Makkah Dude

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

It was a Friday.  Safar 4, 1430 (January 30, 2009) to be precise.  And if you thought it couldn’t be more precise, the time was about 1:15 p.m.  I was in Al-Masjid Al-Haram (the sacred masjid ["mosque"] which houses the Ka’bah), and the Friday prayer had just ended.  I wanted to read, so I began heading towards the southern part of the masjid, not too far from AbdulAziz gate.  That’s when I saw her.

“Is she dead?” I asked [in Arabic] the guy that sat near her.

“No, she’s sleeping,” he answered.

“For sure?” I insistently asked.

“Yeah,” he replied.

Then I sat down about two meters behind her, with a nice view of her and the Ka’bah, and started reading and glancing at her every so often.  I had never seen one like her sleeping so peacefully.

I had seen her pretty face before the prayer a little more than an hour earlier, sleeping in the exact same place, but I thought she was just off for a quick doze.  But now I realized just how deeply and peacefully she was sleeping.  So peacefully.  Even though the masjid is jam-packed on Fridays, alhamdulilah (all praise and thanks are Allah’s), no one woke her up to move so they could pray in the place she was sleeping.

So I sat there and watched her… and read.

I was amazed.

She was just sleeping there so comfortably without a single care in the world.

After a little while, the guy that sat near her got up and left, so I went and sat right next to her so close to her that I could look down at her serene face.  She was sleeping so peacefully that I couldn’t even tell if she was breathing or not.  She was sleeping a sleep that I never dreamed was even possible.

I had never seen one like her sleeping so peacefully.

But then… she gently lifted up her head, got up, and looked at me!

Endless thoughts starting blazing into my mind.  “Oh my God!  Did I wake her up?  Is she going to leave now?  Is she angry at me?  How did I wake her up?”

It turned out she awoke for some unknown reason to me, but alhamdulilah, it was fine because she just changed positions and went back into that deep, deep sleep.

So I sat there reading and periodically gazing down at her beautiful face, body, and tail.

I’ve casually observed thousands of cats throughout my life, but had never ever seen one sleeping this peacefully.  Actually, I don’t think I’ve ever seen ANYthing sleeping that peacefully.  Not even a brick.

But wait…

Why am I writing my first blog entry about a cat on a blog that’s presumably supposed to be about Makkah?  Is it because I have nothing else to write about, or that there is nothing interesting here to write about?  Not at all.  On the contrary, this cat-venture is illustrious of Al-Masjid Al-Haram–the heart of Makkah and the world.

It’s the place where one feels a peace, serenity, and tranquility that can only be experienced to fully understand.

…So… back to the cat…

As I continued to sit there, some people would pass by and ask me the same as I initially asked.  Others would stop and pat the cat, but even with that–the cat did not leave its dream world.  Then… there came a very unexpected surprise…

“WAKE UP!”

An energetic little girl ran near the cat and started screaming at it at the top of her lungs for it to wake up in a voice louder than most alarm clocks!  Ma sha’Allah (what Allah wills), who would have thought such a tiny little girl would have such a super loud voice?

I gently tried to coax this little girl out of her mission, but she seemed impervious to my efforts–just as the cat was impervious to hers!  Regardless of how much she tried, her efforts were in vain–even after she called for backup (none other than her brother of about the same age)!

Alas, she was forced to turn back in defeat and attempt to wreak toddlerish havoc elsewhere.

I think that is a situation most people can understand as we’ve all been around toddlers, or at least been toddlers before.

So if you just take a moment to remember how loud they can be and picture that in coordination to the aforementioned sleeping cat… I think now you should be able to realize in just how relaxed of a sleep this cat was.  However, if you can’t, then try this:  Arrange with someone (your spouse, a parent, a sibling, friend, etc.) to bring a four year old (your child, sibling, etc.) in a room while you are asleep and have them scream “WAKE UP” right next to your ear at the top of their lungs.  See if you don’t have a heart attack.  But the heart attack would be so much bigger if you didn’t preplan for this four year old to attack your sleeping ears, but were rather taken by surprise by this audio monster.

But this cat neither had a heart attack nor even stirred one bit for that matter.

But what can explain such a phenomenon?

Well duh, it is Al-Masjid Al-Haram!

Hopefully this cat-venture has given you an itsy-bitsy glimpse of the peace, serenity, and tranquility one feels in Al-Masjid Al-Haram.

For those wondering about the rest of what happened with the cat… it finally woke up on its own after about three and a half hours, and has since been seen… wait… this isn’t a blog about cats!

الحمد لله رب العالمين
All praise and thanks are Allah’s, the Lord of the ‘Alamin (mankind, jinn and all that exists).