That somewhere in the world a Muslim is praying Fajr.
Somewhere in the world a Muslim is praying Dhuhr,
Somewhere in the world a Muslim is praying Asr.
Somewhere in the world a Muslim is praying Maghrib.
And, somewhere in the world a Muslim is praying Isha.
Regardless of where we are, we’re one ummah. A truly beautiful ummah with people of all races, ages, and backgrounds. May Allah unify us and give us strength to be a great people like we once were.
When you wanted to have a one hour nap but you ended up sleeping for closer to three hours… Well, that’s me right now.
My head is all clouded. I really should try to go back to sleep but I need to pray isha and getting out of bed is hard right now.
It’s a good job I don’t have anything mentally taxing to do. I’m going to watch a couple of episodes of Justified and thinking about how bad-ass I’d be as a cowboy cop. Good times.
Anonymous asked: Can you tell me something about Islamic prayers, those which are made five times throughout the day? Can you explain what a Rak'ah is? Thank you.
Anon, there are some wonderful sites that will give you very detailed information about the nature of prayer in Islam and the approach from a million different perspectives. There have, literally, been volumes published on the matter. I’ll try to do my best to present some information to you.
The requirement to pray for Muslims comes from the Qur’an, the holy book of Muslims, which we believe is the Word of Allah. The Arabic name for prayer is Salah but it is called Namaz in some cultures.
Muslims pray five times a day. These times are just before dawn (Fajr), just after high noon (Dhuhr), in the late afternoon (Asr), just after sunset (Maghrib), and as the colour of the sky darkens (Isha). There are compulsory and voluntary components to each of these prayers. The compulsory components are called fardh and the voluntary components are called sunnah or nafil. Other than the compulsory fardh prayers a Muslim can offer as many prayers as he or she likes (except at certain times of the day (just after dawn, at high noon, and just before the sun sets).
A rak’ah is a unit of prayer. Each prayer is broken down in to cycles where a Muslim performs slightly different actions. A person recites the Qur’an and praises Allah during the prayer. A Muslim asks for Allah’s help and guidance. A Muslim sends blessings on Muhammad (PBUH). For different prayers the number of rak’ahs that is compulsory differs. At Fajr we offer 2 compulsory rak’ahs, at Dhuhr we offer 4, at Asr we offer 4, at Maghrib we offer 3, and at isha we offer 4 rak’ahs.
There are many reasons why we pray. One is to have a clear and direct mode of communication to Allah. A Muslim is never as close to God as (s)he is during prayer. A Muslim uses prayer to be aware of and thankful of Allah and the blessings He has bestowed on us. Another is to remain fearful and thoughtful of Allah and put our trust in our Lord. Praying prevents a person from committing sin as well as wiping away sins through an act of cleansing.
Salah is a vital part of a Muslim’s life. For me, personally, not performing salah is virtually unimaginable. It’s become so engrained in my life and daily routine that the very thought of missing a single prayer sends shivers down my spine. I use the time in prayer to talk to Allah, to ask him for everything and to praise Him. My connection to God is renewed every time I stand in front of my Lord and then bow down before Him. It’s the most beautiful and straight forward action a Muslim can perform.
Sorry for my extremely long winded answer. If something I’ve explained isn’t clear then please feel free to ask me any further questions on the matter.
Alhamdulilah.
I met some cool new people. I ate some great food. I had some enlightening conversations. I laughed a whole lot.
The best bit is that I prayed isha before I went out so now I can just crawl in to bed and pass out.
Work tomorrow, though… That sucks!
I love it. I didn’t go to work over the last couple of days and it’s meant I’ve really caught up on lost sleep. Today I napped for three hours after maghrib. I prayed isha and now I want to go back to sleep until fajr. After fajr I’ll probably sleep until I have to wake up and get ready for jumma.
Back to work on Saturday.
Only four weeks left of my time in Saudi.
I performed istikhara with isha tonight. I’ve been meaning to do it for days and weeks now but I’ve been avoiding it. I think I wasn’t ready to really know what to do. I don’t think I was really ready to step forwards and know how to proceed. I didn’t want to perform the istikhara because I was scared.
For those of you who don’t know the istikhara is a prayer of guidance. It’s a prayer where you have a decision to make and you leave the path you take to Allah. You ask Allah to give you knowledge and power as it all comes from Him. You ask Allah to help make your path easy if it is righteous in the name of Islam, your personal well-being, and the best for your afterlife. You ask Allah to take you away from that path if it is damaging for your faith, your well-being, and your afterlife. Instructions on how to perform it are here.
I asked Allah to make my decision to go home, to England, for the best. I asked Allah to make leaving Saudi for the best. I asked Allah to realise if it’s the best decision for me to go home on March first. Alhamdulilah, as soon as I completed the prayer a wave of euphoria ran through me. I got a rush of warmth surge through me. It felt right. I have faith in Allah. I know now that going home will be for the best. All doubts have been removed.
Tomorrow I’ll pray istikhara again. The istikhara for tomorrow is going to be even bigger than the one I performed today. The istikhara tomorrow will shape the path the rest of my life takes.
It’s pretty simple really. Everyday, after isha, we go to this place, not too far from where we live, at Prince Sultan University and walk laps of the university. Each lap is measured at 4km so we knows exactly what it is we’re getting.
We started walking on Friday evening and since then we’ve kind of got the buzz for it. It takes us around 2 hours to walk 12km/7.5m and it’s really good fun. Neither of us take our phones or any form of electronic equipment with us and we just use the time to talk and ponder things. Today we were discussing the point at which societal evolution becomes mandatory for survival when facing catastrophic disaster.
After walking yesterday, my house mate turned to me and said “I think this is the first time I’ve talked to someone for two and a half hours straight and not gotten bored for even a minute”. I took it as a great compliment.
Today one of our friends came along and we also changed the walking routine. For each 800m we walked we ran 200m. My house mate, if any of you remember, is one of the ‘laziest’ people I know. He’s… extremely adverse to any kind of physical activity but he managed the run periods very well. I was really impressed. At the end he actually ran 700/800m none stop. I told him that I’ll have him running all 12km by the time I head back home in 6 weeks time and I stick with that belief firmly after watching him today. We’re going to walk 6 days a week.
It should be fun!
It’s time to pray Isha and then study.
After writing that post this afternoon I’ve actually been incredibly productive. I’ve sent out a couple of emails to places back home to offer my services for voluntary positions for when I get home. I’m really excited about that. It’s something I’m looking forward to a lot. Right now, I hope I am able to convince enough people that they’d like to take on my services that I’m able to do something different everyday when I’m back home.
Now it’s time to hit the books. No pain, no gain!
Alhamdulilah!
We prayed Maghrib salah and then prayed Isha together, during the first rakat, I remembered that we did pray Maghrib because he read Surah Al-Kafiroon during the second rakat and it’s one of my favourite surahs.
I have no idea when we prayed though. We were both so confused when I told him but he remembered reading Al Kafiroon too!
Craziness.
Three nafl rakats, I guess :)
Okay, this post is going to be kind of sprawling but I don’t care.
I landed in Saudi Arabia just before Fajr on the 10th of October 2010. Today marked a full year in Saudi. 365 days. I’ll write a post about my year here tomorrow but this isn’t about that.
Let me give you some back story and then tell you about what I achieved today. Before I came to Saudi I wasn’t the best Muslim in the world. I never stopped believing in Allah or even doubted my faith but I didn’t pray much at all. I used to pray Jumma and that was about it - and that was in a good week.
I decided to make sure I got my salah in order in Saudi and it started right away. As soon as I checked in to my hotel I prayed Fajr. In the first few days after I landed I maintained praying five times a day and realised that I had prayed more frequently in those days, weeks, and months since landing in Saudi than I had at any other point in my life.
I just finished praying Isha. That prayer signifies 365 days since I missed my last prayer… Isha on October 9th 2010. I have prayed five times a day, every single day, since then.
Alhamdulilah.
I feel my faith is stronger now than it ever has been at any point in my life before. I feel my understanding of what God means to me is better now than it ever was before. I feel I’m a better Muslim now than I ever have been before. I’m not saying I’m perfect, I’m not saying my journey is complete - this is just a first step, but I can see the path in front of me and I know what I need to do to walk it.
Something that has been on my mind for the last year since I started on this journey of spiritual renewal was a Hadith that I would like to share with you now. On the authority of Abu Harayrah (may Allah be pleased with him), who said that the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: Allah the Almighty said: I am as My servant thinks I am. I am with him when he makes mention of Me. If he makes mention of Me to himself, I make mention of him to Myself; and if he makes mention of Me in an assembly, I make mention of him in an assemble better than it. And if he draws near to Me an arm’s length, I draw near to him a fathom’s length. And if he comes to Me walking, I go to him at speed.
I walked towards Allah and I am testament to the fact that Allah embraces those who open their hearts to Him.
The best piece of advice I can give any of my Muslim brothers and sisters out there who struggle to pray is that you should just start praying and not stop for anything. It might be hard at first, especially waking up for fajr, but if you maintain your resolve you can do it for sure.
I feel like my life has been in extremes in so many ways. I used to be extremely fat until I resolved to change my situation and I lost 45kg/100~lb. I used to be extremely lazy when it came to education until I changed my resolve and started working which helped me get very good bachelors and masters degrees. I used to be off the path of Islam until I changed my resolve and Allah blessed me, like He has over and over, and now I’m working towards becoming a better Muslim everyday.
Who knows what I’ll resolve to do next and how that works out for me…
(I know there are so, so many people who haven’t missed a single prayer in years and years but when you compare the me now to the person I was a short while ago the changes are very drastic and I feel like my whole life has changed)
and I’m already in bed.
Tonight I’m going to watch Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain, also known as Amelie, and probably fall asleep wishing the real world could be that beautiful.
It’s my favourite film…
So I was thinking for a couple of months now that I was going to make a solid effort to visit Mecca during the month of Ramadan as many times as humanly possible. I figured, logically speaking, it would be able to visit it twice in the course of the month. The first time, I thought, would be at the start of the month and the second would be at the end of Ramadan. Well, the start of the month came and I got a trip planned for, not only, Mecca but Medina too… Let me tell you how it was.
Seriously. In Saudi the whole of society is geared towards a religious mindset. It’s easy. If you’re out everything shuts when it’s time to pray and it’s totally natural to just walk to the mosque. If you’re at home you can hear the call to pray from a million mosques in the local area and you know it’s time to pray. It’s always on your mind. It’s amazing.
I don’t even have words. This Friday night I went out for a meal with a few of my friends and was totally blown away by the amazing selection and the astonishingly good taste of the food on offer. We went to a Saudi style grill restaurant in Riyadh called Cabrito which specialises in meat, basically. I took a bunch of pictures that are after the break. You’ll want to see these…
