To trail the footsteps of the Prophets.. (9)

(cont’d)

On the subsequent day, we were brought to Imam Nawawi’s shrine located in an isolated small mosque. The centre of the mosque wasn’t roofed and lays a big leafless tree. The old man who looked after the mosque explained that Imam Nawawi was against excessive grave beautification as he realized that people will prone to come and do superstitious and khurafat activities at such grave. But when Imam Nawawi passed away, the people still build unnecessary decorations at his grave and suddenly grow the big tree smashing and rupturing the entire edifice. (Correct me if my story isn’t precise)

Our next pit stop was Prophet Job’s shrine (Prophet Ayub) followed by visiting his renowned well, located in a distance from his shrine. Poorly when we got there we found that a few boys were playing and bathing in the well itself. It looked like the historical well was no more preserved. And I wonder if the well will still exist if I were to visit the well again in a couple of years time.

After that we set off to Busra, Suria where again the remains of Rome architecture were discovered. Something different this time was that the leftovers include bathrooms with sauna cubicles and a massage section but in their own traditional way. Other than that the site was equipped with a small museum and as usual, a coliseum. Close to that area we walked to a mosque where we spent quite a long time there, praying, eating apricots and resting ourselves. After Busra, we had Nasi Mandi once again for lunch, seems like we’re Nasi Mandi freaks. Hihi. And in addition to that, I got the chance to taste banana ‘asir, which was actually banana blended with milk. It tasted good, something like vanilla ice cream but since it was meant to be a beverage, I think it was too thick to be like one.

That night we visited Sayidina Zainab’s shrine, who was the sister of Hussein. Just like Sayidina Ruqaiyah’s shrine, it was located in a Syiah mosque and was intensely adorned; which in a way exhibited a high level of extravagance. When I first entered the mosque, I was presented with a superb interior embellishment, shining golden wall with the lighting and all which stunned me and made me ponder; is this a mosque or what? I personally think that the necessity of those massive decorations should be well deliberated before it was built; I mean to avoid the misuse of money. But I’m not aware if such decoration was actually meant to be a tourist attract, then that would make a perfect sense.

After that we went for window shopping in Damascus but as it was already late, most of the shops were closed. Then Ustaz Razi kind-heartedly treated us with ice creams, the famed hand-made Bakdash ice cream. Yeay! Actually I was really full at that time but can’t resist the desire to try the special ice cream. The ice cream was utterly different from the ordinary ones, from the way it was made to its texture.