Tuesday, September 21, 2010

How do we pray?

Bismillah,

I have just submitted 2 assignments by today. Alhamdulillah, managed to submit by the deadline. =) Okay, this time I want to share my experiences with the readers, things that certainly you will not account for when you are in Malaysia.

So how do we pray over here provided that, there are no surau in every shopping mall or gas station or along the road itself? Well this is how we used to do it:

If we have planned to travel on that day, or even go for a shopping at the city we will prepare ourselves with the wudhu before we go out. Kalau kt Malaysia tak de nyer nak buat camni kn? This is because toilet over here always in a dry condition. Plus, people do not use water for istinjak purposes.

If you simply go to the sink and do the wudhu, the locals will give you a disgusted look as if you already messed up the whole place. To them wet = dirty! Yuks! (they said..) So the challenge is to maintain that wudhu; to not fart and to not touch the opposite sex. And hey! it is also a reward to always be in wudhu state.

Another thing to note is, most of the time we pray with our cloth peeps! =) There's no need to wear that white piece of clothes (telekung la pe lagi...). Because as long as you wear covered piece of cloth and not tight, hijab that thick enough and draw over the bosoms, wear socks and you are good to go! Easy peasy right?

From other point of view, praying without telekung teach you to always wear covered and modest clothes. Telekung is a tradition guys, remember that. I still remember there was one brother said in his sharing session;
"Nak tahu pakaian kite menutup aurat ke tak, tengok bole bawak untuk sembahyang ke tak? Kalau tak bole, tak menutup aurat sepenuhnya lagi la tu"
Ok, we have talk about wudhu, we have talk about the appropriate attire for praying. So now let me share about its location. As I said from the beginning, there is no surau (and please keep in mind that mosques are not everywhere) to perform our prayer. In a matter of fact, we have try all sort of locations! To name a few:

  • In an open recreation garden, Melbourne (with people passing by in front of us of course!)
  • In the fitting room
  • In the parent room (this room is specialised for moms that wish to change their kid's diapers or want to breast fed their baby)
  • Behind a tent with no praying mat, touching the damp grass during Fraser Island trip.
  • In the discussion room of Biological Science Library (twice when we had an overnight for our assignment)
  • At an open parking lot of a gas station (under -3 degree of Sydney morning breeze!)
  • In an open garden, Sydney (and it was raining cats and dogs!)
  • In the lecture hall (of course it was vacant.. ;p)
  • On top of snowy Mount Buller during winter (and it's freaking cold!)


(courtesy picture from Wawa)



It just makes me feel that prayer is meant to be easy and simple! And can be anywhere too!
Be grateful to Allah for this priceless experiences.. =)

And I believe all my friends that study / travel to a non-muslim country experienced the same way too right?

2 comments:

JoeHaiRiL said...

wana..wat a great experience!!!

Safwanah Azmi said...

Alhamdulillah2.. =)