As salaamu ‘alaikum wa rahmatullaahi wa barakaatuh. This is my zawj’s take on the day we made Hijrah. I still have yet to collect my thoughts. In Shaa Allaah, when I am able to express myself I will write about it (my views are a little different than his). So, for now enjoy his story.
Haneefah
Chronicles of a Canadian Muhaajir
Hijrah in Ramadhan? The Departure…
as salam alaykum wa rahmatullaah,
It wasn’t supposed to be during Ramdhaan, I was supposed to be in Saudi Arabia almost a month ago. Qadr Allaah wa masha fa’ala. After resigning from my job and being delayed at my travel agent it was Ramadhaan by the time we were finally ready to go. We had got all of our shots, had our entire paperwork ready, sold or gave away what little we owned and we waiting like a countdown to hear “tomorrow” or “next week”. For someone who has been Muslim for 12 years (13 after this Ramadhaan) I didn’t want to wait any longer and my family was as anxious as I was.
Totally expecting bad news and disappointment, I called the travel agent, it was already the second night of Ramadhaan and my family and I were preparing to get used to the idea of another Ramadhaan in the West. The night before, I woke up at night and prayed, I read everything I knew and begged Allaah to let me leave the West, I didn’t want to spend one more day in the West, let alone another Ramadhaan. Now I’m on the phone waiting for the travel agent to pick up, same bad news. Exactly as expected, “I’ll get back to you, I’m trying to get you out today.” Yeah, Yeah, same old news.
But at 11:00am something strange happened. The phone rang and there was the travel agent telling me to get ready, our plane leaves today at 7:45pm. What?! I shook my head violently to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. Nope, I was very much awake, just bewildered at the notion that we would be leaving today. Now I need a ride, and it’s a good thing I have some very close friends.
I called my friend and asked shyly, “Um… what are you doing today?” Knowing I was trying to make Hijrah and possibly expecting I needed a ride he said almost jokingly, “What are you doing today?” After telling him the great news he agreed to come and pick my family and I up, and we went off on a mad scramble to tie up any loose ends before our departure…
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