🇸🇬EdTech Blog: Holymoon trip

Having just got married last weekend, I actually went off on a 'holymoon' pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia. However, I always keep an eye out on the lookout for effective or efficient use of technology wherever I go. Now that I am in Madinah, Saudi Arabia and paying my respects and giving my regards to Prophet Muhammad ﷺ as well as his family and companions. This is a religious obligation that I am blessed to be able to fulfill and I get to be closer to my spiritual self too. We visited some of the holy sites which includes the first mosque ever built, Quba' mosque, and also the Prophet's Mosque, ٱلْمَسْجِد ٱلنَّبَوِي. We went to see Mount Uhud and also the Qiblatain mosque (previously the Qiblat was at Al-Aqsa, Palestine but since then the direction of Muslims' prayers have shifted to the Holy Kaabah in Mecca.

As I paid for Singtel's Ready Roam 30 days with 3GB for $40, I was able to access Google Translate and Google Maps as basic tech tools. Recently, I took the chance to go visit the Prophet's Mosque library which could be accessed by door no. 10 ١٠ 'ashra (عشرة) as I wondered what wondrous books would be kept in such a holy place. It comes to no surprise that there would be a library in the Prophet's Mosque as knowledge-seeking is highly encouraged in our religion.

Abu Huraira reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said:

مَنْ سَلَكَ طَرِيقًا يَلْتَمِسُ فِيهِ عِلْمًا سَهَّلَ اللَّهُ لَهُ طَرِيقًا إِلَى الْجَنَّةِ

Whoever travels a path in search of knowledge, Allah makes easy for him a path to Paradise.

Source: Sahih Muslim 2699, Grade: Sahih

According to madainproject.com,

"Orginally established in 1481 CE (886 Hj.) library of prophet's mosque (مكتبة المسجد النبوي) was destroyed in a fire in year 1482 CE, which destroyed much of the holy mosque as well. The Saudi government ordered to reestablish the library in year 1933/34 CE (1352 Hj.) on the recommendation of Obaid Madani, who was then director of endowments in Madinah. Library is located within the western wing of Prophet's Mosque and serves as a modern library and archive of hand written manuscripts and other artefacts."

There were several desktop computers for use in the library and there were many Arabic books around the place. The books which were in languages that I could read/understand were in a separate room with a few shelves worth of English and Indonesian books amongst other languages like French and Urdu.