Besides paying respect to God in Mekkah as the main reason of visit, people have come for many other different reasons. As for me, I wanted to meet the angel. Awkward? I know. I myself have not understood why I once had had such wish.
image is taken from momins-world.com
Following the requirements for doing Hajj, we tried to make time for praying as much as possible. I remember that everybody seemed to be brothers and sisters. Only one magic word, and suddenly everyone becomes friends: Assalaamualaykum. That's really convenient! :)
Anyway, I hadn't had my wish granted and we were already in our last round of trip in Mekkah. I thought, perhaps I had asked too much. I mean, why on earth an angel is going to just pop up in front of me? What an impossible wish! Only prophets can see angels....
During our praying time, we met many different kinds of women in all shapes and attires. There were 2 kinds of Turk women: the one who always wears whites and the others blacks. There was a group of large African men who walked in the form of circle to protect the women who stood inside the circle. And many many more. I will post more on this later. ;)
Once, a Turk lady sat next to me while I was chanting my prayers. She was large, almost twice my size.:D Her dress was all white. Her face was beaming, with a motherly look. Her eyes showed the lights full of tenderness. She talked to me in a language I couldn't understand.I answered her statements in Javanese, 'Ngomong opo to bu... Aku ki ora ngerti opo-opo.' At all times, I kept my face smiling (a true Javanese I am :D). She kept on talking until the azan summoned us to begin our prayer.
A few days later, I met her again. This time I couldn't help showing my surprise that I was able to see her in a place where more than 3 million people gathered. My facial expression clearly showed my surprise. She gave me her friendly smile to return my look. :) Of all the days I stayed in Medinah and Mekkah, I had never met the same person twice, except the people from the same Hajj tour group. And here I was. With her.
Again she started to talk. Talk, talk and talk. For the first time, I was sorry that I couldn't understand what she said. When she saw me holding my tasbih, she said,'Aaaah, bla bla bla. Allahu Akbar, Alhamdulillah, Subhanallah, Laa ila ha ilallah, bla bla bla.' I assumed she told me to pray a lot and do my zikir more by saying the names of Allah. I nodded to her, hoping that she'd known I understood. She smiled. Somehow, with no hesitation at all, I leaned my head to her left shoulder. Strangely, she didn't try to move away. Instead, she kept on mumbling words I didn't understand. She did that for ten minutes. After we prayed, she left and I never saw her again.
When I was on the plane on the way to Jakarta, I was thinking that I didn't get what I had wished for. Yet, the memory of that Turk lady was difficult to erase. Meeting her twice was like magic because of the level of likeliness. The words she said, the ones that I could understand, have been on my mind. Had I understood more, what she probably said was,'Whatever you do, remember the power of zikir.'
Back to my obsession about meeting an angel, I read in a book that angels can take the shape of men. I couldn't help it thinking. I'd wanted it to be true. I have questions. Was she an angel? Had my wish actually granted? It would be so nice if she was but I guess I'll never know. :)
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