Why is it that when a day's busy it always seems to fly by? I woke up for fajr at dawn, didn't sleep except for a nap after lunch; it's half past midnight now, and, it's the first time I get a moment to myself - a moment to write!
The highlight of today was a visit to Naseef House in the Balad. This is one of the oldest houses in Jeddah but what's particularly special about this one, is that King Abdul Aziz Al-Saud, the founder of the Kingdom, spent some time there. I'd visited the house a couple of times before, but today was, again, most special, because we got an exclusive guided tour by one of the heads of the Office of Jeddah's Heritage Mr Sami. I was with a friend of mine and a couple of other people. The tour was unforgettable! It began in Mr Sami's office where he showed us historical pictures of Jeddah and told us about its history and then, we walked around the balad and saw various important sites, including a 900 years old mosque and the original water cistern of the city! Finally, we made our way to the Naseef House to catch the Adhaan (call to prayer) from the roof where we heard over 100 callers calling Muslims to the Maghrib prayer all at the same time - absolutely priceless! (Below is a picture of the minaret of the 900 year-old mosque)
After prayer we had mint tea, millet bread and honey - a traditional food of the region and we then proceeded to a tour of the house and viewing of the artefacts and pictures displayed there, including crockery dating from before the Ottoman empire, a letter from King Abdul Aziz to the people of Jeddah, and lots of other historical bits and pieces.
I really encourage anyone to experience the sunset on the roof at the time of prayer - and if you can do what I did, pray outdoors on the roof, you'll enjoy the experience even better!
Apart from that, I'm really excited about the three blogs I've read so far. Both Farah(s) and Esma have launched their blogs and all three did a great job. Esma has managed to post quite a few times already and is now using her blog to support the 9A campaign for the Gambian orphans - brilliant idea Esma!
Just before I go, here's the link of the day, Edublog (Education Blogs) has just released the list of winning blogs for this year and although most of you are new at this, I thought you might enjoy reading through some of the winning pages - especially those written by students - http://edublogawards.com/announcing-the-2011-winners-congrats-to-all/
Happy read... xx
The highlight of today was a visit to Naseef House in the Balad. This is one of the oldest houses in Jeddah but what's particularly special about this one, is that King Abdul Aziz Al-Saud, the founder of the Kingdom, spent some time there. I'd visited the house a couple of times before, but today was, again, most special, because we got an exclusive guided tour by one of the heads of the Office of Jeddah's Heritage Mr Sami. I was with a friend of mine and a couple of other people. The tour was unforgettable! It began in Mr Sami's office where he showed us historical pictures of Jeddah and told us about its history and then, we walked around the balad and saw various important sites, including a 900 years old mosque and the original water cistern of the city! Finally, we made our way to the Naseef House to catch the Adhaan (call to prayer) from the roof where we heard over 100 callers calling Muslims to the Maghrib prayer all at the same time - absolutely priceless! (Below is a picture of the minaret of the 900 year-old mosque)
I really encourage anyone to experience the sunset on the roof at the time of prayer - and if you can do what I did, pray outdoors on the roof, you'll enjoy the experience even better!
Apart from that, I'm really excited about the three blogs I've read so far. Both Farah(s) and Esma have launched their blogs and all three did a great job. Esma has managed to post quite a few times already and is now using her blog to support the 9A campaign for the Gambian orphans - brilliant idea Esma!
Just before I go, here's the link of the day, Edublog (Education Blogs) has just released the list of winning blogs for this year and although most of you are new at this, I thought you might enjoy reading through some of the winning pages - especially those written by students - http://edublogawards.com/announcing-the-2011-winners-congrats-to-all/
Happy read... xx
I agree it's a quite unique feeling to pray watching millions pray with you at the same time. It shows the unity of Muslims around their desire to ask for Allah's mercy even after being assaulted in many ways. I've been to Balad for many times, when I was young. Mum and Dad visited this place when they first came to Jeddah, they loved it mostly because it reminds them of our Ottoman origins :D They used to take the five of us to that place with only the older one aware of what we're doing and where we are. But the pictures of Balad are still vivid in my memory.
ReplyDeleteOur roots are so important just as they are to a tree or any other plant - ensures better growth - and sadly too many of us forget that and prefer to discard our roots thinking they can be replaced by something else!
ReplyDeleteI'll try and post some of the pics I took - the balad is such a great place - so rich in culture and heritage - every street has a story, every house tells a tale of the past - I love it.
So how can I like this post? Is it only about commenting?!
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