Perpetual musafir we all are

Bismillah.

Alhamdulillah wa shukrulillah for a wonderful day.

Thank God for another opportunity to travel, to put on my musafir shoes, not that we are occasional musafir, we are all in fact perpetual musafir.

Guess where I went?

Because this beautiful sunrise was too mesmerizing to miss,
this musafir paused for a couple of minutes, hence missed the ferry

   

There's a hikmah in every little thing.
So we learned there's a better ride that could take us to our destination

Guess where we were heading for?

Does that look familiar to anyone?
I visited this island several times before via ferry rides.
 And from the jetty, rode a van to this place.
This time around Allah Al-Kareem,
made us arrive in style, right on the "doorstep".
The boat ride and the sea was beautiful!  

This was the destination : D
Maqam Sultan Al-Ariffin Shaykh Ismail
Pulau Besar, Melaka, Malaysia

Sultan Al-Ariffin Shaykh Ismail was the 18th descendant of the Prophet Muhammad salallah alaihi wasalam. He was born in Baghdad in 1464 C.E. He was also a descendant of Sultan Awliya Shaykh Abdul Qadir Al-Jailani. Upon visiting the Prophet's maqam in Madinah, he had a calling to spread Islam to Java islands (South East Asia). So he did. Shaykh Ismail arrived in Pulau Besar, Melaka in 1495 C.E. Melaka is two hours drive south of KL. The island Pulau Besar is about 20 minutes boat ride from the mainland. 

Shaykh Ismail traveled with 16 other people and among them was his teacher Shaykh Yusuf As-Siddiq whose maqam is next to his murid's. Shaykh Ismail's teachings and influence attracted many people to the island. A couple of his students became prominent saints in the region.  He passed away at the age of 58. Five hundred years have passed yet his maqam continues to receive throng of visitors everyday. Shaykh Ismal traveled for the sake of Allah and Rasulullah. For the sincere devotion he had for the deen, Allah continues to preserve his good name and reputation to this day. 

May we travel for the sake of Allah. Even when we are not physically traveling, we are in reality a perpetual musafir in this realm we live in. 

As we traverse the world, the best destination has got to be the mosque - the House of Allah. And visiting maqams of the chosen ones is a noble deed because it not only reminds us of our eventual fate - death - or rather migration to the eternal abode, it also encourages us to love those whom He must really love, else why would He honor them with a posthumous recognition.

Allahu a'lam