Experiencing the Greatness Of Allah swt: Part III - Syria Chapter

As the famous saying goes, ‘The more you give the more you get.’ The teaching of Islam encouraged its followers to sincerely share and give away certain portion of their wealth to others in whatever appropriate ways through proper channels.
It is said that the Prophet Muhammad sallah hu alaihi wassalam (saw) – peace be upon him, never like to keep any wealthy worldly things in his house.
With that fundamental, we continued our part III backpacking trip to Syria to the path of Allah swt to experience His Greatness. Thus, our main objectives were to visit as many as possible the tombs, shrines, masjid and other Islamic historical interesting places, while investing our wealth that Allah swt had granted us. Now, why Syria? Syria, besides its modesty, treasures many significant Islamic stories and histories of the famous prophets, the Companions of Rasullullah saw (peace be upon him) and his family members, and the stories of many Pious-Wise men. In line with our main objectives and out of our eagerness, we have opted Syria to refresh our knowledge and enrich our inner strength. May Allah swt grant us His Blessing, Grace and Mercy. Aamiiin.
On the 3rd of April 2010 at 15:15 hours, amid the unpredictable Egyptian weather, probably due to the global warming phenomena, seven of us commenced our backpacking trip to Syria searching the ‘light’ of Allah swt. We arrived at Cairo or to be specific, Qatamaya and stopped at Carrefour for our brief dinner around 20:50 hours. Subsequently, we arrived at Terminal 1 of the Cairo International Airport 10 minutes before 22:00 hours. The airpotophobia that I had when I travel around this region, motivated us to pray before Allah swt for His Mercy to smoothen the check-in, immigration and other airport administrative processes.
Alhamdullillah, travelling light with no big luggage, we went through all the ‘gates’ with less hustle. Well, the Egyptian is in general a very friendly and helpful species. There was slight commotion though between some of the passengers and the security team at the boarding Gate 6 that caused around 20 minutes delay of the flight RB 206. We met a friendly sweet Syrian couple, originally from Latakia who spent 2 months in Egypt while in the departure lounge. Finally, around 23:50 hours, we were transported to the Boeing 777 of the Arab Syrian Airline. The plane took off at around 00:15 hours on April 4 2010 to Damascus via Latakia, Syria.
At 04:15 hours, we finally landed at the Damascus International Airport safely. There were fewer passengers during that odd hour and the gloomy mood of the Airport crew, Security personnel and Immigration officers painted by their gloomy faces enhanced your patience. Hence, the speedy immigration process and less hustles.
Amir, our guide waited us at the arrival hall with his Assistant Azmi. We greeted each other and introduced our team to them. In Syria, we need someone who really has vast knowledge and experience to guide and bring us around. Will share and write about them later. We were ushered to the van outside the terminal building. Fortunately, it was just merely 3 minutes waiting or otherwise we would be dead frozen by the freezing cold Syrian weather.

After 15 minutes drive from the airport, around 05:00 hours we arrived at our ‘hotel’ a home stay (arranged by Amir) near the Halawat Street near the downtown Dimasq. We performed our Fajr prayer at the nearby Masjid. Before going to our first agenda of the day, Amir advised us to doze off for at least 2 hours and we actually did it for 3 hours. Alhamdullillah.