Abu Hurayrah (ra) relates that the Prophet (saw) said, "You should not undertake a special journey to visit any place other than the following three Masjids with the expectations of getting greater reward: the Sacred Masjid of Makkah, this Masjid of mine and Masjid Al-Aqsa.”
Journey the Holy Land
According Significance
Setting the stage of my trip/pilgrimage/holiday to the Middle East, the above hadith of the Emissary of Allah (saw) defines the relationship in one between the believer and the three holiest sites on the planet.
If we were to assess the sanctity, historical significance and associations of just, for example, Masjid al-Haram in Makkah and then to understand the reality of placing that masjid on the same footing as that of Masjid al-Aqsa not to mention Masjid an-Nabawi we are presented with a profound message. A message exhorting us to appreciate the value of each of these masjids in a category of their own, a category which Allah (swt) has defined himself through His revelation and Divine inspirations to the Emissary of Allah (saw), the last Prophet to mankind. It was to this holy and sanctified place that I had intended to make Umrah.
A Potential Journey
Due to the grace of Allah (swt), I had already been to the Holy cities of Makkah and Madinah a few times previously, and to be perfectly honest about it I didn’t think much about Jerusalem when I had gone on those occasions. The reason being was that I was focused upon making pilgrimage to the Ka’abah in Masjid al-Haram and of, course, if one goes to Makkah then one would naturally be able to easily go and visit the Emissary of Allah (saws) in Madinah. Ergo, the rights that those two places over have over a Muslim are very easily fulfilled. Consequently, in this piece we are to dwell only upon the Palestine-Jordan leg of the excursion as I have written previously at length on my travels to the aforementioned sanctified destinations.
The reality is that it is much easier to visit Makkah and Madinah than it is to visit Jerusalem. I have only just been and yet if I wanted to I could arrange another trip to these first two holy sites and arrive within a week or two on my own without any drama. However, far fewer people visit Jerusalem, likely because of the tense decades-old situation inherent in that region and the administrative hurdles one is likely to encounter with the Israeli occupation authorities. I am glad to see, though, that over the past few years more and more people are starting to perform Umrah to Masjid al-Aqsa. This is one of the boosts that I was given when I first started contemplating visiting Jerusalem over the past year or so. A friend of mine had already visited Palestine for a few weeks about two years before I went and he came back unscathed which allayed any potential concern over what might happen to a Muslim who dares visit his third holiest site on this earth.
One of the things that I realised on this trip was that being a British citizen and travelling with a British passport has much weight in this world. Europeans and Americans have no issue going to the Holy Land and so it must be said that Muslims who are living in the United Kingdom, for example, should if presented with the opportunity make Umrah to Masjid al-Aqsa just as one would go to Masjid al-Haram and Masjid an-Nabawi.
Logistics
My desire to visit Masjid al-Aqsa had became firmer and firmer over the past year along with that to perform Umrah again to Makkah and Madinah. My reasoning in planning this trip was that given I really wanted to visit Masjid al-Aqsa and perform Umrah to the other two holy cities also and the fact that all three cities are in the Middle East, I might has well hit three birds with one stone. Logistically it made sense and also it isn’t every day that you get to be able to plan a trip to all three holy masjids.
Initially I had planned to go on this trip with a group of friends as the plan was beginning to form about a year and a half ago. What I had done is managed to get into contact with a travel agent in Bradford in the North West. They were able to organise a trip for however many people wanted to go in a group. This, rather than going with their own group in the summer. Unfortunately, many of my friends were unable to pull through due to personal and work commitments and it was left to just myself and one more friend.
Now I was still under the impression that even if it were to be two people only going on this trip that we would still be able to go and technically that was correct. One of the things that any traveller is faced with, especially young, male and Muslim travellers who goes to Jerusalem is that because of the security concerns of the Israeli authorities it is entirely possible that once you get to the Jordanian border with the West Bank (which is controlled by Israel) that they would turn you back or delay you that much that you decide yourself to turn back. I will elaborate on this further when I write about what actually happened when we got to the border.
Although this travel agency was willing to organise a tailored trip for us two they strongly discouraged us from it. The reason is that at the border Israel does everything that it can possibly do to delay, frustrate and put obstacles in your way so that when you become frustrated and start complaining that they would have a excuse not to let you in and would also subsequently put you off planning any future excursion or advising other people of planning such a thing. Even if they did let you in it would be after having to jump through a hundred rings of fire. We thought about this at length and at times we were still willing to try it and see what happened. This trip, by the way, was to include the following general itinerary:
The risk of carrying on with this particular trip was that if we went and tried to enter the West Bank and were turned away then it would be a waste of a trip and what we wanted to do is to maximise our chances of visiting Jerusalem and especially Masjid al-Aqsa. We eventually decided to postpone our trip to the summer.
However, out of the blue I became aware of another group of travellers going via a travel agency called Travel Express in London. Now this was to be a group package trip, so a number of people would be going together and these people would be a mixture of people i.e. not all young, male, bearded Muslims. In fact, the great thing was that our group ended up being a diverse range of old, young, family and single people alike which would legitimize us more in the eyes of the Israelis than if we were to have gone by ourselves i.e. a couple of young Muslim men.
Tripping Jordan - Day 1
Bookings commenced and travel arrangements were finalised for the trip, the itinerary of which actually turned out to be the same as our original planned itinerary as above but with one major alteration. That was that when we were to fly to Amman we were to actually stay there for about 3 days. During the course of this time in Jordan the plan was to perform tours of holy sites and others of interest in Jordan.
When we arrived in Amman on the night of 29th March, we went, literally, straight to bed after being told to be up and ready to set off on tours at 8am in the morning. So, obey these instructions we did. In the morning our coach was ready and so was our Jordanian tour guide. His name was Shaykh Umar, the title being simply one of respect towards an elder rather for a learned scholar. This man, as we gradually appreciated over the two days that we spent time with him, was a very knowledgeable and cultured man. He was quite elderly yet his mannerisms, etiquette and command of our attention were razor sharp. I asked him at one point about his background given that his English was absolutely impeccable. He told me that when he studied, it was under a Scottish professor in Jordan back in the early sixties and one whom he seemed to remember with great fondness, telling me that he was his favourite teacher.
There are so many places to tour in Jordan, I was very taken aback. Places where the Prophet’s (saws) companions are buried, places of Islamically historical significance, places where important events relating to the previous Prophets (as) and even the grave of Prophet Nuh (as). As well as this, Jordan itself is a stunningly beautiful place full of mountains and valleys and, of course, the Dead Sea which we will come to later.
The first place that we then went to was taken straight out of the Qur’an: the Cave of the Seven Sleepers. This refers to Surah Kahf and the story of the seven pious young men who fled the corruption of their city and sought refuge in a cave where they miraculously slept for 309 years. Now there are one or two sights elsewhere where it is thought for that Cave to be, however, as Shaykh Umar explained to us (and his knowledge of Quranic and Biblical history was staggering), this one was the closest possible candidate which fit the descriptions of the historical site. There is also a masjid which has been built next to the Cave now.
Inside the Cave, you get the sense straight away that this is an incredibly ancient place indeed. With very old and worn rock faces around the interior of the cave, an old Roman carved Star of David and the display of very old pottery on a glass shelf one got the sensation that this is a place of huge historical significance. One of the things told to us was at some point in its history someone re-discovered the Cave and found many human remains in it. They then collected them and placed them inside the seven tombs inside the Cave. These tombs are supposed to contain the graves of the Seven Sleepers. We could see through a sheet of plastic or glass the remains referred to. There was also an opening inside the cave where sunlight could be shone down and which evidently was how the Seven Sleepers were able to know whether it was day or night.
As indicated earlier, there are many graves of Companions in Jordan as there are in the wider region of the Middle East. After the Cave of the Seven Sleepers we went to visit, again within the greater boundary of the city of Amman, the station of the Companion Abdul Rahman ibn Auf (ra) which was in an area called Sowileh. As Shaykh Umar explained to us, some of these “stations” are literally just that and not the actual graves of the Companions themselves. The places that are not graves are simply places where the relevant Companions have been confirmed to have rested or stopped or having performed some other action at that spot. This was a small and very old structure built off the side of a street to one side and you could see inside through the window.
After stopping here and spending a short while there we then set off to a small town outside of Amman in a valley called Wadi Al Sir. There after driving at very steep angles up some hills, we came upon a cemetery and off to one side there was a very elegant yet simple four sided structure with a dome built as its roof. This was the station of Bilal ibn Rabah (ra), the famous Companion who was the first one to perform the call to prayer in Islam. Now this site is possibly the grave of this esteemed and superior companion as there as another site in the Syrian capital, Damascus which is venerated as the correct grave. However, this remote hilltop on the outskirts of Jordan’s capital is one candidate to be the grave if not just a place of Bilal ibn Rabah (ra), a place where he is known to have been and therefore historically associated with.
We then were to go to an area called Madaba which was about an hour’s drive from Amman. In that area is Mount Nebo, a mountain which has significance not only in Islam but even Christianity and Judaism. This is the spot where, according to the Bible, Allah (swt) showed Prophet Musa (as) a view of the Promised Land. This, as from the top of Mount Nebo you can actually see the West Bank and if you try hard enough even Jerusalem on a good day. It was also a place where, it is said, the event took place of Prophet Musa (as) striking the stone for water to gush out quenching the thirst of the Jews. There is also a “Brazen Serpent” sculpture which is to signify Prophet Musa (as) building a bronze serpent for the Jews to look at to be cured as commanded by Allah (swt), according to the Bible.
The views from the top of this mountain looking down across the surrounding valleys and out then across the vast landscape of Jordan towards Palestine are simply magnificent. There were many Christian pilgrims in this spot as well traversing towards the end of their pilgrimage route. The whole site is owned and maintained by Franciscan Christians who early on in the twentieth century led excavations which unearthed a rich Byzantine history full of mosaics. In fact, on the subject of Mosaics, we then drove to a nearby Mosaic centre where beautiful Byzantine style mosaics are designed by skilled craftsmen. We were given a short run through of how these amazing works are made after which we scoured the many designs in the nearby store.
We then were treated to a full meal by our generous group manager at the Windmill restaurant back in the city of Amman, which I have to say even thinking about it makes me want to go back and just have that food again; freshly cooked with salads, vegetables which wouldn’t be complete without the dashing of humus. After this sumptuous meal, we went back to our hotel room. Now some of us wanted to go and see downtown Amman just to see what it was like as obviously for nearly everyone of us it was the first time for us in Jordan. What we did is organise a little minivan trap with one of our organisers in the evening to Amman. This gave us a chance to get things we needed like flip-flops for our Umrah later in the Hijaz, top up our local SIM cards that Travel Express had provided to us or to convert some currency. We went down that evening, milled about the shops, went to the local masjid to pray salah, and just took it all in. I have to say, the Jordanians that we met were very nice people, gracious, warm and friendly. Unlike the people of Saudi Arabia with whom there is an obvious difference. Oh and very well spoken in their command of English.
Tripping Jordan - Day 2
On this day we managed to get a lot done in terms of the places we visited. At the outset, we had been given an itinerary by Travel Express of the whole trip from Jordan and Jerusalem to Saudi Arabia. We, of course, were in anticipation for each and every entry thereon to be ticked off. So the first place that we went to on this day was the formerly State masjid of Jordan, the King Abdullah Mosque in one of the central districts of Amman. Although, it didn’t have any real Islamic significance it was still worth a visit due to its beauty, scale and of course the museum that was on its grounds. Think Regent’s Park Mosque, London on a bigger scale.
The museum had some interesting items. For one thing, there were pictures ABSOLUTELY everywhere from Sharif Husein down to Abdullah, the current monarch. To be honest, by the end of my stay in Jordan, I was absolutely sick and tired of seeing that guy’s face everywhere. I mean I’m sure he’s perhaps a perfectly nice guy but seeing him everywhere in this false Arab-style hero adoration is just too much. I mean, can you imagine Gordon Brown’s face everywhere!!
That aside, there were many interesting items in the museum and our good and knowledgeable Shaykh Umar was very avidly taking us around and elucidating upon each exhibit. Amongst these were many scaled models of various holy sites around Jordan, including those relating to religiously significant events that have taken place, the graves of the Companions of the Prophet (saws) and also stations of various Prophets (as). There was an old and huge copy as well of the Quran encased in glass and also a model of the city of Jerusalem.
Shaykh Umar spent a bit of time talking about this model, telling us about the various gates to the city, about Masjid al-Aqsa, the Dome of the Rock, the Old City and much more. It is to be remembered that Jerusalem and Jordan are historically intertwined. Before the founding of the Jordanian State and that of Israel, Palestine and Jordan were one country. In fact, there are many Palestinians who live in Jordan, a fair percentage of which are refugees or the children of refugees and I met quite a few Jordanians who are, in fact, Palestinian. All with a common story: that of the expulsion of their forefathers from their land by Israel. In fact, from Mount Nebo the previous day we could see the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Jordan from a distance with a population of approximately 75,000.
Once we were finished with the King Abdullah Mosque, we began an hour-long drive from Amman to the city of Karak. Karak and the surrounding area is where the Battle of Mut’ah took place at the time of the Prophet (saws). During the course of sending emissaries to the surrounding regions for the purposes of inviting leaders to accept Islam, one of these namely Harith bin Umayr al-Yazdi (ra) who was sent to this region was tortured gruesomely to death. This led to the mobilisation of a Muslim contingent of forces to be sent to the Byzantines responsible in response to the Companion’s death. The Battle of Mut’ah took place just on the outskirts of the area of Karak and we first stopped here. The plain is quite vast and one can envisage a big battle taking place here. There were ruins of an old mosque and a big plaque explaining the history of the site in relation to the battle. This site and the battle relating to it are famous for the martyrdom of three prominent Companions:
The mausoleums of the above were about 15 minutes drive away which is where we went next. The graves of Zayd and Jafar were housed in the same building complex and that of Abdullah were housed in a standalone tomb about a 5 minute drive away. The whole atmosphere at these places was very peaceful and I felt a certain sense of spirituality at these places stemming from the piety and closeness to Allah and His Messenger (saws) of these great men. At each of these places we made supplications, prayed that Allah reward these great companions and just spent some time in their company. May Allah elevate their stations in the hereafter even further.
After this we drove to another place in Karak where there was an old crusader fort built atop a hill overlooking the deep valleys of this part of Jordan. The scenery was absolutely breathtaking from this place. The valleys sloped deep down into the distance from this incredible vantage point and you could see the Dead Sea in the distance as well. The structure of the fort itself was still sturdy enough for someone to have built a restaurant atop it which is where we stopped for another generously provided 3-course meal. We spent quite some time, relaxing and taking in the views, taking pictures and videos.
Most of the day had gone now, and we still had another few places to visit. The first of these was the mausoleum of Prophet Nuh (as) which was nearby in the same city. This area of Karak is very hilly, the roads going up and down and up again. After we left the restaurant and a hearty meal, we drove on a bit from the fort and hopped off to walk up a steep hilly neighbourhood beyond which was an ancient cemetery. This cemetery was right on the edge of another extremely high and elevated hill and what we were there for primarily was in front of us in the form of a simple, four-sided stone structure. This, we were told, is quite possibly the grave of the ancient Prophet Nuh (as), who Allah Almighty commanded to build an ark and save people from the Flood sent to punish the non-believers. Again the view from this place was breathtaking, as you could see mountains and hills and valleys all around you stretching away to the Dead Sea in the distance, which is where we went next.
The Dead Sea is an inland sea which separates a part of the West Bank of Palestine and the state of Jordan. The shores of these waters are the lowest point of the Earth that you can walk upon. After paying respects and prayers at the Karak cemetery where the shrine of Prophet Nuh (as) stood, we took a long and memorable drive down towards the Dead Sea through the Jordan Valley (or the Jordan Rift Valley). Memorable due to the scenic views all the way down, really beautiful and really stunning as we approached the Dead Sea in the distance. One thing that I observed of this area of Jordan geologically, as I dazed at the deep valley walls leading down to the floors which you couldn’t even see, is that you could sense the real age of this area going back tens if not hundreds of thousands of years; the area is completely untouched, rocky terrain.
We were reminded by Shaykh Umar that on our drive down we were to pass sea level that would inevitably affect our bodily pressure indicators. What we did was keep bottles of water tightly shut in the coach to indicate the change in pressure as we passed the sea level point. The Dead Sea itself at the bottom of this valley area was itself below sea level. Now this Dead Sea is a likely candidate for an area which was filled by corrupt and homosexual people to whom the Prophet Lut (as) was sent. Eventually Allah sent down a punishment through an angel who turned the land upside down with such a force resulting in this lowest point on earth. Do remember reader that this whole part of the world is rich with Islamic history in relation to the Prophets of Allah and nearly everywhere one goes there is some reminder of a Prophetic story and, of course, counsel.
The Dead Sea’s characteristics are world-renowned such as that due to its high salinity one floats rather than sinks and also that the Dead Sea because of these characteristics is devoid of life (hence the name!), although it is rich with various minerals out of which special Dead Sea branded cosmetics products are made. We could see in one end of the Dead Sea salt evaporation pans as an example of the utilisation of this body of water’s unique characteristics. We stopped along the Jordanian side of this natural delight and wanted to really take a dip in the Sea but we couldn’t as the bank was quite steep, at the bottom of which we could see crystalline deposits around the water’s rim.
A calming coach ride along the shore of the Dead Sea followed as the sun set in this beautiful and rich land, full of geological wonders, natural beauty and archaeological history. As the area’s lights turned on one by one in the waning light of the sun, our attention turned to the distant lights of Jericho and Jerusalem which were just about visible from our side of the Dead Sea. Shaykh Umar elucidated upon the history of this area in light of the various conflicts that have erupted over the decades not to mention the ensuing political situations. It was not lost on us that opposite our side of the water 13 miles away was occupied land in a drama going back nearly a century. In fact we could see the Israeli settlements which are situated strategically on the other side of the Dead Sea about 50 miles away. A sad reality in such a wondrous land that otherwise is surely the envy of peoples around the world.
Our little experiment with the bottles of water concluded when we rose back up out of the deep lands of the Dead Sea and surrounding areas on the way to Amman when we opened up our bottles. This led to a fizzing sound of gas escaping, as one would have upon opening a bottle of coca cola or the like. This demonstrated the differences in pressure as we entered and left the below-sea-level Jordan Valley area. On our ride back to Amman, we took leave of our respected tour guide whom we had come to really have an affinity with in these only two but ram packed days. Alhamdulillah, it had seemed that we were there a lot longer. We went back to our hotel to relax and wind down for in the morning would begin our journey from Amman to Jerusalem.
To Holy Lands - Day 3
Living in the United Kingdom we have many sources of information about what the situation is like on the ground in Palestine and also, more relevant to our trip, what the hurdles would be on a journey to Jerusalem and what we should expect. For myself I never thought I would be sitting on a coach one morning in Amman about to drive to Jerusalem and Masjid al-Aqsa. Alhamdulillah, though, everything and anything is possible once the will is resolved and Allah grants you His aid.
Far from dramatizing the journey to Palestine it is relatively easy for Brits to visit this holy place. It is next to impossible and sometimes is for people from all Muslim countries to visit. The ludicrous nature of this predicament is that our organiser, tour guide and bus driver in Jordan for three are not able to visit Palestine. The same goes for all Jordanians, Syrians, Egyptians and pretty much everybody from the Arab countries also. Indeed throughout our stay in Amman and of course on this morning of the first day going to Jerusalem we felt privileged and blessed that we are about to visit somewhere where the people with whom we have spent time with in Jordan cannot.
On this day, we had arisen, ate breakfast and were ready with our bags to board the coach for the next part of our trip. A pertinent point to note was that we were advised to leave the bulk of our luggage in storage in Amman and only take a small bag or rucksack for our stay in Jerusalem. The reason for this was that it would expedite our passage through Israeli customs and give them less of an opportunity to delay us. Really, this is what we expected to face as we had been advised by Travel Express and our group leader. What we were told was that the Israeli officials will look hard for any reason at all to make you wait, to annoy you, to provoke you, to question you at length i.e. to just put you off travelling to Jerusalem. We could even be pulled aside and outright interrogated. We were told to just be calm, be polite, answer all questions with a smile and present the impression that whatever they do you will not be irritated. It’s a psychological game, that’s all it is.
We drove from our hotel on this morning to the King Hussein/Allenby Bridge crossing which is on the border with the West Bank. It is a main crossing, built over the Jordan River and north of the Dead Sea, from Jordan into Palestine. Now the crossing into Palestine has two phases. The first phase is on the Jordanian side where Jordanian customs administer security checks on your passport and have your luggage scanned through an X-ray machine. Once we were finished on the Jordanian side we then drove through a raised barrier onto a road which led us to the security fence past which is the Israeli side of the border. There was quite a lot of traffic with a few other coaches en route the same way we were going and each coach waited in a line to be let through the Israeli fence which opened and closed as each vehicle passed through. One of the things that struck me sitting on the coach and passing through these various security stages was looking out onto the terrain.
As we passed from the Jordanian side over to the Israeli side, the terrain, rocks, desert and land is, of course, identical and I thought to myself: Nature is anything but territorial, unlike man. You have the same land, same colour, same view on one side and the other. Yet, the atmosphere depending on who controls the land completely changes when passing from one part of this land to another. This made me think about how contentious this whole region of the world is. Being occupied and liberated and then occupied again by different nations and empires through the millennia and now still being argued and killed over with the unique situation of the artificially and forced creation of the state of Israel amidst the Arab lands is a bizarre yet real reality that we have to contend with today in our era of whoever is controlling what part of this land.
Anyhow, we waited for about a half an hour before being let through the Israeli border fence. Once we passed through that, there stood before us the Israeli buildings housing all the checking stages of this side of the border in which we had to go before we were allowed to enter the West Bank. As we pulled up alongside the building I looked outside and saw a youngish man who couldn’t have been more than 18-20 years of age. He had a light coloured t shirt and beige trousers or jeans with a pair of sunshades on. What he also had slung around him was a thick black strap which I realised after a few seconds was securing a big black automatic rifle. The fact that there was an armed security guard here was not striking in the least, mind you. What struck me was the youth of the soldier and the casual way he was walking around, almost slouched but with a confident and alert manner asserting his and his country’s authority, gesturing to visitors, staring at them and directing them not necessarily in a hostile manner but professionally.
In fact, not only this gentleman but 95% of the customs and border officials inside and milling around were surprisingly young, I’m talking late teens young. After a bit of surmising I and others in my group arrived at the understanding that this was to humiliate and degrade visitors, especially Arabs and Muslims by the reality of young, perhaps obnoxious Israelis snapping orders and refusals to a visitor (in almost every case) older than themselves. In the case of Palestinians, you will have the same breed barking humiliating and almost impossible instructions (such as to strip for a search or refuse a desperate plea for passage) to older men and women at checkpoints around the West Bank.
We disembarked from the coach and went through a queuing system outside the entrance first to an Israeli official who checked our passport details. After that, we went inside and waited in line to be walked through a metal detector and have our bags checked. When my rucksack was taken through the x-ray machine, it was still turned inside out by the Israeli official, which I have to say is the only time I have ever experienced that. I mean, the guy actually took every individual thing out and, in fact, really messed it up to be quite honest. Even when I went through rigorous security checks at JFK Airport in New York a few years ago, at least the Yanks had the courtesy not to trash my bag.
Anyway, all of our passports were taken away by the Israelis who then in turn called out our names to ask some questions. A few of us from the group were actually taken aside by Israeli security itself to be politely interrogated and I was one of these lucky souls. A girl, maybe in her early twenties, called out for me and took me to one side. She introduced herself as a member of Israeli security and proceeded to ask me some of the most bizarre questions along with the routine ones:
At which point I told her that we would be going to Saudi Arabia for Umrah purposes. She then asked:
Again, at which point I calmly explained that it’s quite a basic trip that nearly all Muslims undertake.
This last question threw me off and I had to get her to repeat it after when I replied in the negative she thanked me and released me from her custody. Thereafter the whole group loosely went over to near where all the passport inspection kiosks were, like there are in airports. In fact the whole place had an airport-like feeling to it. Now there were a number of things that needed to take place for us to be able to gain passage into Israeli-controlled territory. After we passed through the above stage of security checks, the next was to have our passports and personal details checked and verified for authorisation of passage.
We first had to fill in one of those small entry cards which would be the most important document along with our passport that we would have whilst our stay in Palestine. After asking a few officials we managed to get hold of some and filled them in after which we all queued up at one kiosk where we would present ourselves for checking. At this point they still had our passports and we had a concern. That was that if they stamped our passport then when we went to Saudi Arabia we would not be allowed in with Israeli markings on our person. That included Israeli currency and, of course, any Israeli customs stamps in our passports. The reason being is that basically Saudi Arabia (officially) doesn’t like Israel or anything to do with it and also doesn’t have a peace treaty with them like Jordan does, which allows passage between the two countries’ territory. So we had kindly and emphatically requested the customs officials that when they stamp to do it on the small entry paper we had filled in.
When myself and other young lads in our group came to the official at the kiosk, we were given an A4 sheet of paper to be filled out and told to go back but others like much older members of the group and the one or two families were allowed through. We thought to ourselves: here we go!! They wanted to double, triple and quadruple check the youthful members of this Muslim tour group. The checks that they went through (if indeed they did go through with them) must have made the FBI look like nursery quizzers. Our group leader, a gentleman in his forties maybe or late thirties was allowed to go through, but nice as he was opted to wait with us, if only to keep us on a level and reassured.
What followed was a day of us doing nothing but waiting. We milled around, sat down, chatted, recited Qur’an, prayed our salah, napped on the floor, observed the people and the Israelis around us and just tried to be very patient and unaffected by the ridiculously long wait we were being subjected to for the purposes of “security”. At times we were given a false hope by the Israelis that we would be allowed through, and then they never came back for an hour, even more. One of the guys in our group started to get really frustrated and we kept him calm especially as he was about to ask too many questions to one Israeli official: The priority here was not to give them a chance to refuse us entry. The whole thing was one mind game after another and it really does test you in terms of keeping oneself from becoming frustrated in the face of such gross indifference.
Even so, a few other people waiting in this place to be allowed the privilege of passage to the Sacred State of Israel became visibly frustrated at times and almost confrontational. I recall an American lady who had a good old spat with two Israeli officials. Of course, she wasn’t brown-skinned, young, and male with an Islamic beard. If one of us did that we’d probably be thrown right back out on the pavement on the way to Jordan again, like that lady in the Tom and Jerry cartoon does to Tom when he fails miserably to catch Jerry (again!!).
Our group leader had warned us that it could take maybe 2, 3, up to four hours until we were let through. What can I say: it took us 9 hours to be let through, unheard of even to him. We arrived at about at about 10.20 or 11am and we were allowed through at 8pm. We handed our passports and entry cards which were stamped with an entry stamp and eventually let through to our waiting group companions who had been held back simply because they were travelling with some male twenty somethings. They were worn out, we were worn out and our tour guide who met us on the Palestinian side was pretty much furious as to why we hadn’t raised a fuss about having been made to wait a whole day. Easy for him to say, he was already on the other side. One thing to note was that we got on a completely different coach on the Palestinian side, again probably for security reasons. In fact, nearly everything that we encountered to do with procedure, process or Israeli regulation was founded and immersed in an atmosphere of fear, paranoia and security. I have never quite experienced anything like this in any other country.
Tired, we boarded our new coach and were warmly welcomed by Shaykh Majid (Shaykh, again out of respect). We drove away from the border with him talking on the microphone and expressing his heartfelt emotions by having a group of Muslims come to Palestine. He was clearly ecstatic, and so we were. We had finally arrived in Palestine, the beautiful and ancient land where so many things are wrong, and also right. It was dark by now and even though we couldn’t see much of the surrounding landscape, we still were enamoured by it, we could feel the land all around us. We saw Arab people, Israelis and establishments, road side stops, petrol stations, hotels with Hebrew writing. Entering Palestine, we obviously were not oblivious to the situation here of being occupied territory quickly being made a home by the occupying people. It was strange, as we knew the Palestinians live with this day by day and I’m sure we all had uncertain feelings about how to view this strange amalgamation of an occupied land and occupied people.
We had plenty of time to mull this over on the trip. We drove into Jerusalem, around the Old City Walls and were welcomed by the shining gold Dome of the Rock which looked eerily even more capturing in the night time sky surrounded by a great city’s illumination. On the way to the Bethlehem hotel where we were to stay, we drove past a city of mixed identities. We saw Jews, tourists and Palestinians milling about, winding down for the day, walking down the streets, a few women walking their dogs (like one would do in Manhattan).
Throughout the tour we would be apprised of the stark contrast of Israeli settlements and run down Arab neighbourhoods on opposing sides. We reached our hotel and mercifully were invited to a freshly cooked dinner by the hotel staff after which we hit the sack. The wait at the Israeli border had wasted our entire day. We had hoped to have been able to at least get to Jerusalem and Masjid al-Aqsa by about Asr time, but it was not to be. This reduced our wandering of Palestine from three days to much less than that. The one consolation was that we were in Palestine, in the holy land of Bethlehem and that the next day would be Jummuah.
Welcoming Palestine - Day 4
After a good night’s rest in the comfortable beds of the Nativity Bells Hotel, Bethlehem we prepared for the day of Jummuah. After breakfast we were ready quite early on in the morning to make tracks straight away on a busy day of journeying this holiest of holy lands. As soon as everybody was ready we boarded our coach driven by our good Palestinian driver. Now, the journey from Bethlehem takes you through a checkpoint at the security barrier, a hideous structure that straight away reminded me of pictures of the Warsaw Ghetto enclosures of Nazi Germany. Its inhumanity is immediately striking and it really does emanate an ominous, foreboding and dehumanising presence. In fact, staying in Jerusalem and journeying through the West Bank, one cannot avoid the constant reminders of the reality of Palestine: That of a land under occupation by a nation with a self-absorbed sense of importance and superiority which is scared to death of an incorrectly yet constant and perceived threat of annihilation.
To illustrate this, when we were driving out of Bethlehem in the direction of Jerusalem we came upon one of these very same disgustingly hideous security barriers at which point the coach was waved down by Israeli soldiers. Now this is how much they seem threatened by our presence or indeed the presence of anyone who is not Jewish and is not in this place for a Jewish reason. Two soldiers boarded our coach, one behind the other, both bulletproof vested and armed to the teeth with large automatic rifles, cocked and ready. The soldier at the front would check each of our passports in turn taking time with each inspection and looking you directly, and sceptically, in the eyes before moving on to the next one with the soldier at the rear guardedly observing the seated passengers and looking out for any semblance of a threat to his colleague.
Once this drama was over, we were allowed to pass. We were reminded many times by our Palestinian hosts that we were very lucky to have the ability thanks to our British passports to move around freely as the ludicrous farce that many Palestinians have to endure whilst moving from place to place in the West Bank is beyond a joke. We were told that Palestinians are made to wait hours upon hours in the open, whether it’s raining or hot, ordered to strip at the whim of the resident trooper and constantly humiliated in front of their families by arrogant soldiers of youth.
So we were allowed through the security barrier and proceeded to drive into Jerusalem. It was daylight now with the customary hustle and bustle of a city. Along with the Arab and Jewish residents, there were tourists pretty much everywhere. We had to pick up Majid who joined our entourage before we proceeded around the side of one of the walls of the Old City. The weather was very nice, the sun was out in plenty and it was a very good day to be out and about. The main site of our visit, of course, was to be Masjid a-Aqsa but given the fact that it was Jummuah we decided to get there by about 11am and then we could just stay there. Before we did that, we had the time to visit a few other places.
After we picked up Majid, we drove up the Mount of Olives which overlooks the whole city of Jerusalem, and what a view it was from there. A wonderful, panoramic view of the whole city of Jerusalem, this is the spot from where many of the photos of Jerusalem around the world have been taken from. On the way there, however, we stopped at an old and small Masjid complex, built with light stone and still very upright indeed. We disembarked from the coach and Majid told us that we had only a few minutes here. Strangely it had a very monastery-like feel to it, although when we entered the small space there were prayer mats. However, there were a few Christians there as well which I didn’t take to be that unusual; perhaps they were there purely out of interest.
At the back of the small space there were stone stairs descending down into another enclosed space. We went downstairs and somebody murmured about a grave. At the foot of the stairs and almost immediately to the right we came upon a tomb: that of a Muslim evidently from the drapings covered with Allah’s name and other verses. When Majid told us who this was buried here, it literally for me came out of nowhere and jolted me. This was the grave of the Woman Saint of Basra, Rabia al-Adawiyya (may Allah sanctify her secret). I had followed her history in previous years and being enamoured of the richness of her life, for me travelling 3000 km just to visit Jerusalem and then having come upon her holy grave unexpectedly came out of nowhere for me and was a heartening and delightful surprise. Majid started to talk about her but to be honest I wasn’t really listening as I was just transfixed upon the sight of her tomb. She was a great Friend of Allah, a pious woman who demonstrated to the world the fallacy of worshipping the Creator for the sake of other than Him. Many writings and sayings are recorded in relation to her life story and although tempting as it is to turn this discourse into a bio of her life, I will just let it be known to the reader that it was the greatest honour and privilege having come upon her presence and being able to stand there for the moments that we did.
Rabia had, I was later to learn died and was buried in Jerusalem despite being of Iraqi origin. She was also well-known as a saint to Christians and Jews as well and in fact, after everybody had gone back upstairs and as I was about to follow them a couple of men came downstairs and knelt in front of the tomb making the sign of the cross. Christians having come to pay homage to a Saint of God, out of the same reverence and respect for this woman as her Muslim successors. After having ascended again a few of us prayed some cycles of prayer before we exited the ancient structure and boarded the coach for the next stop.
We came to a place near the Mount of Olives where there was a wide platform teaming with tourists. This was an ideal spot to look over the whole city of Jerusalem and out towards the sacred and holy sanctuary of al-Aqsa. Many of the shots of Jerusalem that are perused around the world in books, calendars, on the internet have been taken from this very spot. We could clearly see the old walled city of Jerusalem in front of us with its medieval wall weaving a border around the central part of the city. We could the see the majestic compound of Masjid al-Aqsa to where we were to visit later, with the Dome of the Rock atop the Foundation Stone on the right and the actual Masjid on the left. We took many photos here and took a group photo as well by a photographer who worked in the area.
Leaning over the fence we could see down the sides of the Mount, with an old cemetery off to the right and we were reminded about the significance of the Mount. According to Christian theology, many significant events took place here foremost among them being the Ascension to Heaven of Jesus Christ. Naturally many Christians were around here on the Mount of Olives, in fact, statistics apprise that 65% of tourists to Jerusalem are actually Christian. We spent some time here taking in the view, taking many photographs and just taking in the view of this special, ancient and religiously very significant place on this planet. Just looking out over the city one could feel the rich history of this place with globally significant events impacting millennia after their occurrence and the devotion of billions of people throughout human history. The city is magnificent to look at, with ancient buildings, alleyways, walls, churches mosques and temples dotted throughout the land exuding a unique and natural harmony on the landscape.
After we had finished our time on the Mount of Olives it was then time to visit Masjid al-Aqsa. We drove down towards the city to the Lions Gate to the old city. The Gate itself is at the top of a very steep hill rising up from a busy main road. We stopped the coach here and walked up to it, passing through it into the Old City. As we were pressed for time, we turned left towards the entrance of the Al-Aqsa compound itself. Turning then left we came upon the gate to the al-Aqsa compound behind an Israeli Security checkpoint, as access to the compound is controlled by the Israeli authorities. Now I was a bit concerned about whether they would let us in as only about a week before we left the UK there were stone throwing protests taking place around the Old City of Jerusalem and as a result Israel had severely restricted access to the Masjid’s compounds. When we approached the Israeli soldiers, we were customarily snapped at to enquire what we were doing there and then demanded to show our passports. Once we got through that charade, the fun really began.
We entered an old gate and as we passed through it the atmosphere transformed completely. The compound was a peaceful, serene and otherworldly sanctuary of tranquillity, beauty and calm. It was amazing, I never actually thought that this place would actually cause an affect within, shared I’m certain by my companions. The surroundings initially were of a park-like landscape, with maintained gardens, tall trees and stone alleyways in between.
There were one or two old Palestinians sitting nearby with whom I started an embarrassingly rudimentary conversation somehow. Animated they were, particularly after having found out where we were from. In fact, that was the reaction from practically every Palestinian we met. Once they found out that we were Muslims from England, we were practically smothered with love and attention; they couldn’t get enough of us. I think partly that was because of Islamic brotherhood and also the fact that they came to realise Muslims from around the world have not forgotten Palestine or its people and are fully engaged, if only emotionally, with their Palestinian brothers and sisters. We were made to feel so welcome throughout our stay here, and I will elaborate with examples later on.
For now, we were standing in the third most special place in the world, designated by the Lord Himself as one whose precincts have been blessed and we were sure enough partaking thereof. We were waiting for everyone to get together before we started on our journey through the Noble Sanctuary. As we walked, Majid explained the significance and history of Masjid al-Aqsa and we were as transfixed upon his musings as we were gazing around. Some Palestinian children came towards us and offered us freshly baked bread, it was quite delicious. Their generosity was touching. We kept walking and taking pictures at the same time as listening to Majid, looking at the majestic golden Dome through the trees all the time.
We passed the Golden Gate on our walk also, the oldest gate of the Old City and also Masjid al-Aqsa, the Gate through which it is written in Jewish tradition their Messiah will enter through. It is striking because the massive structure that it is, it’s actually been completely sealed off by the Ottomans hundreds of years ago. As we continued to walk we came upon the foot of a wide staircase leading up to the platform where the Dome of the Rock stood which is where we walked up to then.
Up close and personal, the beautiful and exquisitely crafted designs of this structure are simply and breathtakingly out of this world. It is a truly magnificent building, from the outside and would you believe it even more from the inside. Words struggle to describe the majestic stonework and masonry and the richly engraved designs of the pillar columns inside surrounding the Foundation Stone, from which the famous Miraj account heralds. You are able to actually descend some stairs under the Stone itself, where some of us prayed. Unfortunately, at the time there seemed to be some renovation work going on so it wasn’t possible to view the Stone from the top and very difficult to gaze up at the interior of the Golden Dome. Honestly, though pictures do not do justice to the Dome of the Rock, neither for that matter Masjid al-Aqsa itself as I was to attest to later on after the stay in the Dome of the Rock.
On one side of the Foundation Stone is a tall and thin structure that houses the outline of the foot of the Prophet (saws) which we managed to see also. This was one of the places where, we were told, the Prophet (saws) stepped before he ascended to the heavens. This reminded us of the primary reason why we were there, what this place was and the reason for building probably one of the most intricately beautiful religious buildings in the world. This was the spot from where the Emissary of Allah (saws) travelled up to the heavens, through the other plains of reality and on toward his (saws) holding court with the Creator of Creation: The last point on this earth to touch the holy feet before they wandered through the other worlds of existence. It was humbly and equally thought provoking and I hope it instilled in us a yearning to meet with our Lord.
We went outside and observed the various other smaller structures built and contributed throughout history by countless Muslim personalities. A small dome here, a big one there for shelter from the sun, pillars over there at the top of staircases to the wider platform, and all of these structures seemed so old yet sturdy and resilient to the passage of time. Standing at the Dome of the Rock and looking towards the Hijaz in our line of sight was then of course the real Masjid itself. Masjid al-Aqsa, with its grandiose arches and the solitary, dark yet strangely inviting dome on the other end of the compound. We proceeded to walk towards it. The Masjid is situated some depth beneath the altitude of the Dome of the Rock and so what you do is go down yet another wide, old staircase towards it. There was a circular fountain with stone seats between the staircase and the Masjid where some of us refreshingly performed ablution. We then entered the Masjid.
As I entered the Masjid, my eyes wandered from the shoes racks to the pillars lining the great hall down the length of the Masjid towards the mihrab and minbar. In contrast to the vast portions of the Harameen of the Hijaz, this Masjid was still in its ornately designed form with stunning artwork all over the pillars, walls and roof of the building. As we sat down towards the front of the Masjid, as everybody was waiting for Jummuah Salah, and as I looked around much of the structure the wooden beamwork of the roof reminded me of medieval structures and the building clearly seemed to be mostly in the state that it has been in since its construction.
This impressed us even more that the whole Masjid has survived mostly intact since the time that it was built by its Umayyad architects. This was in stark contrast to the Harameen in the Hijaz as those buildings are mostly newly built and modern, with the exception of the old Ottoman portion of the Prophet’s (saws) Mosque, for example. Sitting under the colossal Dome of Masjid al-Aqsa, when I eventually thought to gaze up simply knocked the air out of lungs. It was amazing, simply awesome and colossal. I have never seen any Dome in the world with the same effect and it was just so fitting for the setting that we were in. Gaping wide-mouthed, I had to remember to take a good shot of that.
As it was the day of Jummuah, we patiently performed dhikr, recited and listened to the tilawah of Surah al-Kahf, the customary Surah to read on this day. One routine that was very appropriate and one which I have not seen in any other Masjid was that up at the front of the Masjid there was a desk situated with the copy of the Qur’an and a number of men took turns to read Surah al-Kahf to the congregation. So instead of people perhaps having their minds wander all over the place and engaging in idle talk as the time of prayer approached, we actually performed spiritual action without much effort at all.
It was to be remembered where I was sitting. Places throughout the world are timelessly marked due to the presence of a Prophet of Allah having graced his presence upon it. The one place on the earth where every Prophet gathered and was led in prayer by the Final Emissary to Mankind (saws) was where we were sitting now in this majestic Masjid al-Aqsa al-Sharif. Alhamdulillah, it was one of the greatest blessings in my life to have shared a moment in my life with this place, an ambition that I had finally achieved. I had now been to all three Holy and Sacred sites. Majestic also, for some reason was the Jummuah prayer with the Imam Yusuf reciting the Qur’an inspiringly and the Divine Kalam echoing through this hall of Prophetic heritage. It was a feeling that I had not even had in the Harameen. May Allah increase the blessings of this place and uplift all who enter it.
After the prayer had finished, a brief meeting had been arranged by our group leader with Imam Yusuf and we had a very warm sit down with him. He was gentle, inviting and extremely happy to see us. He spoke to a few of us individually, encouraged us to enjoy our stay and revealed that he himself had travelled to the UK as well. It was a great pleasure to have spent time with him. After much of the congregation had dispersed I spent some more time in the Masjid even as the group was leading out towards the open compound again. As the reward for praying in this holy place was at least 500 times as much as praying anywhere else other than the two Hijazi Harameen, one had to ensure that as much time as possible was captured here. If I was to come back here, I did not know.
As we went outside finally, we regrouped and just milled around gazing again at the different structures, the stony archways, the various, generous and towering trees and the old paving around the compound as we decided on what to do. As the Israelis had graciously wasted a whole day of ours we had to painfully finish our time here at al-Haram al-Sharif. We walked back the way we had come and out the gate of the Masjid’s compound.
Before we did leave, one of my good companions indicated to me whether I wished to visit the Masjid’s really old cemetery where two Companions of the Emissary of Allah (saws) were buried: Ubadah ibn Samit and Shaddad ibn Aws (may Allah be pleased with them). He didn’t have to even ask me and we then went to visit and pay respects to the cemetery with another one of our companions. The cemetery was situated right on the outside of the compound walls looking out over the roads of Jerusalem.
After this, we milled around for a bit getting ice creams at the entrance of the Old City before we exited the huge Lions Gate and walked down the steep hill towards our waiting coach. This was one big downside of our trip here; that we did not have time to walk around the Old City and markets of Jerusalem, the famous landmarks of this ancient city. We had to prioritise our schedule as I am about to point out where our next destination came to be.
Before we left for the Holy Land, a few weeks before there was much tension in the West Bank due to the Israeli Government having declared the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron to be an Israeli national heritage site, essentially claiming rights and privilege over it exclusively for itself. This naturally caused uproar amongst Palestinians the majority of whom are Muslim. Reason being, that amongst a number of Prophetic personalities, it housed the tomb of the Father of Prophets, Prophet Ibrahim (alaihi salaam). Many protests, some violent, ensued and decisions such as closing off the West Bank and severely restricting access to Masjid al-Aqsa by the Israeli authorities gave rise to anxiety as to whether I, and our group, would end up being allowed to go to Palestine and to Jerusalem in the first place. Thanks to the Almighty Lord, this wasn’t the case when we were there. Other than the customary attitude of superiority and sometimes contempt, we were thanks to our British passports allowed access to pretty much anywhere once we were inside the West Bank.
Jerusalem is a big sprawling city and once we had finished at the Old City of Jerusalem, we then took a scenic and winding drive out of Jerusalem towards the outskirts. Like Jordan, this part of Palestine is very hilly terrain but it also provides for very impressive views. We couldn’t help but to have our faces gazing out of the coach as we ever slowly climbed the hills around Jerusalem. Our next stop was to be Hebron southwest of Jerusalem and we drove in the wonderful sunshine an approximately half hour journey in that direction. After a stop near Hebron, where we refreshed ourselves with some food and drink, on we went. The closer we got to the part of Hebron where the Tomb of the Patriarchs, or Haram al-Khalil, was situated, the stranger it became because the streets were all deserted and quiet, almost like a ghost town.
There was hardly anyone around, except for two guys smoking a sheesha on the streets when we disembarked in a seemingly market area of Hebron. Hebron is a very old town and we had to walk some way through eerily silent and old alleyways to get to where Haram al-Khalil was. One thing that we saw which I believe has stayed with all of us as we were about to start our walk was a unit of heavily armed and fully equipped Israeli soldiers. There were about 8 of them as they walked by us, eyeing us carefully with one soldier swirling with his automatic rifle, carefully assessing all of us as the rear guard. The tension was thick in the air, along with the fact that the area was absolutely deserted and knowing of the deep troubles of the town as recently as a few weeks ago, this sight was very surreal. It reminded me of Israeli soldiers fighting in Lebanon or on the edges of the Gaza strip or the decades-old sights of American troops in Vietnam. These men were ready to fight, ready for any threat, to meet with ultimate intensity. They walked ahead in front of us in the direction of al-Haram.
With this rare sight of conflict, we kept on walking towards the alleyways. On the way to walking there some children approached us and seemed to want us to buy ornaments and other homemade things that they had with them. They were very good salesmen as they brandished and offered deals in dollars as well as shequels and dinars. They stayed with us as we walked through the alleyways of Hebron and then emerged into an open area to the left of us which was the entrance to the Haram. Going back to my previous point about this place having been completely taken over by the Israelis, the Haram’s entrance was teeming with armed police along with metal barriers, checkpoints, metal detectors and revolving gates. Talk about protective, but talk about paranoid as well. After going through the drama of being checked for nuclear warheads we proceeded up the ramp to the main building. The Tomb of the Patriarchs refers to there being the graves of three Prophets and their wives here.
The way the situation had transpired in recent weeks was that the Tombs of Prophet Yaqoub and his wife (as) had been sectioned off by the Israelis and we weren’t allowed to visit their graves. However, we could visit the Tombs of the other great personalities. The tombs of Prophet Ishaq and his wife Rafiqah (as) were in the largest space which doubled as the Masjid itself whilst those of Prophet Ibrahim (as) and Sara (as) were in their own enclosures. We spent quite some time here, praying, making duaa and contemplating being in the presence of these great Prophets and their pious and exemplary wives.
Particularly, the forefather of the Prophet Muhammad (saws), Prophet Ibrahim al-Khalil, the Friend of and Helper of Allah Almighty, one whose example the religion of Islam closely guides to follow nowhere that being more important than with the history of many of the rites of Hajj. We also observed the one decorated entrance to the cave below where the actual graves were, it being covered by an ornamented metal-plated and marble covering. We also had the privilege of hearing from the resident caretaker, a very old man who had been there apparently since before the creation of the state of Israel. He told us of the history of the place and also some of the tragic happenings such as the Baruch Goldstein massacre.
After spending a spiritually uplifting time here, we then paid our respects, greeted the elderly caretaker and left back the way we came. One of the harrowing things that we had seen walking through the alleyways was netting that had been placed over them. The reason for this was as were told by Majid, to shield people walking from garbage which was hurled at them down from above the Israeli apartments. The way the residences were arranged was that the higher apartments were where the Israelis lived which meant for contemptuous reasons they had the facility to send down their filth upon the Palestinians walking through the alleyways as they saw fit. This was an absolutely horrendous thing to witness and it made us all realise the kind of absolute and naked racism that the Palestinians had to live with on a regular basis. Thankfully, I don’t know why, but we weren’t subjected to such attention. Maybe they were just taking a break…maybe.
We drove back from there during the waning moments of sunlight and reached our hotel in Bethlehem. There was plenty to see in Bethlehem as well, the Masjid of Umar and the Church of the Nativity amongst the sites to visit. After resting for a while, I and my friend ventured out to visit the aforementioned ones. Now there being many places to visit in Palestine, we also immensely enjoyed the company of the Palestinians. Just to illustrate, we left our hotel at about 8pm and returned at … 2.30 in the morning. We didn’t even get to visit the inside of Masjid Umar and the Nativity Church. Why? Simply, that every time we stopped to talk to any Palestinian for any reason, whether to just ask for directions or enquire about where to exchange currency, once they found out where we were from, that was it then. An hour, an hour and a half, two hours or more would fly by just like that. They were so nice, warm, welcoming, friendly and unbelievably hospitable.
We chatted to a hotel manager, spent much time with a family on the doorsteps of their shop, were guided to a currency exchange by another Palestinian and eventually made it to the Nativity square and basically chilled with some young Palestinian brothers in the square there until the late night when everybody had gone to sleep. Then only did we leave to go back to our hotel rooms also. We learnt so much from all these people, of their hardships that they had to endure, their various stories of life, their aspirations and just anything and everything. What struck me so much was how well read, educated and spoken they are. All of them had an excellent command of English, I mean a newspaper’s editor’s worth. All the brothers we spent time with were Bachelor’s Graduates or Master’s or Doctorate’s students, studying in the esteemed fields of law or the sciences. However, the young brothers told us that they had the best education in the world but absolutely zero opportunity. One told me that they were “bed-drivers”, they wake up, eat and go back to sleep. They mill around the square of Bethlehem all day long and their life was restricted to that of a virtual prison. What saddened me even further was when one of them told me that as bad as their everyday conditions are in the West Bank, even this was Heaven compared to Gaza. Allah only knows what those people are going through.
It was heartening and made us realise how fortunate we were with the facilities and freedoms that we enjoyed back in our countries. One thing common to all of them was the desire to have a simple life, to enjoy it, to be able to advance their careers or their livelihoods and to be successful. Exactly what I, you the reader or anyone in the world would want. The patience, forbearance and dignity that emanated from them also will be one thing that will remain with me. Even with the children of Hebron who were desperate for a sale, not once did any of them or anyone else actually beg money from us. This is the demand of the Palestinians: dignity, freedom and to be treated like human beings.
A shocking revelation was that Palestinians in Bethlehem are refused access to enter Jerusalem and if they want to they have to apply for a permit!! One of the brothers told us how when his mother secured a day permit to visit Jerusalem, the soldiers at the checkpoints humiliated and gave her so much trouble that when she eventually went to Jerusalem and came back she told her son that maybe it would have been better had she not have gone. I felt awful, here I was having been able to visit Jerusalem and Masjid al-Aqsa standing in front of my Palestinian brothers who hadn’t been there for 10 years or thirteen years when it’s just a half hour’s drive that way. This is the ludicrous situation that Palestinians face: of the denial of free passage in their own homeland, which is also a blotch upon the civilized world which Israel laughably claims to be a crucial part of.
Even driving through the West Bank, the stark inequalities of life between Israelis and Palestinians was blaring. I have forgotten the number of times that we saw elegantly designed European style apartments on one side of the road and rundown, badly maintained Arab neighborhoods on the other. Majid who was with us also pointed out to us on our journeys wonderfully built houses and estates that used to be owned by wealthy Arabs which had since been confiscated. More than that the hypocrisy was nauseating also as we were related a story of a Russian Jew friend of Majid’s, who had been enticed by Israel to come and swell the Jewish population only to have eventually lost his livelihood and was then refused aid. He now missed Russia and believes that he never should have left that country as coming to Israel has got him nowhere.
After having waited a whole day at the Israeli border, when we complained about it at the hotel when we arrived on the first night we were politely instructed by the Christian hotel worker that that was nothing, the Israelis really make their lives hell. Given what I had heard and seen, indeed a 9-hour wait was hardly a comparison to the cruelty meted out by the clearly racist and apartheid state of Israel.
Culmination - Day 5
These were to be our last hours in the West Bank before we left back for Amman through the border from which we had entered two days before. Before we did do so, we had one site to visit still. When we left our hotel early in the morning, we drove towards the Jericho desert where our final site of interest stood. In the middle of the desert, with nothing else in sight was a Masjid building that housed the tomb of Prophet Musa Kaleemullah (alaihisalaam). There was literally nothing else for miles around. On the way there Majid pointed out Arab Bedouins with their pitched tents. He told us that Bedouins get harassed quite a lot by Israeli settlers whom I imagine are rarely punished. Another reminder of the “democratic” state of Israel.
We approached the gently sloping lane that led up to the low hill upon which the Masjid stood. We stopped and disembarked from the coach and went inside the building through the entrance. The tomb was in a locked room off to the side of the prayer hall and we had the high honour of being led into it by the caretaker, a middle aged Palestinian. There we stood in the presence of one of the Ulul al-‘Azm, the five greatest and most honoured of the 124,000 Prophets Allah had sent to mankind.
Prophet Musa (alaihi salaam) who had heard the voice of Allah Almighty, to whom the holy Taurah had been revealed and, of course, the counselor to the Prophet Muhammad (saws) on the night of Mi’raj. It was a great feeling indeed, blessed and holy. We could have been able to visit Masjid al-Aqsa and that would have been it but we had been truly honoured to have visited the holy sites in Hebron and this tomb of one of the greatest Men to have walked on the earth. We gave our greetings, experienced the quietly spiritual atmosphere of this sanctuary and prayed quietly if anything for Palestine and the Palestinians themselves to whom the professed followers of this great Prophet were meting out terrible injustices.
We then drove to the oldest city in the world, Jericho, a city with much Biblical history where Jesus Christ was tempted by Satan and cured the blind. We spent some time enjoying the sunshine and a small shopping area before we left for the border with Jordan. One of the things that we had to do on leaving the West Bank was pay something which I have never come across before: an exit tax of £35, maybe to give us a last happy memory of the joys of being allowed to visit Palestine. Who knows. On leaving the border on the other side we were met by our Jordanian bus driver who was absolutely thrilled and delighted to see us, joyful with a huge smile on his face, hugging us with his eyes gazing upon faces whose eyes had seen Masjid al-Aqsa. Remember, Jordanians are not allowed to visit Palestine and many have not seen the land for decades.
In the end, I never appreciated there was that much Islamic history, tombs of Prophets and Companions and sites of such importance there, and of course this goes for the entire region. Jordan is a beautiful and mesmerizing land with plenty to see and experience. Palestine was an eye-opener for me and I believe for every single person in our group. Along with the glorious visit to Masjid al-Aqsa, the real learning curve was traversed by witnessing firsthand the occupation of Palestine and its noble, gentle people. I am taken by my experiences mostly of meeting with the different men, women and children there and spending the time that I did with them.
Jerusalem is so vibrant, diverse with so much to see that you need at least a week, in my opinion. With our schedule already struck down by our Israeli friends we did not get to do or see all that we wanted to. However, I am so eternally grateful to Allah Almighty for having given me the opportunity to visit this very special place. As Makkah and Madinah is special, believe me this place is special in its own unforgettable and capturing way. Since coming back, I have been telling everyone that: If you get the chance to do so then visit Palestine, visit Masjid al-Aqsa. With the Israelis as a means, Allah may test your patience and perseverance, and if they do then think of it as one would do of the tests of Hajj: temporary hardships rewarded with endless fruits.
Masjid al-Aqsa, the Noble and Majestic Haram al-Sharif is the primary connection for a believer to this land and it is only a great bestowing upon the Palestinians that they are associated with it, brought with it as it does its trials and tribulations. I pray to Allah Almighty, the Lord and Creator that He liberates this whole land of Prophets and the land of al-Aqsa. This special place which forever is entrenched in the collective Muslim psyche by that epic and grandest of journeys, the Night Journey from Makkah to Jerusalem and then onwards to the heavens above from the Foundation Stone over which now stands the Dome of the Rock, a building whose beauty and architectural magnificence is surpassed only by the reason for its construction.
“Exalted is He who took His Servant by night from al-Masjid al-Haram to al-Masjid al- Aqsa, whose surroundings We have blessed, to show him of Our signs. Indeed, He is the Hearing, the Seeing.” (Quran 17:1)