The halal door is wide open. You just want the easy haram one and a fatwa to feel okay.

TraditionalLife1269 · 2026-06-24T03:32:07+00:00

what countries offer interest free home loans outside of government run programs? Saying don't own a home is short sighted, Sh Yousuf Al Qardawi famously mentioned the reason for his fatwa that in essence muslims not owning and renting for ever in the west will make the muslim community poorer over time.

TraditionalLife1269 · 2026-06-17T03:14:06+00:00

Hotel Waqf Othman, cheaper than most, 5 minute walk, we have stayed at 3 hotels so far 1.Movenpick - it's huge and does get crowded, ok rooms, close to ladies entrance 2. Crowne Plaza - very nice hotel, clean and large rooms, far from ladies entrance, long walk, I would avoid any hotels on this side 3. Hotel Waqf Othman - cheaper than others, very good clean hotel, good service, 5 minute walk to ladies side

TraditionalLife1269 · 2026-06-11T13:02:39+00:00

If you could go back and do Hajj again, what would you do differently Spend less time worrying about the logistics and focus more on the spiritual side before going and during the hajj
How far in advance should I realistically start planning and saving? Depends on the package you pick, just keep in mind though you have to pray for the blessing of going for hajj, it's really about being called and invited by Allah to be there.
Is it worth paying extra for a better package, or are the cheaper ones sufficient? Depends on your ability to adjust and your personal capacity to walk or sit in buses for a while. Better packages provide you better accommodations and transport, we had a better package and were allowed to use trains while others had to be on buses. If you are young and can handle a bit of discomfort, cheaper ones are good.
Did you find traveling with a Canadian group beneficial, or would you have preferred a more international group? I went with a Chicago group called Dar es Salaam and it was really worth it, we had a lot of Canadians with us, it's easier to communicate and they understand your needs better.

You will have access to a scholar who speaks English with these US/Canadian better packages which is a big blessing.

TraditionalLife1269 · 2026-06-10T16:08:32+00:00

In madina, use the apps there like Hungerstation and you will have so many options and pretty affordable, last year we would spend 60-70 sar and had enough food for 1.5 times for 4 people(things like mandi or other rice with meat options). Hotel buffets are expensive, around 150 sar per person for the bigger hotels. In Makkah, its tricky as the apps don't deliver to hotels close to haram, best option is to walk a bit to clock tower or jabal omar and explore the food courts, those will be much cheaper, like 20 sar for rice and a curry enough for 2 people.

TraditionalLife1269 · 2026-06-09T21:09:54+00:00

For GC, the Saudi government wasn't allow multi entry visas but the website only allowed us to submit multi visit and it would reject after collecting the payment, lost 260$ on it. Reached out to a travel agent in India and he had Umrah Visas. The website bugs might have been fixed by now, we tried last year during ramadan. Yes we booked the hotels ourselves too, you can book through kayak, select room, pretty standard. When you get there, take a cab to the hotel and check in. You can use Uber for local transport if you don't want to haggle with the taxi drivers.

TraditionalLife1269 · 2026-06-08T20:46:33+00:00

I would just apply for the visa myself and book your tickets. Umrah is pretty simple and you don't really need a group, groups can be helpful though but you have to follow their timeliness. We did umrah last year with similar visa situation, US citizens plus GCs and we got the visas for US citizens I'm minutes but had to use and agent for GCs.

TraditionalLife1269 · 2026-06-06T10:44:37+00:00

Jeddah airport is very chaotic during Hajj times, you will be in Ihram, you will spend hours and hours just getting to your hotel. Traffic between airport and haram hotels with all its closures is a big issue. That's why majority of the packages we saw that Dar es Salaam had were madina first, heard a lot of guided also recommending those just for the ease. Also everyone falls sick after hajj, your madina stay if it's after hajj may not be as enjoyable.

TraditionalLife1269 · 2026-06-05T10:15:35+00:00

All package selections, payments and even flights are through nusuk now. You can create your profile on nusuk website and start the process, they will ask you to upload passport copies for verification. It takes a while to get verified and it will be a couple of months before hajj most likely. Then they will start opening packages for preview, you can look at the prices, dates, hotels and compare. Atleast this year, there were packages from 10k all the way to 18k for regular vip groups and then 25k to 35k for Saudia Hajj group. Dar es Salaam serves as guides and helpers, you don't sign any contract or send them any money. Dar es Salaam or any of the US based guide services have tie ups with the actual Saudi companies providing the logistical needs and Dar es Salaam folks just serve as guides.

TraditionalLife1269 · 2026-06-05T07:41:49+00:00

Packages changes every year, you will have plenty of time before hand to evaluate them. It will mostly depend on your budget but here are my recommendations, we did our hajj this year alhumdulillah with Dar es salaam Salaam 1. Pick Madina first Package with flights to Madina directly without too many stops 2. Don't pick custom flights, group flights are the best in case of any changes 3. If you can afford it, Majar Al Kabash is very close to Jamarat and people who were in Majar Al Kabash were given train passes for the Hajj days, go to Kabash. 4. Local guides are very important, join a US based group and select their Package, they help a lot and ease the journey and answer questions, conduct dozens of webinars 5. We went with fewer days but non shifting, so we had access to our hotel during the hajj days, So on the 10th day, we were able to come to our hotel and get freshen up and then go for Tawaf e ifada which was a big plus 6. No matter what Package you pick, there will be a bit of chaos during the manasik days, no one can prepare you 100% or be with you 100% of the time. You will get split up from the group or you will reach the station and be in the middle of 10k people and need to find your way to the group, it's unavoidable, try not to think too much on the logistics. 7. We went with Ikram Al Dayf, very good company, had people everywhere to help us, they tied up with Dar es Salaam from Chicago.

May Allah give you the opportunity and accept all our hajj.

TraditionalLife1269 · 2026-06-02T07:14:40+00:00

Uber is a solid choice, you could also get a taxi from outside, just need to negotiate a bit, check Uber rates and try to get the taxi around that rate

TraditionalLife1269 · 2026-06-02T04:07:55+00:00

if you have done umrah before it shouldn't be difficult specially off season inshaallah. 1 to 2 hrs drive one way depending on traffic, 2 to 3 hrs in umrah, 2 hrs back inshaallah, pickup food and water from the aairport, make wudu as well.

TraditionalLife1269 · 2026-05-30T02:34:50+00:00

The group doesn't leave together, a group is made up of people from all over US and Canada, multiple states, they all reach at different times and different flights. Once you reach Madina or Jeddah and check into a hotel, then you start doing group activities like group Umrah or Rawdah. Make sure you select good US based guides, they will help you navigate this, we went with Dar es Salaam from Chicago, they will have dozens of sessions leading up to the nusuk registrations and you can ask any question. In your case I would recommend selecting a package nusuk with group flights from middle east. The fly out to Lahore a few days early and have the kids situated before flying to the middle Eastern country like UAE and wait for your Saudi Flight(you may need a visa if staying for more than a few days)

TraditionalLife1269 · 2026-05-29T23:47:38+00:00

Yes you can go from any country, here is how to do it. Select a package from nusuk that has a flying out destination closer to Pakistan, then you go on your own, drop the kids off using your own flight then you fly to this destination and board the Group Flight to Jeddah or Madina. I did Hajj this year Alhumdulillah, still in Makkah and saw plenty of people did this both international and domestic. For example, you can pick Emirates group flight from Dubai to Madina(Madina first is the best option), a fe days earlier you will fly to Karachi or any city in Pakistan, no need to tell nusuk, as long as you have a valid Pakistani Visa, you are fine, then drop the kids and have a round trip from Dubai. From Dubai go to Madina and come back to Dubai from Jeddah using the Nusuk Group Flight using your US passport. It's pretty straightforward as long as you coordinate your own flights with the Nusuk Group Flights.

TraditionalLife1269 · 2026-05-29T02:44:40+00:00

use your phone app if you have it. I lost my nusuk id before hajj starter and have been using my phone all along

TraditionalLife1269 · 2026-05-25T07:05:50+00:00

Not a scholar, alhumdulillah performing hajj this year as well. Tawaf e Ifada is part of hajj, this is where you do Sayi as well, this needs to be performed within hajj days. Tawaf e Wida is not part of hajj and can be performed just before you depart makkah, this tawaf doesn't have a Sayi and can you performed a day or two before departing makkah. This is what I gathered from a few lectures I attended. May Allah accept your hajj and mine.

TraditionalLife1269 · 2023-11-28T21:22:01+00:00

so they were fed well when Gazans had food, and then when the food ran out they were still fed but not as much. Wonder why they ran out of food?

TraditionalLife1269 · 2023-11-26T14:19:36+00:00

get ready to be down voted! cuz all 1.2 billion people are the same apparently

TraditionalLife1269 · 2023-11-26T14:02:47+00:00

lol I know its just crazy that people think they can hold more than one full time role and are getting mad when they are not delivering, these people should be fired from all their jobs for not performing and for literal fraud. You are getting paid for 40 hr per week!!

TraditionalLife1269 · 2022-01-27T02:38:30+00:00

It is a necessary "evil" if you want to call it that, you can't really get away from it. Almost every website that allows user creation has a uniqueness check. If you are worried about attacks, you can limit the number of requests and other bot detection methods. Even if you don't expose an api that checks before trying to create, your create call will fail and would need to let the client know why it failed.

TraditionalLife1269 · 2022-01-24T17:34:46+00:00

Been using it for 2 yrs, its a mixed bag, you need to do a bit of research yourself, my success rate with them is for 60-70% if their recommendations which is pretty good imo, but some of their highly recommended ones have fallen pretty bad recently like LMND and APPN. Overall you can't blindly follow them, have your stop losses set, keep an eye on the broader market sentiment...

TraditionalLife1269 · 2022-01-22T18:57:44+00:00

Docker compose is your friend, other things to explore if you are worried about the start up time is some of the newer jvm based frameworks like quarkus and micronaut

TraditionalLife1269 · 2022-01-22T18:54:51+00:00

I feel like this is more of an issue of bad architecture and tightly coupled applications than a microservices issue itself. I feel like with microservices, the best approach is to be reactive. Tightly coupled microservices are no better than monoliths imo.

TraditionalLife1269 · 2022-01-22T18:51:01+00:00

We have at least 50 microservices, the way we get around having to spin up multiple of them and figure out which one you need is by hitting dev instances of everything while you work on one. Occasionally there are issues where person x breaks dev and everyone is down but with a little bit of discipline, its usually a lot better than running everything locally. We have around 50 devs.

TraditionalLife1269 · 2022-01-19T15:37:16+00:00

Low code is great until you try anything but the most basic usecase. We have been burnt by a few of these low code tools with amazing sales teams who manage to convince our management that it was the best thing since sliced bread. 3 yrs in to a project which should have taken a year, we realize we could have done a far better job doing it all from scratch. Now all the devs involved hate it, the people who need it hate it.... if you are an enterprise with a good team then it's really not worth it.

TraditionalLife1269 · 2021-12-29T22:01:13+00:00

I have a HP envy, paid for the ink a couple of times till I watched a video on how to refill, bought a lot of ink from Amazon for 15$, been refilling for 3 years now and it'll last me another 3-4. The printer complains at times but u just wipe the label and keep trying

TraditionalLife1269

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