Anyone paying heed?

Today, I received a phone call from a friend; his neighbor died last night and he asked me to join him for the funeral at Dohor time..

The deceased was only 18, my friend had a dinner with him and his family yesterday, the young brother went to bed, but he did not wake up.

He did not suffer from any illness, a young and strong brother just died during his sleep...24hrs ago, this young brother was eating and laughing and talking on his plans to start his first job in life, not knowing that he will not see the sun rise again, not knowing that it was his last dinner and that the clock was ticking the last seconds of his life...

We prayed on him after Dohor prayer, then took him to the graveyard which was about 300m away from the mosque. I stood close to the grave and looked inside,,,wallahi it seemed soo narrow, this is where we will all end, not in large palaces, not in large flats/houses/apartments, no luxurious hotel room, no!!...it would be just a hole, 50cm wide x 180cm long,,just enough to put your body laying on one side, facing Qiblah..

They lowered him inside his tomb, put him on his side facing Qiblah, opened the sheet on his face and started to cover the grave with a series of stone blocks (so that the body is protected in that space from the sand above it) then we filled the grave with soil. The following are a sequence of steps that take place for burial. Note that there are 2 types of graves for Mulsims: Shaqq (middle trench) and Lahad (side trench). In Oman/Algeria/Malaysia/Mekkah, they use Shaqq, in Madinah they use Lahad (which is the way the Prophet (S) got buried). The Shaqq and Lahad can have variants.

Digging Shaqq grave (middle trench)

Body lowered inside the grave, he/she rests on the right hand side, facing Qiblah

Trench is covered with block stones/ wood so that the space where the body is will be protected from soil above.

Interstices carefully plugged to avoid sand falling inside the trench

Grave is filled with Soil/Sand

After we buried the young brother, the Imam made us sit on the ground and he made a small reminder. In his reminder, he said that Allah created us for a sole purpose: to Worship Him...how many of us are so distracted by dunya that we forget where we will all go one day. We take heed for 5 minutes, then after that, we just forget and keep running here and there just like we will not die one day. He reminded the audience that the young brother was only 18, healthy and no disease, yet, he was in a grave. We are standing around the grave, not being questioned, yet the person in the grave is being questioned.

We kept silent after that and made duas for the young brother, then we presented the condolences to the family who stood in a small line, then we left the graveyard, leaving behind us the young brother facing his future all alone.

May Allah Awake us from our distraction, and Help us Work for such day and Cover us with His Blessings on the day He Would Take our souls. It is certainly a great blessing that we are still alive, and still be able to read one more line of Quran, or make one more tasbeeh, so many of us have now been deprived of this.

Today is work and no questioning, but tomorrow it will be questioning, and no more work. The brother is now spending his first night in this grave, may Allah Forgive him, and Forgive all of us when we will reach that time. Certainly, in this life, this dunya, we are taking care of our houses and make sure to have good A/C during summer and good heaters during winter, but our real homes, our real houses, our graves, how many of us are really taking care of these real houses to make them a garden of Paradise?...may Allah Have Mercy on all of us...

Rain...

It has been almost one year since we have seen any rain falling here in Muscat...Last year, it rained for about 2 days only, the news from Thailand these days are just flooding & flooding, yet in other parts of the world like here, people are longing to see rain falling...We had some drops a couple of weeks ago, but nothing enough to wet the road and the clouds dissipated fast afterwards...

We must never forget that rain is a blessing from Allah, it could be also a punishment, but for those lucky enough to see rain falling everyday or regularly, you must not forget to thank Allah for this blessing, because other people elsewhere are lacking to see this important blessing...

Let us hope to see some more rain this coming year insha Allah.

Update November 19, 2011:
Few days after I posted the above, during our Hajj trip, the rain finally came to Muscat. It rained heavily for 90mn, and the following pictures (taken from an e-mail that got circulated), are just showing the extends of the damage caused, but still, we thank Allah for His Blessings:

Heavy clouds covering Muscat....

Waterfalls cascading down the hills - the first time it has occurred in the last 21 years

You can judge on the water level using that road sign

Hospital: patients had to be evacuated

Ambulances paralyzed....

Fortunately, the patients were evacuated just in time..

Car pile up...

Pile up...

Sink holes, engulfing cars...

Fairly large size rocks have been carried down the mountain...

Tons of rocks have been deposited along the streets...

Journey to Hajj

Insha Allah, we will go and perform Hajj this year, with my wife and one of my daughters.
However, preparation is lagging behind, we are just living in a world that is leaving so little time for our families and other obligations,,,weeks are just flying, and these are certainly the signs of the hour, where time will become short..

I have been lucky that I already went to Hajj before, so I know what to expect, but it will be the first time for my wife and daughter, who is just 13. I wanted to take her this year, because in this ever changing world, one does not know if he will still be able to perform this ritual in a year's time...today, I have the physical and financial means to do it al hamdulil'Allah for His Blessings, so I want to take this advantage and not delay it...today, I live close to this country but I do not know for how long I will still be around, so one should not make long hopes and should rather take the chance to be close by and not gamble at all..

During my previous hajj, I had to take a taxi in Mekkah, and when I asked the taxi driver (who was Saudi) if he had performed hajj, he told me no...I asked him for the reason, he admitted that they view hajj as their best financial month, so each time, the appeal for making profit was greater than performing hajj..he was 30, and I felt sorry for him, living in Mekkah and not performing hajj yet...I am thankful to Allah to Have sent me to His holy places, it feels just great to think that this is the kind of weather that our Prophet Muhammed (S) experienced, these are the same mountains that he (S) saw, I am making tawaf in the same path that he (S) did etc...may Allah Grant us Strength and Make us Reach Mekkah again and especially, may Allah Accept our Hajj and all our deeds, for one is never sure how much of our ibadah is Accepted by Allah...
May Allah Make the journey easy for us, and for all the other Muslims, and Help the ones who did not manage to make it yet to be able to perform this fantastic trip.

Our departure is set for October 29 insha Allah, flying to Medinah for few days, then we will go to Mekkah on the 7th of Dhul Hijja...After the hajj, we will return from Jeddah to Muscat insha Allah. Duration is about 13 days in total. We have done the medical shots (Meningitis and Flu vaccine), we are waiting to make the final 50% payment and get our flight tickets. This hamlah (Hajj tour) will have 200 people in total, they seem to be serious and have been recommended by previous people who used them in the past, insha Allah they will take care of their amanah and fulfill their required duties..