I feel stressed about my upcoming biology exam. I’m saddened by the death of my friend’s mother. My grandparents’ declining health worries me. I’ve overjoyed by my recent academic accomplishment. The injustices in the world pain me. I’m confused and in need of help and guidance. What do I do in all of these situations? I calm myself, take a deep break and pray.
It’s remarkable how much my life revolves around the act of Prayer, or Salaah in Arabic. As a Muslim, I’m required to pray five times a day at fixed times: before sunrise, between midday and afternoon, between late afternoon and sunset, after sunset and at night. That’s a lot, you might say, but actually, each prayer is about 10-15 minutes long and consists in reciting verses from the Quran, and bowing and prostrating in the direction of Makkah. In total, prayer time amounts to about an hour a day; time otherwise easily spent watching TV or surfing the Net. The challenge then lies not in the amount of time required to pray but rather in the timings of the prayers. Put simply, I don’t pray when I have the time; I make the time to pray. Prayer allows me to remember God and be closer to Him. God says, “Do ye remember Me; I will remember you” (Quran, 2:152). Prayer offers me the opportunity to hold an one-to-one conversation with my Creator, to directly communicate my reverence, submission, and gratitude, and to “celebrate the praises of [my] Lord, and be of those who prostrate themselves in adoration” (15:98). In the midst of my daily activities and preoccupations, Prayer serves as a constant and regular reminder of my relationship with God, my place in the scheme of things, my responsibilities, and my ultimate purpose in life.
Prayer also helps me develop discipline and value punctuality. Knowing that my prayers are to be performed at certain times means that I try my best to pray on time. A typical day on campus thus always includes a pit stop at the Muslim Students’ Prayer Room in the Shatner building in order to fulfill my prayer requirements. My neighbor once argued that he didn’t see the point in waking up before sunrise to pray when I could easily do so at a more comfortable hour in the morning. I told him that just as it’s important for me to respect the fixed timings of other aspects of my life, such as work, school, meeting a deadline, or making an appointment, so too it is equally, in fact more, important for me to be punctual for my time with God.
My time with God, my time to express my joy, voice my gratitude, reveal my fears, seek forgiveness, appeal for guidance—that’s what prayer represents for me. It pains me to see how often the media juxtaposes reports on religious extremism with the graceful image of people bowed in prostration. Performing my prayers does not make me an extremist; it simply allows me to fulfill a religious obligation all the while obtaining inner peace and tranquility.
By Memuna A Jamal, MSA Executive
From Radix Issue No. 1, November 2000
