Ottomonresurrecion Part 1 (Istanbul)

Salam,
yes finally an entry!!! after so long alhamdulillah god gave me wisdom to write yet again..

sobona ee, eden baru blik dr turkey ni ah....banyak bukan main lg ee bendo yg eden blaja..x terkiro.

one of the reason why i wanted to go to turkey was to observe with my own eyes how is my muslim brothers overthere after so much that Mustafa Kamal Ataturk Laknatullah has done (Ataturk means father of turkey).Besides wanting to know their cultures and seeing istanbul itself which many claims is one of the most beautiful city in the world.The night before my flight i went with my cousin in London to see his friends, one of them even said that after seeing istanbul she felt that other places that she had gone was ordinary, istanbul was the best, it has a mix of eastern and western buildings etc.This excited me more.....

This was my journey.....(with few tips for those who are interested in going to turkey)

Saya mendarat di Lapangan Terbang Sabiha Gokcen, terus naik bas Havas(nama company) ke Taksim Square, fyi airport tu located in asian region istanbul,istanbul ada european region juga ok...it took around an hour to reach there.cost 13 TL. Then kena amek bus ke Aksaray, apartment which we were staying in.55 TL/night 2 double bed tp kitaorang sumbat je 10 org haha owner x kesah.Hulya Apartment nama dia.Owner's name is Abdul Qadir, turkish who couldnt speak english.luckily we had a translator, sister Jasmine.
Disinilah tempat pertama kitaorang experince turkish muslim's hospitality starting with the owner...eventhough he couldnt speak english,still he treated us chay(tea), biscuit etc, he even allowed us to take anything in the kitchen...

The next day, we went to see Hagia Sophia and Blue Mosque.

Hagia Sophia
-was once a church during roman times, then converted into mosque by Sultan Mehmet Fatih,then converted into museum during Kamal regime,nauzubillah
-when Fatih first conquered Constantinople, he change the name into Islambul, then Kamal change it into current Istanbul.He aloud the community to practice whatever religion they wanted, he only asked for one thing...Hagia Sophia.So he converted it into a mosque.
-it was built during the romans,tujuannya adalah utk menandingi Masjidil Aqsa.
-when it was converted, all of the walls of the church which was filled with painting of jesus,mary gabriel etc was covered with a layer of plaster.Sadly nowadays the plasters has fade away, revealing the paintings.

Blue Mosque
-Actual name, Sultanahmet Mosque.
-also know as Blue Mosque due to the colour of the Kubah.(eventhough i didnt see it as blue,more like grey)
-dibina utk menandingi Hagia Sophia...bila pikir balik, sedih la pulak,masjid dibina untuk menandingi bangunan lain dan bukan atas purpose as a praying place....hmm

we also went to grand bazaar etc, which i dont want to elaborate as it has no special meaning to me.Oh yeah one more thing, we went Hagia Sophia n others via tram(guna token(jeton) 1.50 TL , u can go anywhere on the tram with it.single journey only okey hehe).

Now comes the big part,next day we met with muslim community there when we went to pray subuh at the mosque near our apartment.Camii Iskenderpasha was the name of the mosque. Camii-Mosque pasha-general.
they were bunch of sufi's,naqshabandi followers.they treated us for breakfast in a nearby restaurant.we got along eventhough we had difficulties communicating. Eventhough we had language barriers,still they treated us as if the had known us for a long time.subhanallah, this was where we experince turkish MUSLIMS hospitality.baik giler!!!.bayangkan, dengan baru kenalnya, ada language barrier lg, tp still dorang layan first class.gosh i just cant explain the feeling man...i dont see this happening in malaysia,sadly....All because we were travellers, musafirin.

On the lsat day of our stay in istanbul, they invited us to one of their house.they treated us breakfast,again!!.this time was even touching, because we had an even clearer taste of their culture.the owner said,they believe strongly in hadis nabi,
"treat ur guests with what ever that u have in your house"

What i learned from them,
-i manage to get a glipse at sufism for the first time
-they really appreciate guest.
-kat sini la baru saya sedar betapa pentingnya tahu banyak bahasa
-ada 2 syarat utk semua ni terjadi
1-niat kena betul dari awal.kalau niat hanya sekadar utk lihat bangunan shj then that is what u will get.
2-you have to be a practicing muslim.dekatkan diri dengan masjid...

next stop cappadocia

p/s u will see what u want to see-zacharias,kalau tengok2 bangunan is what u r looking for then that is what u will get, but if ur there to see how muslims are in a secular world,then u will get that plus tengok2 bangunan.so ingat, niat tu penting...just a reminder for those who are interested in going there...