Off to visit my prophet

Last Friday was a busy day for me, and that's cause we decided to take a plane and head off to Madinah for the day. And for those who don't know, "Madinah" OR "Almadinah Almenawara" is a city in West Saudi Arabia where prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him) lived after he immigrated from Makkah. There is a mosque there in his name, and also he is buried there next to his 2 friends and companions "Abo Bakr Al-Sedeek" and "Omar Bin Al-Khattab". So us Muslims like from time to time to go and visit him and pray in his mosque, its not obligatory by the way as many may think.

Anyway, we took the morning flight, and as usual with Saudia Airlines, the flight was delayed 50 minutes! It seems that they were shopping for a plane, cause as soon as we boarded we kinda noticed the crew look weird... They are white, speak a strange language, and have Western looks. What made me realize whats goin on is that the signs and everything else was written in a weird language in addition to English, this is an aircraft rented from Turkish Airlines!

After the short 45 minute flight, we were hit by the cold weather of Madinah. It must have been 20 C and we are still 12 PM! We headed to the mosque barely in time for Friday prayers and spent the rest of the day in Madinah to attend the rest of the prayers.

I was happy that we chose to spend this time in prayer, sorry I cant say the same for other Muslims who couldn't wait to run outside the country to Egypt, Dubai, Lebanon, and Europe, even though these 10 days of this Hijri month are very holy and sacred, and a Muslim is better off trying to worship Allah more and try to erase his sins. I felt sorry that I left Jeddah for Dubai for the last day of Ramadan... I mean we get 20 days in the whole year that are VERY sacred, cant you wait to get out of the country?? Lots of Muslim WISH to be leaving in Saudi Arabia because it has Makkah and Madina, and also because of the strict Islam rulings here and that there is no alcohol, prostitution, crime, etc. Nah, leave all that and let's hit good old Italy, pick up girls in Cairo, or roam the night clubs of Beirut... God save us...

Now even though its prohibited to photograph at the Prophet's grave, I managed to sneak behind someone and take this video below. Not many have seen this spot, (so excuse the quality cause I was hiding behind someone) . Not for security reasons, but because you are supposed to stand there to visit prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him) only. But I felt obliged to show this to the world, especially people who are interested in Islam, and even the people who attack us without taking the time to know more about us and our religion... Mohamed is buried behind these gates...

What really made me upset, is that the boys and girls were not acting at all that they are going to pray and worship. Girls are wearing full make up, flashy clothes, and accepting flirts from various boys scattered around *gasp* the outer gates of the mosque! What's wrong with this world? Are you coming to visit your prophet and erase some sins, or coming to build some more and pick up girls or get picked up by guys??

We took the 11 PM flight and headed back to hot and humid Jeddah. I tried not to laugh as I boarded the plane, it was so freakin small! I felt I was in a shooting of a film and this is a trick plane or somethin! The roof was so low and there were only two rows of chairs, with only 4 chairs in each row. Here have a look:

So that wraps it up I guess... Now if you excuse me, I am very tired... Happy Eid and happy new year everyone...