Salaam alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu to you all

It has been some time since I have sent out an email so I thought I'd
share some of my reflections of my trip to Jordan and Palestine.

Alhamdulillah, during my winter vacation my parents came by to visit
us in Kuwait and since there's absolutely nothing to do in this
country we decided to go to Jordan and Palestine.

Both Jordan and Palestine possess natural beauty the likes of which I
have never seen in my life. While in Jordan we visited Petra, which is
home to a perished nation known as the nabataeans. Some believe that
these people were quwmi 'Ad because they built their homes out of the
mountains but according to the local shuyukh of the area they are not
'Ad. Their dwellings were quite impressive, as they carved huge
structures out of mountains, however it was eerie how these people
just vanished... another really strange/freaky thing we saw was a huge
pillar of salt affixed to a mountain facing the dead sea. People
believe it is the remains of the wife of Lut (A.S), as people believe
the area of the dead sea is where the wicked community of Sodom and
Gomorrah resided. Judging by the way the structure juts out of the
mountain it definitely was something strange.

After spending a couple of days in Jordan we moved on to Palestine. We
took the road border to Palestine and Jordan. Though we got held at
the israeli border for about 4 hours eventually we were allowed entry
into Palestine. Alhamdulillah while we were there we were blessed to
pray our salawaat in Masjid al-Aqsa including salat-ul-Jumu'ah.
Honestly, the haram of aqsa is like nothing i have ever experienced
before in my life. there is so much heritage, culture and history in
this sanctuary, unlike the haramain in Saudi which is all modernized
and poshly designed by the saudi government. In aqsa the structures
have remained unchanged for over a thousand years. They actually have
little mihrabs all over the outside part of the compound which where
built during the time when great scholars all over the ummah used to
teach there. Also, we were able to go downstairs to the original
structure of al-aqsa where it is believed that Ishaaq (a.s.) built the
structure forty years after the kabah and where Prophet Muhammad
(pbuh) led all the prophets in prayer.

We were also able to see other sites such as the church of the holy
sepulchre, the mountain from which Omar (ra) made takbeer when he
entered palestine, the supposed burial place of Musa (a.s.) etc. While
driving around Jerusalem we saw the infamous aparthied wall,
strategically cutting up the west bank in such a way as to seperate
the palestinians from sections of their land. The walls can be seen
all over and have been build around the west bank and gaza to
essentially make life unlivable for palestinians. Subanallah, many
palestinians can eleviate their suffering by just selling their lands
and properties but have chosen a life a difficulty and hardship in
order to keep a muslim presence in these sanctified lands.

while in Palestine we were able to spend time with a palestinian
familly who live in Jerusalem (not the palestinians living in the west
bank and gaza). they were able to enlighten us with some of the
complexities involved with living under occupation. It was quite
amazing that so much of what they were describing to me resembled the
story of musa (a.s.) with banu israeel (which is ironic because the
same things that were done to them they are doing to others). The
reactions and mentalities that develop under oppression and occupation
are exactly as Allah describes in the Quran. I was also reminded of
Malcolm X's anology of the house negro and the field negro. it was an
amazing and enlightening experience. I pray you all one day can make a
similar journey to this blessed land. My heart truly longs to go back
inshaa Allah.

anyway, i have to go now. only 4 months left till we come back inshaa
Allah!!!!!

looking forward to seeing you all soon inshaa Allah

Wasalaam

Naved