Repentance, O Pitiful! Repentance before Death, and Pardon
after Death! I beg pardon of Allah! Thanks be to Allah! Praise be to
Allah! Amen, O Lord of the (three) Worlds!”
After which, issuing from Al-Bakia,[FN#30] we advanced
[p.44] northwards, leaving the city gate on the left hand, till we came
to a small Kubbah (dome) close to the road. It is visited as containing
the tomb of the Prophet’s paternal aunts, especially of Safiyah, daughter
of Abd al-Muttalib, sister of Hamzah, and one of the many heroines of
early Al-Islam. Hurrying over our devotions here,—for we were tired
indeed,—we applied to a Sakka for water, and entered a little
coffee-house near the gate of the town: after which we rode home.
I have now described, at a wearying length I fear, the spots visited by
every Zair at Al-Madinah. The guide-books mention altogether between
fifty and fifty-five Mosques and other holy places, most of which are
now unknown even by name to the citizens. The most celebrated of these
are the few following, which I describe from hearsay. About three miles
to the North-west of the town, close to the Wady al-Akik, lies the
Mosque called Al-Kiblatayn—“The Two Directions of Prayer.” Some give this
title to the Masjid al-Takwa at Kuba.[FN#31] Others assert that the
Prophet, after visiting and eating
[p.45] at the house of an old woman named Umm Mabshar, went to pray the
mid-day prayer in the Mosque of the Benu Salmah.
