakarriya (rahimullah) and were served yogurt and hot bread. In the serenity of his noble abode we enjoyed one another’s company, cooled down from the heat of the afternoon, and listened to Shaykh Hamza and Shaykh Jamal sing qasidahs.

We then returned to Dallah Taiba Hotel and prepared for prayer in the Masjid of our Messenger(صلي الله عليه و سلم).

SubhanAllah, how can we ever complain about anything?

Anonymous