Balad ul Ameen

It might as well have been a human magnet; it might well be for all I know.

I have friends living all over the world, quite literally. From the United States and Canada, to the United Kingdom and the greater Europe; from Japan and Korea in the far east to Singapore and Malaysia in the not so far East; from being scattered all over the Middle Eastern region to being spread all over the very country (Pakistan) that I come from. It is overwhelming sometimes to keep track of everyone; just to remember where everyone is. Then there’s Facebook!

With every minute of every day being catalogued; especially the good ones! One can’t help but feel a bit at loss when you see everyone you once knew roaming the globe: from the Grand Canyon, the Niagara Falls to the Northern Lights in Scandinavia; the high-techy places in Korea and Japan to the rolling sceneries of Europe; the majestic rise of the Swiss Alps and the tremendous twists of the ravenous Norwegian fjords, and last but not the least the high rises and the luxuries of the greater Middle East. Then there’re the people who venture into the very heart of the exquisite parts of Pakistan; a land I’ve wanted to travel and explore for so very long. You see all of this and (even with the strongest of heats) there’s a fleeting second when a desire crosses you to be able to witness it all. But that’s being human, I’m not complaining.

Such is life…

I have spent most of my life wandering the streets of Lahore, and now I live in an equally plain city i.e. Riyadh, KSA. And wherever you may be you can’t help but be bombarded with these “life at its fullest” images from all across the world; then one day something else happened.

By the grace of Allah, I found myself sitting on the pristine white marbled courtyard of Al-Masjid Al-Haram.  In that single moment of absolute calmness I thought about all of the above.

And I asked myself: Where would you rather be?

I don’t remember ever having experienced such clarity; such absolute and vividly lucid single-mindedness. “THIS is where I would rather be!”

If I had just one more day to live, just one last thing to see, this is where I’d rather be.

I understand that it is just a building, a man made cube that withers with time and has to be built-up over and over again; but even if there was nothing at that place, I would still rather be there than anywhere else on this Earth. Such is the love; the attraction that Allah has put in the hearts of the believers with regards to that small piece of land. I leave there with a heavy heart every single time; it’s like losing a loved one. And then, whenever I go back there; it’s like being made whole again. And I cannot help but think to myself when I’m standing there all alone: “Home at last; home, sweet home.”

Take your Paris and your Rome

Munich march and the London dome

Far East may be good, I know,

So may be the West

But, ain’t no place where my heart

Can find some rest

But this, this here

Is like no place no where

I was born to wander here all alone

O Balad ul Ameen… YOU are home!

 

 

*Balad ul Ameen is Makkkah as referenced in [95:3]