Albaik Chicken

Here's Story 3 from my umrah stories. 

Story 3: Albaik Chicken

I especially enjoyed iftar (breaking fast) in Madinah. Strangers would invite you to eat with them. Everyone shared their food. The spirit of ukhwah (friendship) was strong. Sharing food with others in Ramadan is greatly encouraged and the rewards are tremendous. 

Instead of eating at the hotel, I preferred to eat outside the mosque with the other pilgrims from all walks of life, various ethnicities, skin colour, status in life; all equal in the eyes of God. What differentiates one Muslim from another is his level of piety and iman (faith). 

Aunty S asked me if I had tasted the famous Albaik Chicken. She said it was more delicious than Kentucky Fried Chicken and other chicken brands. She told me that she wanted to treat me to an Albaik chicken meal. But as we were busy with fasting and doing our umrah rites, we didn't have time to go to an Albaik restaurant (which opened in the evenings during fasting month). One evening, we were seated with the others outside Masjid Nabawi (The Prophet's Mosque) waiting to break fast. Someone was passing a big box containing Albaik chicken meals. Aunt S was happy that I would be able to taste the chicken. Alas, when the box reached me, it was empty as the woman next to me had taken the last meal box. I told Aunt S that it was alright as I would try to eat it in Makkah.

When we reached Makkah, I was pleasantly surprised to see our hotel. It was super luxurious that I almost felt guilty. I remembered telling the travel agent that I didn't mind staying in whichever hotel as I was used to backpacking and staying in cheap lodgings. I was not a tourist but a pilgrim in Makkah. Hotel star rating would be the least of my concerns. Aunt S told me that perhaps God wanted us to stay in luxury and have the ease to visit the Grand Mosque which was within walking distance. So, let's be thankful, she said. I figured that the hotel was the choice hotel for celebrity Muslims performing their pilgrimage. Once, I took the lift with someone who looked familiar, like this African-American Hollywood rapper. The 'rapper' smiled at me and I wanted to ask him if he would be who I thought he was. However, I remembered that I was in Makkah and that I should lower my gaze (from 'haram' men). I became coy and shy. I was surprised at myself. *lol

Late one evening, Aunt S burst into the room and said that there was an Albaik Chicken restaurant in the hotel building. She saw someone carrying the meal pack in the lift and was told the location of the restaurant. Aunt S told me and my friend Sanif that she wanted to treat us to the chicken meal. We went to restaurant only to find the long, long queues. I told Aunt S that I was too tired to queue. Sleep was more important than the chicken meal. I told her that if I was meant to have that chicken meal, it would happen before I leave.

On the last day in Makkah, I asked someone to take a photo of me in front of the kaabah. I had refrained from taking selfies in the holy place. I find it distasteful for pilgrims to take selfies as if they were on a fun vacation. Since, I did not have a photo of myself in front of the kaabah, I thought why not just take one photo. En route to Singapore, I finally managed to look at the photos which I had taken on the last day. Quel surpris, in the same photograph where I stood in front of the kaabah was a plastic bag of Albaik Chicken (which I never got to taste)!