A Race to Prayer (Salah)

by Aliya Vaughn

  Sulaiman suddenly remembered the bag his grandma had packed for them that morning.

  ‘We can eat our packed lunch in the cafeteria, can’t we, Dad?’

  Dad nodded and helped Grandpa stand back up on his feet.

  ‘I think Grandpa needs a cup of tea too… to recover from the shock of it all.’

  Chapter 7

  While they were eating lunch in the cafeteria, Dad reminded Sulaiman of the importance of performing the prayers at their earliest, fixed times.

  ‘It’s easy to get distracted when you’re enjoying yourself,’ Dad admitted. ‘But we shouldn’t delay our prayers. We can always come back to our work or play afterwards.’

  Grandpa nodded and sipped his tea.

  ‘If we didn’t pray when we did, we could have been hurt and spent the afternoon in hospital. Then we would have missed all the races.’ Sulaiman thought for a moment as he delved his spoon into his raspberry yoghurt.

  ‘This reminds me of Prophet Sulaiman*. He missed the Asr prayer because he was distracted by his beautiful horses.’

  ‘Yes, and Allah will test us with our prayers just as He tested Prophet Sulaiman*,’ said Dad. ‘Nothing should be more important than our prayer. The first thing we shall be asked about on the Day of Judgement is our prayers, so we should make sure we perform them on time.’

  Sulaiman reflected on his dad’s words.

  ‘It must be time for the Asr prayer now, isn’t it?’ he asked. His dad checked the time on his phone.

  ‘Yes. It’s coming up any minute now.’

  They gathered their belongings and searched for the little side room to pray again. After they performed Asr, Sulaiman’s dad checked the time once more.

  ‘It’s nearly half past two. Let’s go back to the races now.’

  As they were entering the arena, the security guard stopped them again.

  ‘I’m sorry, I can’t let you in,’ he said. ‘We’ve had to close this section for safety reasons.’

  Sulaiman groaned with disappointment.

  ‘Never mind,’ his dad comforted him. ‘We can come back again another day.’

  ‘No! You don’t understand,’ said the security guard ‘You can still watch the races, but you can’t sit here, it’s too dangerous. We’ve moved you to some other seats just over there.’

  He pointed to the front row with the aerial of his two-way radio.

  ‘Oh subhanallah!’ Sulaiman exclaimed. ‘We can see even better from down there. Come on Dad, quickly, they’re about to begin the next race!’

  Sulaiman bounded down the steps towards their new seats. His dad and grandpa followed quickly behind him. The riders revved their engines in preparation for the new round of races. A strong smell of petrol and smoke lingered in the air. Sulaiman’s dad cupped his hand around Sulaiman’s ear so he could be heard above the noise of the bikes.

  ‘It looks as though Allah has already rewarded you for doing your prayers,’ he said in a raised voice. Sulaiman smiled and nodded.

  ‘Do you think Allah will reward me some more and make my bike win the next race?’ he asked excitedly.

  ‘Let’s see, shall we,’ his dad laughed. ‘Let’s see.’

  Evidences from the Qur’an and Sunnah

  In Islam, the prayer is very important and unlike any other act of worship. It is the first action we will be asked about on the Day of Judgment. The Prophet* said:

  ‘The first thing about which the people will be called to account out of their actions on the Day of Judgment is prayer.… If it is perfect, that will be recorded perfect.’

  Narrated by Abu Hurayrah.

  Hadith from the collection of Abu Dawood.

  If our prayers are performed well they can be a way to enter Paradise. Allah says in the Qur’an:

  ‘Those who humble themselves in their prayers… And who (strictly) guard their prayers; – these will be the heirs, Who will inherit Paradise: they will dwell therein (for ever).’

  Surah Al-Mu’minun (The Believers) 23:2,9-11

  Comprehension questions

  1. What was Sulaiman doing when Grandpa was reading his newspaper?

  2. What stopped Sulaiman playing football in the park? What are the blessings of this usually?

  3. What did Sulaiman’s dad promise to do one day with Sulaiman?

  4. As Sulaiman was getting changed out of his pyjamas what did his dad tell him to do?

  5. What happened to the car and what did they do instead?

  6. Grandpa refused something as he thought it would pull his false teeth out. What was it?

  7. What did the alarm on his dad’s mobile signal it was time for?

  8. Why was Sulaiman upset about leaving to pray while the quad bikes were still racing?

  9. What happened when they returned to their seats in the stadium?

  10. Which prophet was distracted from doing the Asr prayer by his beautiful horses?

  11. What is the first thing Allah will ask us about on the Day of Judgement?

  12. What was Sulaiman rewarded with when he returned to the stadium after doing his prayers?

  Inspiration behind the story

  This story was inspired by an incident that occurred in 1980 when my husband was watching a football match in the capital city of Algeria, Algiers. When the adhan for the dhuhr prayer was called, my husband left the spectator seats to perform the prayer. It was while he was praying that an earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale occurred. It is reported that 3,500 people died and many buildings were destroyed making 300,000 people homeless. For the praying people, Allah took their lives while they were performing an obligatory act of worship. For the people who were not praying on time, Allah took their lives while they were doing other activities. For the people who survived and were left homeless, all they had left were their prayers to ask Allah for help.

  You’ll be pleased to know my husband survived, as too did all the other spectators in the stadium.

  No matter what we are doing, we should organise our lives around the prayer times, and not try to fit the prayers around our activities. The prayer doesn’t take long to perform and is much more important than work or play. Allah can make anything happen when we least expect it, so let’s make sure we pray on time.

  Glossary

  Adhan – call to prayer.

  Alhamdulilah – this phrase means ‘all praise and thanks be to Allah’ in English.

  Ameen – means ‘O Allah, respond to (or answer) what has been said.’ If someone says ‘Ameen’, it is as if he made the du’a (prayer) to Allah to accept and respond to what was said.

  As-salamu alaykum – is the Islamic Arabic greeting. It means ‘peace be upon you’ in English.

  Asr – the third of the five daily prayers, also known as the late afternoon prayer.

  Dhuhr – the second of the five daily prayers. Also known as the mid-day prayer.

  Kaaba – a large cube-shaped building inside the al-Masjid al-Haram mosque in Mecca.

  Subhanallah – is an Arabic phrase meaning ‘Glory be to Allah’ in English.

  Wudu – the ritual washing performed by Muslims before prayer. Also known as ablution in English.

  The author

  Alison Vaughan is an English revert to Islam. She has had a passion for writing since winning a writing competition at school aged 10 years old. During her teenage years, pen pals across the world enjoyed receiving her lengthy, descriptive letters and later on, her university friends enjoyed the same. She developed her love of writing children’s stories whilst home educating her children. It was a creative, fun and engaging way for her children to learn through storytelling. In 2008 Alison won Best Children’s Story and Writer of the Year at the Muslim Writers Awards under her Muslim name, Aliya.

 

 

 
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