Honeymoon in Mekah & Madinah

Quite frequent we read in magazine when an artist got married, they would said that they are going honeymoon in Mekah and Madinah. When I read that, the first thing that came out of my mind that how do they want to do that. Honeymoon is always associated with sexy time, spending most of the time in the room than outside and stuff that not suitable to be done in Holy Land. But then I never been to Mekah and Madinah with my husband previously, so I was naive about it.

However, my perspective changed when I went Umrah with my husband early this year. I forgot that honeymoon is not just about lust but about love and spending time with each other. Morever it was at the holiest place on earth and it become one of the best trip that I ever had with my husband.

Arriving at the airport and looking around at our group, I whispered to my husband, do you want to bet that people will think that we are newly weds. True enough, few hours after that some ladies asked me if I just got married. Hehe. Perasan muda.

How do I describe the feeling of honeymoon in Mekah and Madinah? It was different from others. We woke up each other to prepare for Suboh prayer every morning, reminded each other to read Quran and discussed how many umrah we want to do. Everywhere we went - to Masjidil Haram, Nabawi, during tawaf and saie, I always hold his arm (the upper arm - where the sleeves are - supaya tak batal air sembahyang). Everywhere we went, we always went together until I was chased out from the barber shop coz that was for men only. The mutawwif even asked us to seat separately during our first ihram to prevent unnecessary event that might lead to penalty! My husband refused and sat next to me. Of course nothing happened, we were in the bus for God's sake. Haha.

Before the umrah, some of my colleagues advised me to be patient when in Holy Land. She advised me sometimes when we go there, suddenly our husband changed. Allah wanted to show his true colour and we never ever talk back and always be patient with our husband as that is part of the umrah process. I prayed deep in my heart, please Allah, please don't change my husband to worse, please change to the best. Alhamdulillah, Allah change my husband to the best husband ever. He never let my hand go no matter how pack the crowd was, bought me food when I was not feeling well and always take care of me.

You know what is the best part of this trip, the five times daily prayer trips. Everyday we will go to either Masjidil Haram or Nabawi, my hand in his arm, walked to the masjid and parted at the gate or door (depending which masjid). Then after prayer, we will meet again at the same door or gate. We devised a timing system so that we can met at the same time. I didn't buy local sim card, so there was no communication thru handphone (and in Masjid Nabawi, women can't bring in handphone with camera, so I left mine in the hotel). What we have is just trust each other that we will meet at the promised time and place. One time I got lost in Masjidil Haram, I almost cried coz I didn't find that door and I don't know how to contact my husband. Luckily I remembered the door number and when I finally found that door, almost half an hour later, I saw the love of my life standing there waiting for me. That was the best feeling ever!

Coming back from the umrah trip, I was down with Influenza B and was quarantined in SDMC for almost a week. My husband took care of me the whole time even though he himself was sick but surprising enough not caught the deadly virus. I really felt bad coz he has to sleep on that uncomfortable sleeping care every night so that I was not alone.

So my conclusion is, Mekah and Madinah is the best place for honeymoon. It gave you a different kind of feeling that you will never have with other places. The best part is the experience and memories that we build along the way, the stories we shared and the enlighnment we have from Allah. In shaa Allah we will be there again. So do you =)

Wedding car at Madinah. The ustaz forced us to take picture with the car. Haha..