yalla

Allaha akbar, Allahu akba
Ashadu an la Ilah ila Allah
Ashadu an Mohammmedan rasul Allah
Haya ala as-sala
Haya ala as-sala

(God is great, God is great
There is no god but Allah
Mohamed is His prophet
Come to prayer
Come to prayer)


Before coming to Senegal I thought of praying as an intimate thing one does when they are alone, in a quiet room, before bed. In Senegal it is nowhere near that. The country is 90% Muslim, and I would assume that 95% of that percentage practices the religion. Before Senegal I knew very little about Islam and now after 2 university classes, a very religious host mother, and a believing but not-so-religious boyfriend, I have learned a thing or two. Among the things I have learned what I have noticed is that Americans have very misguided views about Islam and Muslims. “Political Islam” or Fundamentalists are very very different from regular practicing Muslims. Praying is a large part of the religion as it is done five times a day: around 5am, 2 pm, 5pm, 7pm, and 8:30pm. The call to prayer blasts from every mosque a bit before prayer time and everyone finishes what they are doing to begin their ablutions.

There is a very strict procedure to doing ablutions, which is carefully followed. Senegalese people who work in the streets, meaning they are vendors, taxi drivers, guards, etc do their ablutions on the street. They crouch with their bottle of water and start washing away. First are genitals, which are usually done in a private place (when on the street private means turning their back to the road), then are hands up until their wrists. Next is the head- mouth, nose, ears, general facial area, and hair. Followed by head are feet then lastly hands and arms until the elbow. Each part of the body is washed three times. In my house my host mom does her ablutions in our sink, reaching her legs into the basin so she can wash her feet. Once ablutions are over they align their prayer mat so it faces East towards Mecca and begin to pray.
It is preferred that prayer is done together so many people will come together to pray even if it’s on the street taking up the sidewalk. At mosques, especially on Fridays, the number of people, mostly men, who come to pray is incredible. Little boys wearing their Friday best and their mini prayer mats look proud and confident. Women must prayer behind the men. How that manifest outside on the sidewalk always baffles me. In any case, everyone prays together almost synchronized. While in Morocco, outside of mosques, I realized that in Senegal more emphasis is placed on praying simultaneously. The fluid motion of standing, bending, kneeling, kneeling with their head on the mat is always astounding. Watching my host mother pray was at first awkward. All of a sudden she would appear next to me on the balcony with her mat and would begin. I would sit rigidly for the duration of her prayers (she prays for longer than anyone else I have ever seen) until she would start up a conversation. I always felt as if I was invading her space or that I was intruding on a personal moment but in fact in makes no difference if there is someone nearby watching as long as they don’t walk in front of the person praying, which would “block” the prayer.

Prayer beads are also fascinating to me. My host mom is a big fan of prayer beads and has them all around the house. She sits in the kitchen or on the balcony saying her prayers going around and around the prayer bead circle until she feels ready to move on. One is supposed do the prayer beads 1,000 or 10,000 times. Each strand of beads contains either 100 or 1,000 beads, which are rubbed in a continuous movement around and around the strand. While praying there is a standard prayer to be said which involves “awesome god” and “Allaha akbar.” A person praying with the beads should not be interrupted. It is difficult since the person looks like they are just sitting down minding their business but when you ask them a question and they hold up the beads to indicate that they are in the middle of praying. It is also a big activity done on the bus which at first gone me nervous that people were praying that we wouldn’t crash. Now that I am a seasoned prayer bead and regular praying connoisseur I am no longer freaked out about interrupting a personal moment. I have also gotten good at walking behind praying people discreetly.