abtravels

The next morning after breakfast I decided to visit the museum at the clock towers for a guided tour. It was 10AM when I got there and the English tour was scheduled to start at 10:10AM. It’s a good museum and very modern, however you just need to be mindful that it is a very immersive digital museum with few artifacts that you can literally see in real life. This was still great as it was very immersive and incredibly well presented. Beyond that it was very informative and educational.

By the way, the one in Makkah, as it is in Makkah only Muslims can visit, but there is another one in Madinah. I didn’t go to the one in Madinah but it is open to non Muslims as non Muslims can visit Madinah. Sacred places like mosques are still only reserved for Muslims, they’re not tourist sites, these are holy places, but non Muslims can visit the city in general and from YouTube vlogs I’ve seen prior to my journey, it is a very hospitable place with kind stewards – so count yourself lucky!

The museum is SAR 70 for a guided tour which I would definitely recommend. There are two entrances to the museum, one for the gift shop and another for the entry into the museum. I entered the museum and purchased my ticket for a guided English tour. The veiled woman at the reception was very kind to speak up as I think it became clear that I was hard of hearing.

After waiting a few minutes in the lounge area where other attendees who were waiting for the English tour were arriving, we were then welcomed and directed into the first exhibit if you like with the tour guide who was a woman wearing a veil.

There were panoramic displays of Makkah and Madinah and how the two cities had changed over time. These were fantastic displays and very colourful. They were other displays which gave you an immersive tour of the prophet’s (PBUH) house and village at the time of his life. The house can’t have been any bigger than my living room I would imagine. It was very immersive. I don’t know if you’ve ever used a VR headset but it was kind of like that.

Key things that I did learn were about the roles of women and I think 80 hadiths – scriptures – that exist where prophet Muhammed (PBUH) during his time in Madinah directed that there needs to be women teachers, nurses, doctors, basically in every role in society that there was. This was incredibly inspiring to me and somewhat left me a little confused about where some misogyny in the context of Islam comes from. 

This wasn’t what the prophet taught. I came to realise and understand after speaking to a friend of mine on my return to the UK, that it’s the fusion of religion and culture that has been the cause of many problems. A lot of Muslims today around the world are mixing up religion and culture incorrectly as it’s been ingrained in us that we should read and study in Arabic without going to the effort of understanding it.

When you go to Makkah/Madinah however, it gets a little clearer that hold on, we need to double down on everything we are doing to understand our religion. Basically don’t make assumptions, just because this is what we’ve been led to believe growing up. 

The museum, whilst not in a direct way, made this evident to me. I’m so grateful for that as it was a complete refresher in a way after so many years of constantly having this negativity vibe being bashed into us due to global events and the actions of a few. 

So to learn about the compassion of the prophet, his prophetic quest to unite the tribes of Makkah, his teachings about our regard and the roles for women, it was inspiring. It feels weird to say that as I’ve been a Muslim my entire life. But do I know my religion? I think or I came to understand I still have loads of work to do. This is a beautiful thing about the wider parts of Makkah beyond the Grand Mosque – it is a valuable learning experience that I never got growing up.