Recently, we went for Umrah. If you’re someone who’s been for Umrah and just want to reminisce, or someone who’s never been before and want ideas, read on.

When i was a young girl, my parents decided to make going for Umrah an annual tradition. Over recent years, my husband and i decided we would love to have the same tradition. We asked Allah swt to accept our dua, and Alhamdulillah, this was our 4th family Umrah trip.

As we live in Abu Dhabi, we flew Wizz Air directly to Madinah. We usually stay at Dar al Iman Intercontinental, but this time we decided to stay at Taiba Suites.

We booked a 3 bedroom suite with haram view. Despite the fact that there is no food package, we were very pleased with our booking. The suite was spacious, accommodating our family well, and was on the doorstep to the courtyard of Masjid Nabawi. The view was amazing. As we had a kitchen, i did some groceries at the nearby Bin Dawood store, so breakfasts, lunches and snacks were catered for. The girls are self sufficient so i didnt have to worry about making things for them.

Our time in Madinah was spent with beautiful worship inside the masjid, and in the courtyard of Masjid Nabwi, along with some great family time with my sister, brother in law and nephew.

We also managed a great tour of historical landmarks in Madinah, led by my nephew, Ustadh Zainul Abedin of Ikhlaas Learning.

I have recently completed Yasir Qadhi’s Sirah of the Prophet and it was really lovely to see the sights of history. As Ustaadh Zainul is a student in Madinah, he knows some great places so we had some great meals and outings too.

We hired a driver to take us to Makkah as there were 9 of us. It was a fun trip with “Labbayk” being played loudly as we travelled. We arrived after Maghrib and decided to do our umrah after Isha.

The umrah itself was beautiful. The tawaf was not overwhelming at all, nor was sa’ee. The days that followed were spent in the haram, checking out the local places and visiting Jannatul Mualla, where my dad is buried.

We then returned to Madinah for 1 night before flying home. The flight home was delayed but we spent some time in the airport lounge, which was really nice.

Overall, the trip was beautiful. I couldn’t thank Allah swt enough. We all agreed that we returned feeling spiritually rejuvenated.