It’s been a week since Ukrainian pilgrims headed for Hajj. After four days in the Prophet’s City, Medina, Ukrainian delegation headed for Mecca.
Ukrainian pilgrims arrived to Medina on tuesday morning, September 15, and accommodated at “Aswaf” hotel in a few minutes walking distance from the Prophet’s Mosque. The programme was quite varios, though nothing was too much: they had enough time to byu both everything they needed for performing Hajj, as well as different gifts and souvenirs.
Thanks to the accommodation, the pilgrims could perform all 5 daily prayers at Masjid-an-Nabawi. here they also visited Prophet Muhammad’s (peace and blessings be upon him) grave, as well as the places of final rest of his companions Abu Bakr and Umar situated inside the mosque. besides, they visited the famous Al-Baqi cemetery hear the Masjid-an-Nabawi, where many of the companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) found their final rest, including his uncle abbas, grandson Hassan and other famous people.
On Thursday, Ukrainian pilgrims went for an excursion over the prominent places of Islam, including the Uhud mountain, where the Muslims were defeated by Meccan pagans in 625. This battle became the first and only victory of pagans over Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, and muslims all over the world learn lessons from that battle until this day.
In terms of excursion, the pilgrims also visited the famous Mosque of Two Qiblas, where the prayer direction was changed, and Al-Qubah mosque, which was the first mosque in the history of Islam, built by Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) during his hijrah (resettlement) from Mecca to Medina, and has a great historical and spiritual meaning for every Muslim.
The Prophet himself stressed the meaning of that mosque by visiting it weekly. It’s important for the believers to perform a two-rakat prayer in that mosque.
The pilgrims had some spare time between the excursion and Saturday morning. While in Medina, Tariq Sarhan held several seminars on Hajj rituals. those seminars will be repeated after the pilgrims arrive to Mecca.
The trip didn’t go without pleasant surprize: among thousands of copies of the Holy Qur’an and translations of it’s meanings the pilgrims found a Ukrainian translation as well. They were surprised by that discovery, which became a remarkable reminder of their Homeland.
