Inshallah I am hoping to go on Umrah next month. I really cannot wait inshallah but the problem is what do i do now…how do i prepare? What do i need to do? What do i need to buy in terms of ihram? Does a woman need to wear black all the time considering the hot weather or can she wear white as well?
What do i read? Does anyone know of any website which gives you alot of information on what you should do and not etc…
And if anyone has been on umrah lately, please share your experience…would love to hear it…
Abay uloo…noooo!!! I know why u r congratulating me but i have thought about this real hard and there is a risk of infection if i went during pregnancy so we have decided to to take this beautiful journey now!
For ihram - no you dont have to wear black. In will be very hot, so black will make it more difficult, especially if you are not used to normally wearing hijab/abaya. You can wear white or other light colors, like beige, light blue, light green etc. It will make it more bearable for you. If you dont want to wear an abaya, you can wear a skirt and a shirt, or even a long shirt to the knees and wide loose pants (like desi style even). Get flowy material that your skin can breathe it
To prepare, you should study and understand as much of the fiqh of umrah as possible, so you know what you are doing, why you are doing it, what you should not do, what to do in case you make a mistake etc. Check with your umrah group, usually they organize like workshops or something to teach this stuff
Try to get hotels as close to the Haram as possible as it will be easier for you and encourage you to spend as much time as possible at the Haram
When learning and preparing, make sure you check with a respected scholar if you have questions. People have alot of information to share always and you want to make sure you are getting the correct information
Come early to prayers and stay late. Spend as much time in the Haram praying as possible
Designate a meeting place for you and your husband in case you get lost or seperated
Bring a small bag to put your shoes in for when you enter the Haram
Bring sunglasses and a hat
Bring anti-bacterial hand lotion and wipes and use them often
Bring your medicine bag, like for pain relief, diarhea, nausea, cough drops etc
Get a money pouch that you can wear under your clothes and dont keep all your money in place or on one person
E-mail yourself a scanned copy of your passport just in case
Keep your hotel card on you at all times
Pay off any debts before leaving and ask forgiveness from your family and friends for anything you might have done
Drink lots of zamzam and water and becareful of what you eat. Its easy to get sick and weak there and if you do, your experience will not be what you want it to be. Make sure you always ask for no ice if you buy soft drinks or juice from restaurants
You will see alot of beggers and they will break your heart. So many little children with limbs missing. Its sad but the truth is they are working for professional beggers and giving them money doesnt help them. Give money to the cleaners at the Haram instead, they will never ask for it but will truly appreciate it
Will try to post more later. Please remember me in your prayers when you are there if this helps you in any way
Oh midnighteyes, thats so nice of you...im ever so grateful for that. Thank you so much.
I dont think we will be going with a group as my husband and MIL have been already mashallah and it will be my first time so that is why i wont to do everything properly, say the right things at the right time. You never know what could happen there or it might be my first and last time to go this place...
I really cannot wait to be close Allah(swt)...its gonna be totally humbling!
Lucky you for being blessed with the opportunity. May Allah SWT make this journey easy, and may it be fruitful for your Iman, Ameen.
Here are a few tips I found useful for when I last went… we did ours in June/July too so I know how hot it gets (like 38 degrees celcius at Isha!)
Make sure you remember as many duas as you can off by heart (with translation). Its good to invest in one of those palm size dua books as its hard to remember all duas.
You will need to get a book that tells you where to start the umrah (there is a line drawn on the floor), and particularly what to read when going around one side of the kaaba.
DO NOT let got of your husband’s hands at any time… its easy to get lost. However, have a plan ready where, in the situation that you do get parted (like for Namaz), you’d meet at a particlur spot.
Like MN said wrap your shoes in a plastic bag and place it high on the shoe shelves, its less likely to get taken away… if it does, you could always buy a chappal for 5 riyals :cb:
I wore one of those long scarfs that almost come down to your knee, and wore a skirt underneath with a light cotton top inside… this way my clothing was airy but decent.
drink as much zamzam as you can (dont worry about needing to run to the toilet coz u just dont)
pray as much as you can within the semicircle next to the kaaba (i’m forgetting its name ) as praying inside it is like praying inside the kaaba.
for touching the Black stone, find the opportunity when a large number of sisters are accumilating and join in… but you WILL get squashed and it is possible that your ribs will hurt afterwards, but the feeling one gets touching the stone is so worth it!
in between salat times, find an opportunity to pray really close to the kaaba, i dont know why but I really enjoyed the fact that when doing sajda, my head was less then a feet from its wall.
we stayed at the kaaba for a whole night once, the atmosphere was beautiful just sitting there are staring at the kaaba is such a blessing!
Pray, do dua as much as you possibly can. Pray for yourself, your family, pray for the ummah as we are in such a sad state right now. Pray for those suffering from disease, for those who are in need of marriage, of work, of offsprings.
try and join in for the funeral prayers (there was usually one after every Salat)
oh, and as MN mentioned, dont forget the workers if you do need to give sadaqa (most of them are from the subcontinent but they work with so much dedication)
aggar aur kuch yaad aaya then i’ll add inshAllah.
oh, and you do not need to cut huge amounts of hair everytime you complete an umrah! just get a thin “latt”, wrap it around your fingers and chop it off.
oh, and if you are going to stay in Macca for a while then perhaps you might want to do umrah on behalf of family members who are no longer in this world and never got a chance to do umrah, or you could do it for Sahaba… I heard we can do it for the Prophet SAW as well, but I’m not sure.
aur haaN! sunglasses, teh type that really attenuate the glare will be needed, you cannot step out onto the kaaba in the middle of the day without 'em coz the ground is just too white!
Ya Pinks mentioned funeral prayer -if you dont know how to offer it, it would be good to learn before going, because you will most likely be offering a janazah after every prayer
Just something I wanted to mention about doing things like touching the Black Stone, praying directly behind Maqam-e-Ibrahim, praying inside the arc etc. Remember that these things are very good, but not obligatory. What IS obligatory is safeguarding your fellow Muslims. I think this is something many people forget when they go to these places. They get so overwhelmed with everything and caught up in the intensity of the moment, that they think its ok to be pushing and shoving other Muslims (often even elderly people) and thus harming them in their quest to do these things. I really wanted to touch the Black Stone and pray in the arc but when I saw how everyone was acting to do these things I realized that whatever benefit would come from doing this, it would be overshadowed by the harm I would have to cause (intentionally and even unintentionally) in order to do them, and so I let the chance pass me by. Im not saying dont try to do these things or that people who do do them dont care about others, all Im saying if you do want to do it look for the best times and be very careful and patient, go when the crowd is the very lightest so there is the least chance of harming others
In Madinah, if you want to visit the Rawdah, check with the guards what are the special times they open it for women. I think its after Fajr until maybe 7am and then in the afternoon until maybe 2pm and maybe even in the evenings sometimes. But check with the door guards. They will seperate all the women into groups, if they made a UK/USA/Canada/any English country group stick with that because they will not be as wild as the other groups, if they dont have that group, go with the Pakistani group. Again here, as I mentioned above, you will see women acting in manners they would not otherwise act, due to their excitement and yearning to enter this holy place. So be careful and try not to get squashed. Also anytime you enter Masjid an Nabwi, the guards will check your bag. If they see a camera or a shopping bag with things you bought from the store, they will not let you in. I was very sad the first time I came and I had a bag with some hijabs inside my purse and they did not let me enter and I didnt even have a janemaz and I had to pray outside on the floor. So its good to also carry a janemaz with you (also handy in case you come to prayer too late and have to pray outside)
If you are driving between Mecca and Madinah, you will most likely at some point have to go to the bathroom! Im sorry to say but they will not be easy to use or even easy to breathe in! Keep some soap and toilet paper on you, as it will not be available there. If you are as sensitive to odours as I am, you might want to keep a small air freshner with you (or even Detol!! we had to use that once otherwise we would not have been able to make wudu there!!)
Any females out there who have been on Umrah & Hajj?
My aunty is going for her 1st Umrah on 27th March for two weeks this year, however wanted to know
which medication she'll need to take incase she starts her periods there?
Need be pure at all times inorder to perform Umrah, wanted some advice.
whats the name of that medication and how often should one take it?
i have googled it, but havent come across a proper post that can answer my questions.
Would Really appreciate it if anyone can help. Thanx
**“I am present, O Allah, I am present, there is no partner unto You. I am present. Definitely praise and glory is yours (for You). The Kingdom is also Yours. There is no partner for You”.
(Mishkat)
Prophet Mohammad (S.A.W.) said that if a Muslim recites the talbiya, then the east and the west, his right and left, every tree and cloud on the earth will recite the talbiya.
(Tirmidhi)
Note:
On completing Talbiya, make dua to Allah for His pleasure, for Jannah and freedom from Jahannam.
) as praying inside it is like praying inside the kaaba.
just sitting there are staring at the kaaba is such a blessing!
