Desert escapes to Madinah, unplanned and abrupt on some Thursday evenings. A rush of adrenaline as the Arabian driver smashes the accelerator carelessly through the night on the open roads to the city of lights, the city of the Prophet, the messenger of Allah. We don’t care if we live or die on the freeway as we are enroute to a land of mystique that eradicates sorrows. The landscape between Jeddah and Madinah on the Hejazi coast is saturated with blurs of distinct shades of brown. The Arabian sun sets and the darkest shadows appear in the presence of the harsh Hejazi hills. God orders His angels to mix and mesh the colors of the skies from an orange caressing an emerging purple which unify into darkening blue. The terrain looks rough, aggressive, and enveloped with a variety of obstacles for travel. One contemplates on the Hijrah and the ultimate sacrifice of the Muhajirs, who traded all their world possessions in exchange for God’s bounty and grace in the upcoming life. One can’t help holding back tears as you get closer and closer in proximity to the beloved of Allah and the playing of the Qasidah Burdah is engulfing you with a soothing that goes beyond description. Oh travelers to the city of the Prophet, the Chai of Madinah is not a fountain of youth, it is the rather a drink that unlocks and nourishes the grieving soul.