Haj Pilgrims Visit Places Of Interest In Madinah

From Hafizah Kamaruddin MADINAH, Aug 30 (Bernama) -- More than 700 haj pilgrims, who have arrived in the first two flights last Wednesday, were taken for a half day tour of historical mosques, and the famous Mount Uhud. Mount Uhud, which is situated more than five kilometres from Prophet's Mosque - Masjid Nabawi, has always been remembered for the Uhud War in which 3,000 polthesist army attack 700 Muslim army in 625 AD. In the war, Prophet Muhammad was badly injured during the attack, and 70 Muslim martyrs died and were buried in the battle field. The pilgrims, travelling in 19 buses, with each bus being allocated a mutawwif or religious guide who were mostly Malaysian students studying at the Madinah University, were also taken to visit the famous Quba Mosque. Muslims who purify themselves at their homes and offer two rakaat of prayers in the mosque will be rewarded with an umrah, a lesser pilgrimage. The pilgrims were also taken to visit the Qiblatain Mosque, where Prophet Muhammad, while praying his second rakaat Zuhur prayer, changed the Qiblat direction towards Masjidilharam from the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Baitul Maqdis. It was reported that Prophet Muhammad had prayed towards Baitul Maqdis for 16 to 17 months before changing it towards Makkah. Meanwhile on Friday, three more flights have arrived with the eighth Tabung Haji flight touching down at Prince Mohammad Bin Abdulaziz International Airport at 5 am local time (10 am Malaysian time), followed by the ninth Tabung Haji flight at 9 am local time (2 pm Malaysian time) and the 10th flight, the final one for Friday at 2.20 pm local time (7pm Malaysian time). At present 2,325 pilgrims have arrived in Madinah for visit programmes before moving to Makkah, starting from Sept 4, for their umrah and haj. Tabung Haji, the Malaysian haj pilgrims fund board expected 11,000 of its 22,320 pilgrims to descend to Madinah before haj, and the others will be visiting Madinah after the haj in October. -- BERNAMA