#irhal

Is it easier to be a Muslim traveller today as compared to ten years ago? There are numerous apps created to make it easy for Muslims to venture out of their familiar shores. HalalTrip helps one to choose and discover airlines, hotels, and serving Halal food. Irhal produces online guides to give us more information. CrescentRating has an app to help you pray in the airplane.

With all these apps, it’s easy to feel that it is much easier to travel abroad while keeping my Muslim lifestyle. But what about renewing and keeping our purpose of travel for the purpose of Allah in order to make travel an act of worship, on top of our first intent of travelling be it for business or otherwise.

Yes, all these apps make foreign countries more accessible for the Muslim traveller. But to make better Muslims out of travel, maybe these apps can help renew our intent of travelling? Say, if our original intent is to travel to see the creations of Allah and reflect on his wonders, no app (as of now) can do that, just a conscious awareness and deep contemplation of every occurrence, which happens during your travels.

With technology pushing itself to be more relevant to the user’s location and situation, especially with the creation of Google Glass and wearable tech, I hope there will be apps which push out content relevant to the area that we visit, even when the Muslim traveller is not requesting for the information, to encourage contemplation, or if not, to help the traveller with the intent of their travel ‘for the sake of Allah’.

For example, when they visit Italy for shopping in Milan, and it’s Asar time. Make it possible to tell them not just where to pray and what the local solat time is, and facts about the Muslims in Italy. Did you know that in Italy, there are 1.5 million Muslims but only 8 mosques? This fact makes it easier to contemplate, and appreciate being a Muslim in a majority-Muslim country like Malaysia.

Crossing the Charles River from the Harvard Business School and walking past the John F. Kennedy School of Government towards Harvard Square, I was intrigued by a strange sign on a store window: “Please Go Away.” Moving closer I noticed that the sign continued with the word “Often.” “Please Go Away ... Often.” An apt slogan for a travel agency! This is the inspiration behind “irhal.com.” Irhal is an Arabic word which means “Go Away.” While it may sound rude and impolite, the magic of travel comes alive with the addition of the word “often.” The niceties of “please” and “often” have been removed to make way for a short and memorable domain name, but the site aims to nurture the magic of travel. Whenever you venture to an unknown destination you need a guide. Irhal wishes to be that guide. And when you have seen it, done that, and worn the t-shirt, we would like you to add your comments and upload your pictures so that your experiences can facilitate future travelers. This site is meant for outbound travelers from the Middle East. Every summer hordes of expats and locals leave the region with a vengeance. Some with their families, some with just their toothbrush and a spare pair of jeans in their backpack. Irhal caters to them all. We have city guides with information on what to do with kids in tow. We also have prayer timings, mosque locations and halal food restaurants listed for those who wish to avoid non-zabiha meat and want to survive on more than just seafood and salads. Irhal will remain a work in progress. Adding new cities. Opening new avenues for exploring the world of haute couture or hot cuisine. Sharing new discoveries. And gently dropping crumbs of information to guide those who will follow your steps. Irhal. Often! Min fazdlik (please)!