I travelled to Europe with two girlfriends in 1981 together with a group via a package from London to several countries in Europe over 21 days. Following a non-muslim package obviously, the attractions in almost every country was their cathedrals. By the time I was 23years old, I visited and entered more churches than I ever entered mosques.
During one of those days spent in Rome, I broke away from the group and walked through Rome and ended at the Vatican City all alone. Vatican City is a country in the middle of Rome in Italy. As I was watching the Church at St Peters Square, the crowd was gathering at the Vatican City until the whole square was filled with people similar to photo below and there I was among them in the crowd not knowing what was about to happen. I did not feel scared because the crowd were happy, smiling and not hostile. Then suddenly there was an applause from the crowd cheering, with everyone looking up at the open window to the right of the Cathedral (to the right of the centre tower in the picture), and there was Pope John Paul II who was recuperating from the attempted assaination in May 1981. That was how they were towards their religious leader (I thought) and never had I experienced anything like that in my young life within my religion. I was so impressed and that brought tears to my eyes. I later went inside the cathedral to see what everyone else see. I left Vatican City that day with the feeling of how I wish I would experience the same feeling with my religion.
During one of those days spent in Rome, I broke away from the group and walked through Rome and ended at the Vatican City all alone. Vatican City is a country in the middle of Rome in Italy. As I was watching the Church at St Peters Square, the crowd was gathering at the Vatican City until the whole square was filled with people similar to photo below and there I was among them in the crowd not knowing what was about to happen. I did not feel scared because the crowd were happy, smiling and not hostile. Then suddenly there was an applause from the crowd cheering, with everyone looking up at the open window to the right of the Cathedral (to the right of the centre tower in the picture), and there was Pope John Paul II who was recuperating from the attempted assaination in May 1981. That was how they were towards their religious leader (I thought) and never had I experienced anything like that in my young life within my religion. I was so impressed and that brought tears to my eyes. I later went inside the cathedral to see what everyone else see. I left Vatican City that day with the feeling of how I wish I would experience the same feeling with my religion.
Vatican City
Then, 20 years later in 2001 I truly experiened this myself when I performed Umrah. My first trip there was during the last 10 days of Ramadhan. Prior to this I only read about pilgrims to Makkah, the closest to me was when my late father travelled to Makkah by ship to perform Hajj in 1969 and hearing stories from other relatives who went for pilgrimage. Masyallah the first time I set foot in Masjidil haram and saw the Kaabah, I truly understood what it means by Allah the Most Forgiving and The Most Merciful, tears just rolled down my cheeks as I felt so small and humbled in the eyes of Allah. Nothing compared to the tears at Vatican City. Subahanallah, then I know, there is simply no comparison to any other religion (see picture below). The only difference is that there's no religious leader waving at you but you just know that Allah is closely welcoming you to his House.
In Makkah all pilgrims are no different to one another. When in Ihram, the rich, the poor, the learned, the illiterate, all human beings are the same and all praying to One God, Allah and believing that Nabi Muhammad s.a.w. is the last prophet. Only the iman within you marks the difference with another and only Allah knows. May Allah forgive all our sins and ends our life in husnul khatimah. Amin.
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