A lot of people asked me "what miracles did you encounter?" when I had just returned from hajj. I got confused because I don't think there were anything particular things that stood out. But when I went on to tell the story of how I even get to go for hajj in 2014, someone said "that's your miracle".
HANG YOUR DREAMS 5CM IN FRONT OF YOUR FOREHEAD
In the book "5 cm" by Donny Dhirgantoro, there is a quote "hang your dreams 5 cm in front of your forehead , so that you can remember and strive to reach it".
I'm a firm believer that one should always keep a written list of what he/she wants to achieve or have a visual reminder. It may sound silly, but I believe it plays a part in achieving your dream. So, when I was still a student in university, I created a list of things to achieve in life. One of the points in the list says, "go to hajj before 35 yrs old." I was a bit doubtful when I wrote "35 yrs old". But then I thought, "you know what, anything is possible for Allah."
Then, when I first started working in 2011, I setup a picture of Ka'bah as my desktop background. My colleague said, "wah, masang gambar ka'bah di laptop". I said, "Yes :) I'm going to go there someday". The Ka'bah desktop background was my visual reminder. I see it almost everyday. And even when I don't think about it, I believe the universe conspires to help me achieve it.
FROM A 10-YEAR PLAN, TO JUST 1-YEAR
After two years of marriage, our household income is still just enough to get us by and set aside some savings, alhamdulillah. I wasn't working at that time and was constantly in stress because I used to be so active. I was praying night and day, begging to Allah to give me a job. And in the previous Ramadan, we sort of did the unthinkable, we gave all of our savings to charity.
Just one month before I finally got a job, husband and I were having conversation about saving up for Hajj. We made a target of going for hajj in 10 years, calculated the cost and also took into account the inflation, and finally calculated the monthly amount that we needed to save. We then made a commitment to save our money x amount each month for the next 10 years for Hajj.
About three months after we gave up all of our savings, alhamdulillah, finally Allah answered my prayers. I secured a contract position within the company I used to work for in Indonesia. It was only a contract position, but I'm grateful for anything. A contract position will do just fine.
So, I received my contract and began calculating the salary that I will be earning during the contract. Miraculously, the amount is just enough to pay for two person to go for hajj. I didn't know what was going on in my head. I could have thought of buying other things, but I was thinking about going for hajj (?). I was so excited and asked my husband if he would like to go for hajj the next year. Of course, he would say "yes!".
ALLAH DOESN'T CALL ON THE WEALTHY, BUT ENABLES THOSE WHO HAVE THE CALLING
Just one month before I finally got a job, husband and I were having conversation about saving up for Hajj. We made a target of going for hajj in 10 years, calculated the cost and also took into account the inflation, and finally calculated the monthly amount that we needed to save. We then made a commitment to save our money x amount each month for the next 10 years for Hajj.
About three months after we gave up all of our savings, alhamdulillah, finally Allah answered my prayers. I secured a contract position within the company I used to work for in Indonesia. It was only a contract position, but I'm grateful for anything. A contract position will do just fine.
So, I received my contract and began calculating the salary that I will be earning during the contract. Miraculously, the amount is just enough to pay for two person to go for hajj. I didn't know what was going on in my head. I could have thought of buying other things, but I was thinking about going for hajj (?). I was so excited and asked my husband if he would like to go for hajj the next year. Of course, he would say "yes!".
ALLAH DOESN'T CALL ON THE WEALTHY, BUT ENABLES THOSE WHO HAVE THE CALLING
Alhamdulillah we will have sufficient amount of money to go for hajj, but the problem doesn't really stop there. The hajj service that we used is one of the popular one amongst Indonesians, so we had to book it fast. We inquired about the price around October 2013 and we were told that there are only few seats left. So, if we're interested we need to registered ASAP. Usually quotas won't be full until a couple of months before the month of hajj.
We were in panic because we haven't done our homework on comparing the price of different hajj travel services and were also told that we had to pay $2000 for deposit to secure a seat for next year's hajj. We didn't even have that kind of money in our savings. But alhamdulillah, with basmallah (and faith to Allah) we were able to scrape money from other budgets and pay the deposit. A month after that we were trying to get by with little money, but alhamdulillah we were able to manage and it was all well worth it.
IN CONCLUSION
Most people will wait until they achieve everything, especially finance independency before going for hajj. But I'm very grateful for the choice that we made. There are a lot of places in Makkah and Madinah where prayers will no-doubt will be granted (inshaaAllah). And alhamdulillah, since returning from hajj, Allah has made our life much easier. The homework now is to maintain our ibadah to show our gratitude to the Almighty.
Most people will wait until they achieve everything, especially finance independency before going for hajj. But I'm very grateful for the choice that we made. There are a lot of places in Makkah and Madinah where prayers will no-doubt will be granted (inshaaAllah). And alhamdulillah, since returning from hajj, Allah has made our life much easier. The homework now is to maintain our ibadah to show our gratitude to the Almighty.
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