EDIT: You don't understand how grateful I am that this posted - I took so long typing it that it logged me out and I almost lost it!
Hey guys, happy weekend!
My friend didn't end up coming along to the mosque on Friday night, she was meant to be coming with her boyfriend and then I'd take her to the women's section of the mosque to pray, but her mum kicked off about it last minute, saying she hadn't given her enough notice and it was out of the ordinary. I got a little bit frustrated as maybe if she'd told her mum a little bit more in advance, like on Wednesday when we actually spoke about it, then she wouldn't have held her back? Never mind, not my place to get involved
But I did just ask her to find out what 'enough notice' was from her mum so she could come along one day soon rather than leave it until next Friday, because she wanted to prove she was seriously committed to her boyfriend and their relationship, prove she was ready to change her way of life to be with him. It'd probably mean a lot more to him if she got her mum's permission and came ASAP. But like I said, never mind
So I was determined to catch the speech before prayers both on Friday and Saturday night but missed it due to being late and having to pray while everyone else listened - it's quite distracting trying to get your own prayers right in a whisper while a voice is booming out over the speakers! You're meant to pray two rakats (if you've ever seen Muslims pray, it's one of the stand-up-sit-down-stand-up motions... if not, the general actions of prayer that constitute one rakat are: you go from standing up straight, to leaning forward resting your hands on your knees, to standing up straight again, to sitting down on your knees bowing with your forehead and arms from the elbows to the fingertips pressed to the ground, to sitting up straight, to going back to bowing onto your forehead, elbows and fingertips, and then either sitting back up straight again or standing up straight again, depending on whereabouts you are in your prayers) of greeting when you enter the mosque. These are rakats of Nafl, one type of prayer.
There is also Fard, which are compulsory to pray and are the basis of each of the five daily prayers, eg if you are in travel and don't have time to pray your whole Namaz (what you call each set of prayers) or if you are running out of time between the next Namaz, you can just pray Fard.
Sunnah is another type, which are the prayers associated with the last Prophet Muhammed (PBUH). He used to pray Sunnah as a habit, as a practice. It wasn't required of him to do so, but he did, and so to gain the most reward from Allah (SWT), a lot of people pray it now.
Also, there are Witr, which only crop up in the last Namaz of the day and have a different structure to the other types. I don't actually know the importance of Witr, even though I have Googled it. It hasn't come up with anything that means anything to me... If anyone else knows, please help!
Each Namaz consists of a different combination of the above prayers...
Fajr - between dawn and sunrise, when we close our fasts: 2 Sunnah, 2 Fard
Zuhr - after true noon but before afternoon: 4 Sunnah, 4 Fard, 2 Sunnah, 2 Nafl
Asr - afternoon: 4 Sunnah, 4 Fard
Maghrib - after sunset but before dusk, when we open our fasts (very short time period): 3 Fard, 2 Sunnah, 2 Nafl
Isha - between dusk and dawn: 4 Sunnah, 4 Fard, 2 Sunnah, 2 Nafl, (T), 3 Witr, 2 Nafl
(T) - And during Ramadan, the compulsory nightly Taraweeh prayers are prayed here, 20 rakats. While we are standing up in each of these rakats, the Imam recites a passage from the Quran from memory (the whole Quran is usually finished by the end of Ramadan as they pray in order) and we listen, focused. I'm finding it more and more difficult to keep my mind where my body is as the days are going on. I have no understanding of what he is saying, as it is all in Arabic, so it's easy to drift off. It's also easy to drift off when you can hear other voices! The worst is if someone has bought their kids along with them (most kids sit quietly or play quietly, some are absolute pains!) and one of them starts laughing... The laughter of kids is contagious in that situation, spreads like wildfire! Naughty us
Well I didn't realise how much I'd written today! Sorry guys, if it's a bit much... I actually came on here to tell you about a story I'd remembered to tell you seeing as I didn't get to hear the speech! It's not that long, but what happened is: The prophet Muhammed (PBUH) used to walk this one same route every day and along it there was a woman who used to throw things at him from the window of her house - food waste, general waste, rubbish, anything she could spare, coupled with verbal abuse. Let me tell you, a lot of people didn't like this guy, they didn't believe a word he used to say. Then again, I know how they feel because I have a lot of trouble believing some of the stories I hear about things that used to happen way way way hundreds of lots of past years ago in Islam, but I wouldn't take it so far as to throw things. One day, as he walked this route, there was nobody there to throw things. He stopped and asked one of the other residents of the area why the woman had stopped throwing things at him. They responded that she was unwell, and so was indoors resting. Now you'd think he'd walk away from that, go on his way, but he didn't. He visited the woman. She was really ill, and very shocked to see him, asking why he had turned up when she had been so constantly consistently horrible to him. He replied that the hate she had for him to make her throw things didn't matter, because she was human, and she was unwell, so he felt it her duty to visit him. She was immediately convinced of Islam and begged for his forgiveness, seeing how kind he had been regardless of how horrible she had been.
Stories like this, they usually get told by lots of different people so there are many slightly differing versions, so I'm just sharing the one with you that I know
Forgive me for any mistakes I have made, please feel free to correct me if you know any different.
Right guys, I'm off to have a shower - which is going to be really difficult as the moment I switch the water on, I close my mouth tight-lipped so that no water trickles in, when I know I wouldn't swallow it anyway! Oh and then I get to feel extra hungry straight after my shower
yippee. 6 hours to go, then breaking the fast at my aunty's house. Don't know if there will be SW friendly stuff there but I'm relying on salad
xxx
