Finding Emaan

Chapter 4: Morning Prayer

  She woke up to several voices reciting something in Arabic.  Slowly she turned over to check the time. Oh you have go to be kidding me! It’s 5:25, who gets up at 5:25 in the morning!

“Its Fajr prayer, in Muslim countries we are fortunate enough to know when prayer is wherever we are”. Amina stood at the foot of her bed smiling at her. Where did she even come from anyways?

“I’ve been here this whole time if you were wondering, after you slept I got ready for bed as well, you snore kind of loud sometimes”. So she can read minds too

“I don’t understand why its so loud” she listened intently and realized something else “and their not even synchronized!” Emaan said groggily. This was not the time for her to be interrupted from her slumber.

 Amina giggled to herself. “Of course there not synchronized, each mosque plays the athan from different locations to call everyone to prayer wherever they are, listen even the dogs are reciting too! Subhanallah!”.

 The dogs sounded more in pain then in tune with the Sheiks. She waited for athan to finish before rolling over and going back to sleep but something stopped her. Amina stood there watching, anticipating what she’d do next. I held her gaze until finally I stood up and went to the bathroom. When she entered the bathroom she realized her own foolish error. How do I make Wudu again? Jeez it's been to long “I’m pretty sure its left hand…no no wait right hand”.

Amina came in after her. “Oh you didn’t make Wudu either? We can make it together” Amina chimed gleefully. How can anyone be so chipper this early? So they made their Wudu, Emaan watching Amina intently to make sure she was doing it correctly.

 Afterwards Amina open her closet and gave her a green scarf with a black dress. Emaan stared dumfound at the items in her hand. Amina giggled even more.

“They're for prayer Emaan, I didn’t think you had an abaya and hijab in your suitcase so I prepared a couple for you arrival, here”.  

Emaan continued to stare. Slowly she reached out and took hold of the garments. She slipped on the ill-fitting abaya first. Why on earth is it so baggy? She then glared at the green scarf in her hands. Emaan has only ever put on a hijab when she attended Eid prayers (which was rare). She usually just wrapped it around her head and let some hairs peek out. She decided to make that same hijab style. She half expected Amina to laugh her head off after she was done, but Amina just stood there staring.

“You look beautiful, mashallah, green is now your new colour” Amina gushed. Emaan would’ve made a snarky comment if she wasn’t so tired, so she kept quite and waited for Amina to start praying.

“Allahuakbar” Amina raised her hands up and then placed them over her chest. Emaan had seen people pray many times but she had never seen someone so focused. With her head down and her eyes closed someone would assume that she was sleeping. She took her place next to Amina and did exactly what she did but something didn’t feel right. She felt distracted, she kept thinking about how her friends were and how comfortable the bed was looking. Oh how she wanted to throw off this hijab and abaya and fall asleep. She held herself in place. She wanted to prove to Amina that she could do things other Muslims can do. Still, it didn’t feel right to her. She felt as if someone was trying to distract her from concentrating. Before she could fully focus, prayer was already over. Amina looked at her expectantly

“So…do you feel anything, joy, or maybe peace?” Emaan looked down and thought of what to say.

“No, I feel tired though so I’m going to go to sleep"

The pain on Amina’s face was evident. Amina got up and headed for her bed. She lay down with her abaya and hijab still on without saying a word to Emaan. Its true, Emaan did feel bad for upseting her, but this is what happens when people push. Emaan pulls back. 

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For anyone who was wondering who the girl in the corner is, thats Emaan with her hijab on :)