Prayers
Anyway, what was I saying? Oh yes, the Ramadan Calendar. Today's question: "How many times a day should we pray?" I would say once (1 Thessalonians 5:17). The calendar says "Five times".
I'm not sure on the finer points of doctrine here, but in the daily newspaper they print six "Prayer Timings" on the front page. The scheduled times are spread throughout the day and change depending on the sunrise and so on. The earliest one is around 4 AM, the last around 7 PM.
A Muslim doesn't really have to remember all the timings, because a call to prayer (the "azan") goes out from the mosque. In the past, a man with a strong set of lungs would climb up in the minaret and belt out the call. These days they use a microphone and a loudspeaker. If you're anywhere near a mosque, you'll here the call to prayer and, in a city like this one, you're never far from a mosque. It's also broadcast over the radio and I even know some guys who have their mobile phones programmed to play the call!
The call goes out in Arabic, of course, and the azan is made up of a specific set of phrases. You can imagine that it can be challenging to root yourself out of bed before dawn, but the call to prayer reminds the faithful that "it is better to pray than to sleep"!
The person giving the call does it in a singing way, rather than just speaking it. It can be quite beautiful in the fading light of sunset to hear the sad, mysterious notes of the call to prayer, sung in language that hasn't changed in hundreds of years.
I'm not sure on the finer points of doctrine here, but in the daily newspaper they print six "Prayer Timings" on the front page. The scheduled times are spread throughout the day and change depending on the sunrise and so on. The earliest one is around 4 AM, the last around 7 PM.
A Muslim doesn't really have to remember all the timings, because a call to prayer (the "azan") goes out from the mosque. In the past, a man with a strong set of lungs would climb up in the minaret and belt out the call. These days they use a microphone and a loudspeaker. If you're anywhere near a mosque, you'll here the call to prayer and, in a city like this one, you're never far from a mosque. It's also broadcast over the radio and I even know some guys who have their mobile phones programmed to play the call!
The call goes out in Arabic, of course, and the azan is made up of a specific set of phrases. You can imagine that it can be challenging to root yourself out of bed before dawn, but the call to prayer reminds the faithful that "it is better to pray than to sleep"!
The person giving the call does it in a singing way, rather than just speaking it. It can be quite beautiful in the fading light of sunset to hear the sad, mysterious notes of the call to prayer, sung in language that hasn't changed in hundreds of years.
posted by Trevor at 5:42 p.m.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home