We left home at 7.30 am for Basra in Iraq
Airways.
And as usual, everything was quite hectic!
We reached the airport on time Alhamdulillah and everyone else was already there
checking in their baggage. We are checking in our stuff too anyways there were
still a few ID cards to give out so daddy told me to go give them out …
5:30 am- its Fajr time now and everyone has started doing their namaz in a tiny
prayer room. It isn’t even big enough for everyone so everyone took turns to
pray
5:45 am – Naturally, being myself, I felt like
having coffee so I went and got one and naturally, Sana, being herself
was feeling hungry so she got a chocolate bagel so I enjoyed my coffee and Sana
enjoyed her chocolate bagel!
7:00 am – We boarded the flight and sat and
waited – eagerly.
9.25 am- we landed in Basra! But gosh, what a quiet airport… looks like we are
the only ones here! And its quite cold here. Brrrrr. I need to take out my
jacket from the trolley bag!
10.05 am- we are still at the airport my God what
a feeling… I wish they had beds here…..
Ewwwww I just saw a lizard behind my bag! :O Oh wait, it’s a mouse. A cute
white mouse just running around …
11.35 am- still here at the airport everyone is
so patient MashaAllah. These 3 guys killed that cute white mouse.
12.15 pm- we’re in the bus now heading towards
Najaf… This trip instead of first Kerbala and then Najaf, we decided to go to
Najaf first then Kerbala. Anyway it’s a 10 hour journey wow!!.
12:36 pm- at last the bus started. Theres like 2
buses, 42 people in one bus (no. 6) and 47 people (no. 7) in the other! Wow
12:40 pm- Here we are at a checkpoint (one of a
hundred others), saw a few American soldiers. Oh gosh they are wearing their
Christmas hats, my isn’t that weird? Lol It would be weirder though if they sang
Christmas carols whenever a bus passed by hehe. Its 12:45 pm we just left the
checkpoint.
3:40 pm- you know what? The diesel of bus no. 7
just ran out so both the buses had to stop and wait at a checkpoint. A few
people got off to pray Zohr and Asr because the time would finish soon … but it
was too cold to do wudhu and it was harder for ladies specially, with their
hijab and everything. More people started getting off the bus but then these
security people sent everyone back inside because it wasn’t safe so we prayed in
the bus and even had our dinner heading toward Najaf. Let us hope that we reach
soon InshaAllah!
6.40 pm- we have entered a small town (not far
for Najaf) called Diwaniya. its quite dark but what a beautiful site. I looked
up at the sky and omg I had never seen so many stars in my life wow SubhanAllah.
Well we saw a mosque- a shrine rather, of an Imamzadeh we are going to pray
Maghrib and Isha there. Aw man, its hecker cold and the lights just went out
7.30pm- we left the shrine and climbed into the bus. Well estimated time is like 1 hr 30 mins. lets see but the experience is quite special until now!!!
9.00 pm- we are at the hotel (Durr Al Najaf)
9.38 pm- dinner was served while our rooms were
getting allotted. We couldn’t go to the Harum e Imam Ali (AS) though cause it
closes at 9:00. So close yet so far *sigh*. Let us see what is tomorrow’s plan….
7.30 am- took ghusl, had breakfast. I never wake
up so early but we have to be on time eh?
9:00 am- We left the hotel and now we are heading to the Haram Of Imam Ali (AS).
Finally! We had tried taking permission for the group to meet Ayatollah Seestani
but only 10 people got permission and that too men, so we had 5 men from each
bus to go meet him.
Khair everyone else went to the haram. We were
asked to gather in the sehen by 1:30 so we prayed zohrein namaz after that we
had majlis. And then somebody noticed that one of our ladies was missing, She
was an Iranian lady who had come with us- Shamsa and everyone called her Shamsa
Khanum! So my mum sent me back inside to go get her. I ran back in and searched
for her everywhere, I even asked a khuddami for help and soon everyone in the
Haram was looking for a particular ‘Shamsa Khanum’. MashaAllah. Later, Tahera
Baji and Sabika came looking for her. We went back outside and there she was
standing with her bulging shopping bag with the rest of the group. Phew!
2:00 pm- from there we went to maqam-e-Mola Ali
where one of his sahaba is buried. His name is Safi Safa Al Yamani. We went
walking all the way doing matam and reciting nauhas. We had Meer Hasan with us
this time to recite nauhas so we had nuff azadari Alhamdulillah!
2:30- Came to the hotel had our lunch and left
straight away
3.15pm- We went for Atraaf Ziyaraat. First to
the Shrine Of Kumayl Ibn Ziyad where we normally recite Dua E Kumayl but we had
very less time. I even visited the grave of Sheikh Waili which is in the sehen.
He was a very influential Moulana.. And I had seen his majlises a lot on Al
Anwar
After that we went to Masjid e Hannana. It’s a mosque where Imam Hussains head
was placed for a while and its given the name Hannana (which means wailing lady)
because before whoever visited the mosque could hear the voice of a lady
wailing. This mosques minarets had also bent down when Imam Ali’s (AS) Janaza
passed by. So we did Ziyarat and daddy recited the nauha ‘Pohoncha Hussein ka
sare Anwar kahaan kahaan’ and Mir Hasan recited ‘Útho Hussain Tumhey Kerbala
Bulati Hai’.
Then we went to Masjid E Sehla which is sort of
far so we reached exactly Maghrib time when the Azan was given so we recited our
magribain prayers then came to the entrance there the matawalli recited duas for
us. There are overall 7 >musalas there we recited namaz on each those namely.
>musala Imam jafer sadiq
>musala janab khizar
>musala janab adrees
>musala ambiya wa suwlaeen
>musala Imam zinul abeden
>musala janab ibrahim
>and makam imam zamana where we recited Dua E Tawassul as well.
All these maqams had short duas as well which we
recited. All of these maqams were outside in the sehen of the mosque and the
weather was colder than usual Brrrr.
First we went to Imam Ali’s house where I first went to the library of Imam Hassan and Imam Husain (AS) and they have made bedrooms for everyone there but according to the Molana the rooms are not exactly the same rooms but they have just specified that this area belonged to Imam Ali or to Imam Hasan and his family. We took water from the well inside their house and I even drank some and washed my face with it then we saw the place where Imam Ali was given ghusl and kafan. After a while, everyone gathered in the ‘family room’ of the house and we had a short majlis. You know when you’re leaving the house, Masjid e Kufa is like right next to it.. not even a 5 minute walk.
So anyways From there we walked towards Masjid E
Kufa and we recited Namaze Zohrein there, all four rakáats! Inside the very
mosque where Ibn Muljim La3natullah had killed Imam Ali (AS). Then we performed
the amaals there
After prayers we went to various mussalas, maqams and offered prayers there.
Those included
Musalla e Imam Ali (AS)
Musalla of Prophet Nuh (AS)
Musalla of Imam Ja’ffer Al Sadiq (AS)
Musallah e Prophet Ibrahim (AS)
Kazae Umree – where Imam Ali (AS) usually made his decisions or judgments
Maqame e Janabe Jibraeel
Maqame Imam Sajjad (AS)
Then we had a majlis inside the actual masjid and each of us prayed two rakaáts
in the mehrab (Maqam e Zarbat Imam Ali (AS))
Then we went to the shrine of Muslim Bin Aqeel and in the same room but
different Zari Hazrat Mukhtar Al Thaqafi is buried but its dome was getting
constructed so they didn’t let us go but I sneaked in through the curtains heh…
then someone saw me and so many other people started coming but the khuddams
stoped everyone but we still asked them politely and took permission and they
let us go…
Just opposite is teh shrine of Hani Ibn Urwa,
Then later on we went to Bibi Khadija- daughter of Imam Ali which is opposite
the main entrance of Masjid E Kufa
approx it took us 7 hrs came back to the hotel
had our lunch, rested and prayed maghrib namaz and left for Imam Imam Ali’s
Haram and on our way we visited a Marja- Shaikh Basheer Hussain Al-Najafi It was
dark and tight security was there as last night a person was shot near Imam
Ali’s Harum. So first the men were checked and then the ladies, all of the 92
people checked … it took SO long and I was third last to be checked and man was
it cold outside!!! This Marja’ was the first Asian Marja and MashaAllah the
meeting with him went well and it is very helpful when you have a marja’ present
who can talk in your language. We left at about nine.
Finally we went to harum offered prayers and
stayed there till the Haram closed because we were leaving the next morning and
wanted to stay as long as we could and then came outside after everybody had
left and we went walking back to our buses reciting qasidas and nauhas and doing
matam MashaAllah and my God it was freezing so windy that it was making so much
noise and there were things flying here and there and it was pretty scary too
cause it was all quiet and there was a curfew. We left at approx 12.30am from
there. Oh I forgot something its said that on your way to ziyarat if you are
blessed with rainfall it means your ziyarat is accepted so it was drizzling so
Ziyarat Qubool InshAllah!
Heading towards Karbala it’s like 9.13am and we
were told to be ready by 9.00am 10.14am- We’re in the bus now, Heh not bad huh?
Just an hour and 13 minutes MashaAllah Anyways it’s a 2-3 hour journey to
Kerbala. Will be there soon InshaAllah!!11.40am- So bus no 7 just suddenly
stopped in the way and it figures that they need a spare part so our bus had to
go to someplace and get a spare part for them which took like half an hour or
so. Now they are working on it you know what luckily there was a musaafir khaana
near by so we recited namaz while they were fixing the bus and guess what
happened Dr.Ehsan made an announcement that he has 1 good news and 1 bad news.
Bad news was that our hotel in Kerbala had been taken by the Iranains and
Good news was obviously that we are going back to Najaf.
So we decided to pay our respects to Janab-e-Oun and Janab Hur on our way back
to Najaf.
2.45 pm- and we r at Hazrat Oun
And its approx 3.40 pm here and we are at Janab-e-Huur now going back to Dure
najaf our hotel hey guess what happened
5.00pm we are still in karbala and the tire of bus no. 7 got punctured now we
just have to wait and watch hehe. It didn’t take very long …
7.00 pm- The other bus had gotten left behind. It was stopped at a checkpoint
and asked for their passports!! So all the passports were in our bus with Raza
Uncle so we turned back and waited till their passports were checked and
continued on our way … Mashallah see the cops are going to escort us now all the
way to Najaf and by the way its curfew here well. Daddy left with the cops lets
see *sigh*
Alhamdullillah we came to the hotel safely and
had our dinner later on went to Harum. So we got there and we met Syed Aqil at
the checking and he said that tonight, we would get a chance to clean the zari
of Imam Ali (AS) with special permission and all. So anyways the Haram would be
open all night because it was Thursday and at about 11:30, me and Sana went
outside to check what was up and when we would get the cloth for wiping and the
soap also. It was SO cold outside brrr … So anyways when we asked Munir Uncle he
told us to come back in 10 minutes so after 10 minutes he said that they were
still going through the list and asked to go count how many ladies there were.
We went back outside and waited and waited then one of the men at the shoes
counter asked who we were looking for so we said ‘Munir’ and all the people
around nodded in unison and going ‘aaahhh Munir’ lol he always makes friends
with these people so one of them went to get him and while we waited we saw a
small room in the mens sehen area and we asked him what it was so he said
Ayatollah Khomeini used to come and offer namaaz in that room so we went and did
ziyarat of that room and prayed a two rakát namaaz. When we came out he told us
that he had already sent in some cloth and soap … and he told us to give
instructions to the ladies that:
The soap given was only for the walls and doors and that
Do NOT use the soap at all for the zari …
So anyways the cloth was less and we were sent
back outside to get some more … So once again we had to go outside and send
someone to get Munir Uncle. This time we sent in a random Maulana we met at the
mens entrance lol.
We still hadn’t done even a little bit of work inside while the ladies had
almost finished cleaning half the room, they were doing vacuum, arranging the
dua books, cleaning the zari and the doors, picking up garbage, sweeping the
floor and we hadn’t done nothing.
So finally Munir Uncle came out and he got us some more cloth… which me and Sana gave out and kept two for ourselves. Then we also started cleaning up the place and soon it was spick n span! Alhamdulillah, we had gotten such a wonderful job to do that night! Who would imagine? A chance to clean the zari of Imam Ali *sigh* After that we had a wonderful majlis and spent the whole time cleaning the place. What a wonderful way to spend our last night in Najaf!! We left the zari at 1:30 doing matam and reciting nauhas and qasida’s till we reached the bus …
We reached the hotel at about 2:30 packed our bags all ready for tommorrow as we have to travel early in the morning for Karbala
We had to leave at 7am as per the instructions
given by Daddy
9.55 am- we are now in Karbala we have to walk towards the hotel as the buses
are not allowed
11.22 am- and we are here waiting for the rooms in their restaurant the hotel is
in the alley right next to Maqam-e-Shair-E-Fizza. On our way we saw Imam
Hussein’s Harum and Tillle Zainabiya. Our hotel is closer to Hazrat Abbas’s Roza
then Imam Hussain (AS) We got our rooms now its 12:30 pm. Not bad eh?
We went up changed and here we are ready to leave for Harum I am so excited but
the excitement was different for the zairs who had come the first time, we went
down and as usual the other zawars were late so we kind of left late.
First we went to Hazrat Abbas’s harum recited ziyarat and prayed namaz there
went inside harum for ziyarat and then we had a small majlis from there we
headed towards Imam Hussein. Both the harams are nearby. Everyone was reciting a
‘group’ ziyarat in the sehen but I couldn’t hear properly and anyways, I was
getting impatient so I told mummy and went inside. I grabbed one of those small
books and recited all the ziyarats all by myself. Alone.
I went inside and did ziyarat, kissed the zari
but for some reason my eyes stayed dry L but I started feeling very weird… its
like the tears wanted to come out but they couldnt or something.
Kahir jee came to hotel had lunch at 5.00pm- prayed. After lunch, we rested for
a while then went to Haram E Imam Hussain (AS) for Maghrib namaz stayed for a
while… before I hadn’t done the ziarat of the QatlGah and Imamzadeh Ibrahim
Mujab. Altogether in the haram:
-The grave of Imam Hussain (AS) in which Hz. Ali Asgher is on his chest and Hz.
Ali Akber by his feet.
-The Gunj E Shuhadaa’
- QatlGah
- The grave of Imamzadeh Ibrahim Mujab
9.00-we will beleaving for atraf ziyarat
inshallah well its 8.13 and we’re the resturant having beakfast. Well the atraf
ziyarat would include:
- tilaee zinabiya
- khaima ghah
We did these two in the morning
Oh well,today is Árafah and Saddam was hanged today, w00t. Its pretty tense in
Basra though… there ‘ve been 2 bomb blasts already.
After these Ziyarats we came to the hotel. And had to leave immediately after
freshening up and doing wudhu.
Then we went to Bain Al Haramain and started our amaal there but there was too
much wind so we couldn’t listen to whoever was leadin the amaal as security
didn’t allow us to take the loudspeakers inside.
after tht went inside Mola Abbas sehan and did arafat amaal. All the lil kids
recited few suras mashallah. Mikaeel, Askari and another boy
Came back to the hotel had lunch, rested for a
while then me and mummy went to the Haram and came back quite early. Just prayed
and came back. And came back and me and Sana just lazed off on the sofa outside…
Then went downstairs to the reception area. The whole lot of us girls -(Me, Sana,
the other Sana, Sadika, Sabireen and Sakina)- were just sitting and talking.
After a while, Munir Uncle came in and these people wanted to buy Aqeeq rings so
we went shopping and a whole lot of other people joined us as well. Munir Uncle
bought me and Sana Feroza rings as Eidi
How nice of him eee. We
have the same rings now. The others wanted to do a lot more shopping but Me,
Sana, Asma Behn and Sukaina Aunty left and went back to the hotel. Me and Sana
went around showing off our rings to everyone lol. Had dinner then off to bed
the story contiues…
Tomorrow’s Eid. Lets see how the day goes.
Today is Eid and I decided to wear my bright pink
scarf 
It was looking way
too bright so I went back up and got my black chador while everyone headed for
atraf ziyara. I got there on time otherwise I would lose the group phew. we went
to the following places:
- maqam where Hazrat Abbas left hand got cut.
- maqam where Hazrat Abbas right hand got cut
- maqam where Hazrat Ali akber got the barche – Also here, the maulana recited
masaib and Mir Hasan recited a very heartbreaking nauha :’(
- maqam where Hazrat Ali Asgher got barchi… hee also Mir Hasan recited a nauha
and there was a lot of riqqat. I think this I what they mean when they say
Ëvery Day is Ashura and Every Land in Karbala’ that even on Eid day people
cried so much.
- maqam Imam Zamana. Here we put ariza’s into Nehre Furaat
- nehree furaat
- baghe Imam Jafer Saqiq
Okay … so we got dates from the palm trees in the garden and on the entrance we
saw this man selling the bark of a palm tree :O I asked him if I could taste
some and I loved it so I bought like this Huge piece. OMG it was sooo yummy, It
didn’t have taste or anything .. ’twas like sugar cane without any taste. Man,
these Iraqi people have such awesome ways of not wasting anything!! Wwooww
I’ll buy more the next
time I go weeee
Came back to the hotel had lunch, had a shower. And went to sleep cause I was
very tired.
Then at about 6:30, I woke up and saw that the light was gone :O I couldn’t see
anything. In another few minutes, Majju Bhai came to get me. He told me ke mummy
asked me to take me to Bab Ul Salam for the majlis. Sana was in the hotel too ..
but she said she would come with Raza Uncle. She had gone with Munir Uncle to
buy more rings for Tahera Baji and Sabika. Also a new jacket fot himself. hehe
but I didn’t go.
Then at 7.00pm, me and Majju bhai reached Bab Ul Salam. it was ladies majlis.
Fatima’s nani recited the majlis after that it was gents majlis. It was a
zabardast majlis… We cold see the Haram from the window too!
After the majlis we went to the haram, and got permission to go to Hz Ali
Akbar’s side which is totally on the mens side. Then I came outside and Asma
Behn came out too. I was so cold brrr. Then we went to the hotel, did packing as
tomorrow early morning we are supposed to leave for Basra.
Time to leave now and say Khuda Hafiz to Karbala but I hope
Imam Al Hussain will call us again. It is this hope that will keep me content!
Its 6.00am we just boarded the bus heading towards basra Inshallah. Shamsa
Khanum is creating chaos because she couldn’t find her packet which was filled
with foodstuffs like –chewra, paneer,naan, vegetables
she had bought these from
Karbala to take to Dubai! Ya Khuda!. And she kept running from one bus to
another screaming ‘Mera Paneer Mera Paneer ohhh’ lol . Im gonna miss her.
its 10.35am i think we are in basra now.
1.57 pm we are at basra international airport Mashallah. I slept the whole way
hehe
Here they stopped us and checked our bags. He even crumbled up my ‘Flake’
checking it all over. Now its probably all I pieces and my Curly Wurly is all
squashed up. Lol
Alhamdulillah It didn’t take very long. Also, thanks to Shamsa Khanum, she kep
reciting ayahs of the Qurán and literally got off the bus and blowed on their
face hahaAnyways…
here we r in the waiting lounge 3.39 pm. Everyone took their trips to the
washroom after an 8 hour trip w0ah. guess what there are no seat numbers just
first come first serve hehe. Wooh.
The entire trip was excellent! Bas Qabool InshaAllah
. Me and Sana went round asking people for email IDs and phone numbers J
4.23pm the plane took off!
4.01 we are in the plane the flight is on time hehe
Approx 6.50 pm we landed- Now in Dubai
missing everyone and everything already -_-