The next day was actually Friday and I was blessed and fortunate to be able to read Friday prayers at the Prophet’s mosque. I didn’t have a big breakfast again which was a shame as it was my last buffet breakfast.
The Friday Prayers start at 1PM however after doing a bit of research with Copilot it was recommended that you go quite/very early to make sure you actually get a space within the mosque.
This was true as I left at 10:30AM and by the time I got there, there were crowds of people and the main prayer hall was so full already that they were starting to seal off sections already. The only remaining areas were the upper floors but the only area I could settle into was the roof of the mosque. This was 2 hours before the prayers were due to start. I remember walking up the stairs with crowds of men. It was so busy already.
I sat there on the floor for about 2 hours until the Khutbah – sermon started. It was pretty much the same as Friday prayers anywhere but I became acutely aware that this may probably become one of my last acts of prayer within Masjid an-Nabawi. As such it did feel a lot more meaningful to me at that moment.
As I had a late night flight I knew I could always come back for evening prayers, I would have sufficient time. I made this intention so I didn’t at this point say my farewell prayers.
When the prayer was finished there were scores of people that were going down through the exit. It took about 20 minutes to exit the mosque itself. It was by this point I felt the need to go to the toilet. One slight criticism I have of the mosque toilets is one – most are squat toilets and there’s often very few sit down toilets. Two – as the Wudu area is closeby, it is normally very wet which isn’t comfortable. Because of this I thought it might be better to get back to the hotel rather than wait to use one at the mosque.
As I was walking back there were quite a few vendors selling items you wouldn’t normally find in the area on a typical day. There were all sorts of vendors selling Attar (Perfumes), sweets, prayer beads and dates.
There was one guy who was shouting out “1 kilo Ajwa 10 riyals”. 10 riyals for 1kg worth of dates is about £2 and that is shockingly good value for money. Most souks and shops I visited were selling 1KG for about SAR 35. This vendor was right outside my hotel, and I thought well let me just go to the restroom and I’ll come back out to buy. I was only 10 minutes I think but when I came back out, the guy had gone which was a shame.
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