Umrah Travel Stories: The Miqat Debate and Airplane Blankets

As for the sweets, the ones who decide to get cute.

I saw one part, girls, I was flying with Saudi Airlines, and this guy, uh, what he did to the flight attendant.

By God, he had us all chained together. “I want a meal.

What are these little things and samples you’re giving us?”

Shame on you, shame on you, boss. Give me a lemonade, buddy.

You’re the best flight attendant in the world.

Don’t you have an apple, uh, too? What’s this? What’s this?

What are you doing? Shame on you. Nobody does that.

I swear to God, no one on the plane is like you.”

Come on, he’s the master of the joke, the one and only.

We set off having chosen to go, uh, for Umrah, so before the miqat, everyone kept asking, “Where’s the miqat?”

“Where’s the miqat? Not announced yet.” And, and, and…

So one guy got up. No problem, as long as you entered ihram at home, that’s it, we’re done.

The Prophet used to ride a camel and enter ihram from home, and, uh, that’s it, we’re done.

Man, we’re waiting for the miqat. Come on, we're keeping our heads down.

Leave us alone, folks, you know- it- alls.

May God protect you. We're following what our family taught us.

At the miqat, we'll enter ihram. Folks, then this guy—he's standing on the chair, "Folks, that's it. We've passed the miqat."

How did we pass the miqat? I mean, excuse me, he had just finished the sentence right here, And, and, the, uh, the, uh, the pilot said, "Miqat."

We got off and boarded the, uh, train, Mashallah, the trains are so nice now, It gets you there in a flash.

His voice was so loud on the train. "What's with this train?

We'd have been better off walking." I swear to God, I was only half-dressed.

I, I was shaved like this, I'd entered ihram.

All right, come at me now, And, and the other thing was a disaster.

The blanket—the blanket was a disaster. That blanket was a problem known only to God, on the, on the, uh, on the plane.

Of course, all the Egyptians took The blanket the pilot gave us because of the, uh, cold.

Then you see what happened, two things happened, while they had us standing there like we were, uh, suspects in a case, and they were pulling the, uh, blanket away from us, “Put the blanket down.”

Either each of them sensed it from a distance, one signaled to the other, did this, so the other put the blanket right in the middle of the bag she was holding, and managed to hide it, or hid it in her abaya.

I want to ask you, who just came back from Umrah.

May God protect you and your honor.

Don't say, “Your hair and all that”, this, this, this, this, this is my personal business, but it's not part of the story I'm telling.

He didn't want you to take it, but you did it behind his back.

How did you do that, believer, just back from Umrah?

How did you convince yourselves it was permissible?