Shazad, UK

An Awakening

I hadn’t spoken to my brother for 25 years. I was in Makkah for umrah in January 2017 (we were staying in Madina as our daughter lives in Saudi), when the thought came to me, “How can I live in Madina and be doing all these good deeds, but not be talking to my brother”. Allah put the desire to fix things with him in my heart. I tried to remember why we weren’t on talking terms anymore but couldn’t pinpoint exactly what had happened. My wife and kids had tried to get me to make up with him in the past but I wasn’t interested; I would just get angry. It was like my heart was covered during that time; the anger clouded my judgement. I didn’t even think of sorting things out before I came on Hajj. But now, since coming here and spending so much time here, it impacts you in so many ways. Now I can see clearly.

The Visit

So, on a visit to England this past April, my wife and I drove up to my brother’s city. I didn’t tell anyone. I wasn’t even sure where he lived; I just had a rough idea. I parked up and knocked on a couple of doors asking after him until a man directed me to the correct house. When my brother answered the door and saw me standing there, he just burst into tears. So did I. We didn’t say anything; we just cried and hugged. My wife and his wife joined us inside afterwards and we agreed to forgive everything from the past.

I don’t even remember why we stopped talking. It was over something related to inheritance. But what’s money?! I got Madina instead which is much greater. What else do you need in life? There are some things money can’t buy. Allah has given me so much more.

25 years went past so quickly, but what a waste. We missed out on so much. I met his kids for the first time, too.

Umrah

I first came to umrah in 1998. I had gone to my local mosque for juma where the Imam was talking about the Haramain. The next day, on the Saturday morning, I was just sitting and thinking about being in Makka, doing tawaf, drinking zamzam etc. I told my wife, “I want to go to Umrah”. She said, “That’s good” and rang a few people we knew about how I could go. That very Monday, I went to work in the morning and in the afternoon was on a flight to Makkah! It happened so quickly and my imaginings became a reality.

I’m glad Allah has given me the ability to come here. These have been the best days of my life. We have been here for nine months. There’s nothing like this.

I’m also happy that I was the one that took the first step to fix things with my brother; it doesn’t matter who feels they are the wronged party. I hope to get the reward for this. I look back now and think I was crazy. It was madness to be upset for 25 years!

Now I realise that money isn’t everything. When you don’t have anything, you have less problems!