Present Of A Golden Moment In The Present Praying For Another Golden Moment One Day In The Future. I arrived at the Holy #Kaaba in #Mecca at the perfect time. It was just before dawn, on the first Friday of the #Hajj season when you cannot get a visa to go for #Umrah. But without my lifting a finger, #God arranged for permissions from the top person in government, have a flight despite the maximum rush and weekend, and a hotel at the doorsteps of the grand mosque, even without asking. After the ride from Jeddah Airport to the holy city of Makkah, I checked in and left my small bag of a change of clothes for my return trip in the hotel room. I walked straight out onto the courtyard, walked a few steps and, with beating heart and bated breath, stepped into the grand mosque.
On another day I will tell the story of the feelings, the thoughts, the hurricane of emotions that went through me as I caught my first glimpse of the Holy Kaaba. This picture was taken later, before I started my Umrah, but after I had been blessed to say the first of five prayers I was able to perform next to the House of God.
You can see the dark blue sky above the top left edge as the early dawn light was breaking through the black night. But the sight in front of me was even more magnificent. The elaborately embroidered cover of the otherwise very humble structure that is the Ka’aba itself, the Golden door glittering in the lights before the golden sunrise light would shine on it.
My thoughts though were not on Gold but on God.
Though I am not a great practising #Muslim and love the finer experieces in life, I am not into jewels and precious metals. I do not wear any jewelry like a bracelet, or ring or neck chain, because the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) frowned upon men wearing those.
At that moment, what my whole mind, body and soul were trembling focused on were my prayers that the Almighty God open the doors to heaven for both my late grandfathers that I never met, both my late grandmothers whom I was blessed to know as a child and much later, for my beloved incredible parents better than whom I am yet to meet any two people in the world.
I prayed for the souls of departed relatives, friends and people who had been good to my parents in their journey through life. I prayed for God to bless my siblings and other living family members, present and future, and those who I may not even have been able to get to know yet, praying for them to have healthy, happy, long, blessed lives. I prayed for good human beings of any nation and religion who were gone but who had been good to other human beings. I prayed for dear friends and others so they would not suffer and recover their healths and happiness.
I prayed for those people alive today who spread love and kindness, joy and happiness, around the world no matter who they are or what nation or religion or race they are. I prayed for the doors to God’s blessings to open upon us all.
And, more than anything, I prayed that when it was my time to go submit my soul in front of the Almighty, may some even small deed or word of mine be enough for God to order the doors of Heaven to crack open just enough for me to reach in and touch my parents hands and faces one more time. Amen.
Imran
IMRAN WP1020_20140829_05_41_28_Pro__highres
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