Salaam Friends!
A rickety truck is moving through a dusty stretch of endless desert. All of a sudden, the driver pulls over, steps outside, and unfurls his jacket on the dust and… what is he doing - wait… he’s standing pretty still, staring at the earth -
is he bowing??
Woah.
We barely think twice about moments like this. Of course we don’t - when it’s time to pray, it’s time to pray. Inside, outside, public place or private.
Salah is woven so intimately into the tapestry of a Muslim’s day.
But what about the person watching? The non-Muslim - for someone whom the concept of salah and prayer is a foreign one?
We came across a beautiful video on Instagram which inspired today’s piece. The clip was created by a British traveller who records his fascination at the fact that Ali [the driver] jumps out of his truck in the ‘middle of nowhere’ to pray salah.
Friends, this clip is so so amazing to watch. We’ve linked it for you because we keep returning to it. It gives us goosebumps and fills us with a sense of tender awe because it’s like looking at salah from a perspective we’ve never considered before.
Disclaimer: some crude language in the video!
We’ve transcribed what the British traveller observes:
“Ali has just gotten out of the truck to go and pray. I find this fascinating. We are in the middle of nowhere and these guys are like oh, 5:00 - gotta jump out of the warm truck into the cold mountain, get my prayer mat and pray to Allah and they do this 3 times a day! They get out of their truck 3 times a day and I mean it’s inspiring. I’m not a religious man but it’s inspiring and it’s impressive how strong their faith is, how devout they are, how connected to God they are and you can see it in every aspect of their life. It’s beautiful.”
We just want to keep watching it on loop!
Cheering Ourselves On
What musings has this clip stirred up for us?
Our entire prayer practice is so impressive ma sha Allah - the practice, the progress, the set-backs, the get-back-ups again. All of it is part of the design of our faith and Allah is there for all of it. And that means we should honour all of it - the good and the bad. Istiqamah [staying steadfast] isn’t a perfect rising slope, it has peaks and troughs and we’re blessed to ride through it all.
The gentleman in the video mentions how fascinating it is to him, this commitment. And it is! What kind of discipline is required for a person to stick to something five times a day, every day of their life? It's probably unfair to say it comes to us naturally because if that truly was the case, then there'd never be any struggle! But there has to be some sort of strength that Allah gives us, making the practice of prayer feel like a lifeline - we mean, that's why all of us are here right? Reading this very piece because salah is important to us! This strength concerning salah then must be a native one - a kind of organic conviction - that Allah has stitched into our values of faith. Subhan Allah 💛.
When we do get up to pray in public, or we press pause on whatever we're doing to pray, even if self-consciousness or anxiety threaten to overwhelm us, our actions are proof of where our convictions truly lie. We really do believe in Allah alhamdulillah alhamdulillah - WHAT a blessing - and we truly do believe in the certainty of what salah offers us and so we get up, despite what anyone else thinks, does or says.
And every time we pray where we stand, the world learns what matters to us. Actually, it probably serves as a much-needed reminder to ourselves too: when push comes to shove, Allah comes first. We know we’re accountable to a higher standard and so we live with coherence: our beliefs, words and actions align.
This brings our hearts to this du'a - let's make it our du'a of the day:
When someone sees us praying, one of their first thoughts will be “Oh, they’re Muslim.” If the first thing someone knows about us is that we pray, we’ve said something true with our bodies. And being read as 'Muslim' through salah is a small da'wah. It's one of the most honest introductions one can have to our faith. What a wonderful mark of identity subhan Allah.
And finally, and perhaps most importantly, if others can celebrate our salah, we should too. Perhaps that’s why this clip moved us so much - we take salah for granted. But imagine we treated our salah like a child learning to walk. No one scolds a toddler for wobbling.
We cheer their shaky steps and when they fall, we don't say, "Walking isn't for you clearly!” We keep on smiling and cheering and clapping because our hearts feel joy at the newness of their experience. And that's what the young child must feel too! If onlookers can celebrate those steps in us, we should celebrate them too. Who knows? This POV might revolutionise our entire salah practice in sha Allah!
Hadith of the Week
أَحَبُّ الأَعْمَالِ إِلَى اللهِ أَدْوَمُهَا وَإِنْ قَلَّ
“The most beloved deeds to Allah are those done consistently, even if they are small.”
Bukhari 6465
This is a well-known one sure but in sha Allah, today's thoughts encourage you to look at this hadith with fresh eyes too!
Here are three ways we can apply this in light of today’s newsletter:
📂 1. Make a proof folder: create a folder on your phone called "Proof I'm Trying." Screenshots, photos, notes: anything that evidences your efforts. When you're trying to ride a wave and perspective sinks, your little folder will instantly reframe your narrative in sha Allah.
🥳 2. Make celebration a sunnah: after every prayer or good deed, say out loud: Allah you helped me do that. If your voice says it, your mind starts believing.
🎁 3. Treat salah like a privilege: after each salah, as you fold away your mat or put on your shoes or return to your prior task, say things like, “I needed that," or "This came at the perfect time.” Acknowledge verbally how the salah might have helped and be as specific as possible. These tiny phrases will help you to reframe why salah is so needed in your life.
Blessed week friends 💙.
Love and du’as,
The Minara Team
