Excerpt from my Interview with a Muslim College student about Prayer

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As Salaamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh! I hope this finds you close to Allah & in the best of health and Iman.


THIS INTERVIEW WAS DONE IN MARCH 2011.

Sister Marwa: Describe to me the experience of praying Jama’a, together, with the rest of the sisters, standing in line, all of us standing in line, doing the same thing at the same time, listening to the same voice. How does it feel like? The experience of praying with sisters, shoulder to shoulder.

Sister @pril: It has a different feeling than when you’re praying by yourself. It’s like we’re all coming together for the same thing. We’re all coming together for the same prize. It’s like if you really believe in a charity― let’s say you organize a breast cancer walk―you might get a few friends together, but once you organize a large group, it has a larger impact. It has a much stronger fleeing. You feel very unified. We’re all Muslims. We all believe the same thing. We’re all doing the same thing. It has a very strong feeling. It also creates a bond because after we get done, sometimes we hug each other. It’s not like how Christians pray at church. We’re touching each other. You know? We’re touching each others’ feet. Our shoulders, our elbows are touching. You’re very close to somebody.  We’re all standing. We’re all doing the exact same thing. It’s a very good feeling inside that we’re all sharing in the same thing, at the exact same time because you never know when you’re going to pray with these sisters again.  We all die. We’re all going to die. You just never knew when someone won’t be there the next week.  Even ourselves, we might not even be here tonight. You really have to appreciate what’s going on right now. Focus on right now.  And it’s just a really good feeling being with everyone doing the same thing at the same time. It just has a louder voice, to have everyone do the exact same thing.