Last night Sakeenah was reading ayat 142 - 145 of Surah al-Baqarah. When she got to aya 144, she got very excited to read the word Masjid al-Haram. She yearns to visit the House of Allah.
Once when we were in a car for a long journey, we play the game called, Questions — a simple game where one person asks a question and everybody has to answer it — we were asked which place would we like to go to the most, Sakeenah answered, "Jannah!". We all laughed at the ingenuity of the answer.
"It has to be a place in the universe, Sakeenah," I said. "Oh, in the case, Makkah. I want to see the Kaabah," she said.
On her side table next to her bed, she places a miniature Kaabah I bought for her on my Hajj trip in 2019. It's been there since the day she got it. In January 2020, we took Sumayyah to Umrah and promised to take the whole family in 2021. Alas, Covid happened. And Allah is the best planner.
Her excitement over a place where she has never been to reminds me of the du'a of Prophet Ibrahim in Surah Ibrahim: 37, "So cause the hearts of some men to incline toward them, and provide them with fruits, that haply they may give thanks."
Truly Allah has answered the du’a of Prophet Ibrahim.
May Allah lift this plight of Covid-19 and allow us to visit His house and the Masjid of our Prophet.