Ya Ali, Ya Fatima ....

We got on the bus and went on our way to "Masjid ul Qiblatain" which means "The Mosque with the Two Qiblahs". This mosque is very important in the history of Islam.

When Allah first ordered the Holy Prophet (S.A.W.) and all Muslims to offer the daily Salat, they were required to pray facing Baytul Muqaddas (Jerusalem). This was the practice in Mecca and continued in Madina until the seventeenth month after Hijrat.

In Madina, the Jews also said their prayers facing Baytul Muqaddas. They did not like the fact that the Muslims had the same Qiblah as they did, and tried to use this fact to discredit Islam and the Holy Prophet (S.A.W.). They said to the Muslims, "Muhammad claims to have a religion whose laws supersede all other previous laws, yet he does not have an independent Qiblah, and offers his prayers facing the Qiblah of the Jews."

After the Holy Prophet (S.A.W.) received this news he used to come out at night and look into the sky awaiting the revelation from Allah about this matter. The following verse was revealed at this time:

"Many a time We have seen you turn your face towards heaven. We will make you turn towards a Qiblah that will please you..." Surah al-Baqarah, 2:144

The fact that the Qiblah was the same as that of the Jews was also because it was a test of the faith of the people. The true faith of the followers would be tested by seeing if any of them refused or delayed to turn towards the new Qiblah as chosen by Allah. This is confirmed in the Holy Qur'an in the following verse:

"We decreed your former Qiblah only so that We may know the Prophet's true followers and those who were to deny him. It was indeed a hard test, but not for those whom Allah guided..." Surah al-Baqarah, 2:143

One day, while the Holy Prophet (S.A.W.) and the Muslims were praying together, the command came from Allah to change the Qiblah from Baytul Muqaddas to the Holy Kaa'ba in Mecca. After the Holy Prophet (S.A.W.) had already completed two raka'ats of the noon prayer, the Angel Jibraeel (A.S.) communicated to him the command of Allah.

He held the hand of the Holy Prophet (S.A.W.) and turned him towards the Holy Kaa'ba in Masjidul Haraam in Mecca. The Holy Prophet (S.A.W.) at once changed his direction in the middle of Salat. Imam Ali (A.S.) followed this change immediately. The other Muslims were confused by this action and only a few followed the example of Imam Ali (A.S.).

After praying there, we went towards the 7 mosques.
Masjid al-Fath is one of the very famous Seven Mosques. The Seven Mosques are located at the site of the Khandak Battle. During that war, the founders of Islam were outnumbered and surrounded by the pagan warriors. Masjid al-Fath was built on top of the rock over which the Prophet(S.A.W) prayed and asked God to grant victory to the encircled Muslims. Salman al-Farisi (Salman the Persian) (A.S) who was one of the closest companions of the Holy Prophet(S.A.W), introduced the idea of digging a trench around the camp of the Muslims to repel the pagans. Hence, one of the Seven Mosques is named after Salman.
The trench served its purpose very well and kept the pagans at bay. Eventually, the most powerful of the Kafir warriors, Aamro bin Wud al-Aamery managed to cross the trench and was about to turn the course of the historic battle to the advantage of the pagans. But All-the-Faith, Ali bin Abi Taleb (A.S), confronted All-the-Kufr, Aamro, and defeated and killed him. Praise be to God in all matters, with this defeat, the pagans were all defeated and Islam was preserved.



That the Seven Mosques of Medina are very small is not just a coincidence dictated by the military conditions of the Battle of the Trench. These holy places, like every thing else that one encounters during the Hajj or the Umrah are full of symbolism and hidden messages. Only with contemplation that one can see the story behind the story and the wisdom resonating beyond the three dimensional.

The Seven Mosques are being demolished by the Wahhabi authorities and replaced with a single large Mosque. Do you now know why the Seven Mosques are being destroyed? Let's all cry and mourn, for the pluralism, openness, and selflessness of Prophet (S.A.W) is being replaced with the unilateralism, opacity, and selfishness of of the takfiris.
It will break your heart to go visit this mosques. They are day by day destroying those holy mosques. Masjid Fatima(A.S) is now closed.


And masjid Ali is hidden away. It tears your heart in pieces.


This is how masjid Ali (A.S) looked like:

As we couldnt pray inside the mosques, we still showed our respect and grief, by praying near their mosques outside in the pavement.

Look how powerful Ahlulbait (A.S) are, that even after all this time, the enemies still fear them.
Your footprints will always be in history, They will never be able to make us forget. Cause we bare you in our hearts and souls.

Let not the message of Muhammad(S.A.W), be murdered. By the enemies of Ahlulbait.
And, God willing, should you visit the site of the Seven Mosques, please do pray two salutation ruk'aas for every martyred mosque.
Know that the wahabis fear you, cause you have ahlulbait by your side.

Ishtaqna Laky Ya Tayba

During my stay in Medina. We visited the holy places there.

Our first stop was masjid Qiba.

which was the first mosque to be built. when you enter that mosque its like going back in time. to the time of the Prophet. You feel his presence. you can see how the muslims used to work together to built this house of God. You can see Bilal stand on the top calling for prayer. You can see the first muslims praying their first salat together.



The reward for praying two ruk2ats at Mosque Qiba, is equivalent to that of one Umrah. Also, those who get to recite Surat al-Hajj in Mosque Qiba are, God willing, guaranteed a return to the Hajj anew!
We didnt have much time so we did only the two ruk2ats. But I hope and I pray, That God will grant me another visit to His house.




After finishing our salat there, we went to visit Hamza.
My beloved Hamza. Ever since I was a little kid. and saw "the Message" I have had this strong relationship with him. As if he was my older brother. And I had missed him so much. that when i heard the leader of the group saying we were on our way to visit Hamza. I was already in tears. when we reached the place. My heart was aching.



My beloved Hamza, The one that just by hearing his name would make his enemies shake with fear. A man so strong, so humble in front of God and his Prophet. Martyred on this piece of land. with nothing but a stone on his grave. Oh Hamza what have they done to you. They had put huge speakers there. with sayings such as. dont pray for the diceased. They had put huge signs of this is haram and that is haram.
and two guards in front of his holy grave. making sure we wont be able to come near the walls.


They would laugh at us when they saw us reading zyarat and making remarks such as kafir and bid3a. We were so in dispear so broken hearted that we couldnt find any strength only by doing salawat.
Oh Hamza look what they are doing to the followers of beloved Prophet. I was calling for hamza inside my heart. I was reading his zyarat with tears running down my face.
Close as my father and mother you are my beloved Hamza. I didnt want to leave his grave. How can I leave you Hamza, when i just found. I still havent cried enough tears for you. I still havent told you all what i wanted to say. I still havent got enough of your presence. May Allah grant me the blessing of visiting you again. May Allah grant me the blessing of being close to you in this life and the here after.

The place where Hamza was martyred and buried is the place where the battle of uhud
was being held. to see how such a holy land where the most honorable muslims were killed being so disrespected is heartbreaking. on the jabal il rimal they would have sellers filling the whole jabal, to sell to visitors. as if this place is more of an attraction than a holy place.
and the place where the Prophet's (pbuh) tent was set up, is now nothing but a parking lot place.
but still to this very day, the place of the tent can still be seen. No matter how much they try to hide the miracles of God and his belivers they wont be able too.

Ya Tayba

When we were going to travel from Iran to Medina. We found out that, in Tehran they had made a special hujjaj airport.

It was filled with hujjaj and their families. Mashallah. Now finally after lots of stress with the passports and tickets. 12:00 am we were sitting on the plane on our way to Medina, al tayba. On the airplane, people were reading dua together, doing salawat and reading the quran
it was very nice and special. Never experienced anything like that before.

We reached Madina airport I think around 4 oclock in the morning. It took us more than an hour to get pass security and passport check.
And I dont know why but they checked my laptop several times. After going on a hunt looking for our luggage we finally were sitting on the bus on our way to Medina. It was so strange to see how Medina looked like, cause its actually full of rocky mountains. The first mosque I got to see was Masjid Bilal. Its design was so special. (I dont know maybe becuase I hadnt slept in two days, but all seemed like I was Alice in wonderland. all seemed so strange).

After getting some sleep at the hotel, we went to do our visit to Masjid il nabawi.
The first site you get of it, it takes your breath away.

You see the doors for the entrance to the mosque open for you, and you see this beautiful minar infront of you. You just feel so happy, of all ppl, you have the honor to visit The Prophet (pbuh) and you ask God, and the angels and the prophets the permission to enter this holy mosque. Where on this place the Prophet himself walked and prayed upon. You just feel so humble and small when you walk around this enormous, beautiful mosque that is filled with glory.

I couldnt take my eyes of the mosque when I was walking. You see if you want to go to the Prophet's green dome. you have to go all around masjid il nabawi. Its in the back of the entrance we enter from.
But your overwhelming feeling of humbleness and happiness gets spoiled when you get ready to do your Ziyarat il Nabi (pbuh) and Fatima(as). Cause the guards wont let you do that. They will keep on saying to you, you cant sit here, or prepare for salat. Anything to make you stop from doing your ziyarat.

You just keep thinking, after all this decades, they still wont let the followers of ahlulbayt be free.It got worse when the whole hajj group gathered after sunset to go do Ziyarat for the Prophet and al Baqi3. But it was impossible, they were driving these Land rover cars, and they even threatened us with calling the police. And since we were on hajj we couldnt say much or get angry.
But you dont get angry, you just feel sad. That till today we are not allowed to show our love and respect for ahlul bait. it just rips your heart out. And you cant do anything but to cry. Cause in this moment, you get to feel just a small hint of how they must have felt. How Zainab must've felt not allowed to bury her family.
So you look again towards his dome and you tell him "look what they are doing to your ancestors".

I remember when I heard the dhohr prayer when I was in masjid il nabawi.It gave me goosebumps. When he says "Allahu Akbar", at that moment you really feel how great God is. The adhan just fills your body and mind. You just close your eyes and feel how powerfull God is. And when he says "La illaha illa Allah" you can feel his divine, his love, his power. If there is one thing on this earth that I find total peace in, that would be when I hear the adhan. It reminds you of what really matter in this world. And that it is a call for your heart to approach God and talk with Him.
You cant help but saying hamdilla wel shukr all the time, cause I am so lucky to witness all this, lucky to be muslim.















We went to visit il baqi3, and what they had done is that there were a special entry for men and special entry for women. So me and my mother went to the womens entry, but they wouldnt let us in. They said come tomorrow after salat il fajr. And so we did that but still they wouldnt let us. So they said come after salat il dhohr. And we did, but they wouldnt let us in. And this continued all through the time we were there. Never got to visit il baqi3.
But at least I got to see it from a distance.
What annoyed me most, is that the same place as the baqi3. They had made these small
stores. Which I found so insulting. Not only do they put only stones to their grave, but they insult them in such a way that
they put stores in the same place!!!

Hajj Memories

I travelled to Hajj this year. And it has changed my life 180 degrees. Il hamdilla to the best.
You have no idea how much I miss it. Its an experience like no other experience.


Our Hajj group travelled through Syria, but we wanted to visit Imam Redha (as) in Iran so we travelled with another group to iran.

Qom, "Masoma's(as) home and the city of knowledge"

When you go there, the city is very poor, but Masoma's shrine lights up the whole city.
Not to mention the many bookstores you can find in Qom, that shows you this city is very rich with knowledge.
But the strange thing is when you enter the shrine, you get this strange feeling, such sadness.
You can feel some of her sadness she must've felt when she came to this town after her brother.
One time when we went there, a mawkib from Najaf had just entered the holy shrine.
and it was so amazing to the those hundreds of ppl, coming all the way from Najaf, only to show their respect and love to ahlul bayt.


I have never been in iran before and didnt kno
w anything about it. So I walked around wearing my abaya. and wondering why everybody was staring. And suddenly a sheikh comes up to me and my mother. saying to us that we should respect this holy place and wear chador. so we suddenly got it, even though our clothes were VERY islamically, but for them Chador is what suits best. So we ran to the nearest place and bought chadors. And that would be my first introduction to chador. Man I dont know how iranian women wear that thing, It fell from me all the time, it made me so angry! no matter how did it, it fell down. arghh!!

I didnt go out much in Qom, only to visit Masoma (as). Cause all I was doing is counting the hours and minutes i would reach Medina.