9/11 did not discourage them from praying in airplanes
Praying in airplanes.
It was already hard out there for a Muslim living in this world of mass….. search of weapons, oil and destruction; ‘mediatization and indexation.
I went on vacation recently. A Ben laden’s lookalike decided to pray in the space between the fly attendant’s seat and the emergency exit. Either I had not flown in a while or I just wasn’t ready for it.
Stupid and immature as I am, I could not help but think ‘’is he going to pray then kill us all’’ or is he going to ‘’pray, kill us and get his parachute out?’’. I started giggling (I already said stupid and immature) then felt bad because I was wondering what everybody else was thinking. I would have given a lung to get a close up on anybody who wasn’t Muslim. Like Alicia’s facial expression when lil mama thought she gained enough notoriety to burst uninvited in the adult world. Then I remembered there were only Senegalese, Chinese, Arabs and Kenyans in the flight.
Not too long after, a couple of other Muslims (Senegalese this time) got up to holla at Allah in the same exact place. Is this a conspiracy? Are they getting more brownie points? I want brownies… I mean points… then should I be praying too? I thought you were not supposed to pray while traveling?
Then I thought, it makes sense to pray in an airplane, only and especially pray for one’s life. I mean we are a million feet off the ground, chilling higher than albatrosses and if something happens, the last thing I want to do is respect the safety measures, I swear they make me more nervous, so really how about a little prayer?
On the other hand, see what Islam became, stressful, thanks Media.
Other than that reason, there is no ‘Muslim’ reason to pray in airplanes, like what is the purpose except scaring other people to death? well nowadays anyway…? You are in the air, flying between a billion different timezones, so which of the 5 mandatory prayer is this one? Numero ocho? A bonus? number 2 in the embarking country and number 3 when you are closer to the indian ocean….?
I would love your insight on that one.
Ps: Do people pray on their way to the US? I wonder how flight attendants feel about that one? Because on my way to Dubai, it was just routine. I am surprised they did not have a prayer room available in the plane.
I have never been on a plane where someone was praying but i know it’s not mandatory to accomplish your prayers while travelling. people need to understand that Muslims have a bad rep for all the wrong reason and it is up to us to clean it up because nobody else will do it for us…at least not the media. Cleaning up our rep starts with being more considerate about other people’s feelings about Islam. Someone on the plane could have lost a relative on 9/11 or been affected in a different way so LET’S TRY TO MAKE OUR RELIGION LOOK LESS SCARY
Allah does not even require you to pray while you are travelling so Brother or sister wait until arrival to do your prayers! IF YOU HAVE TO PRAY, you can pray from your seat (my grandma used to do it on long car trips). Even I will be scared if I saw a Ben Laden lookalike praying on a plane. I love Allah but I ain’t ready to meet him yet.
No brownie points for mile high prayers and nice touch on the albatross analogy…I am getting scared now cause everyday you think and sound more and more like me…
bouna sylla - June 10, 2011 at 12:48 am |
deeelen wakh lolen kham. Prayer has to be made at its appointed time. When travelling you can shorten prayers, pray tisbar and takusan together with 2 rakas for each. But you have to make your prayers before the appointed time passes, even if you are in a plane. you do not need to find the qiblah or penccou in a plane, you just pray in any direction. you can remain seated and pray at your place, or pray like these people did. au moins eux ne sont pas complexes. may Allah guide us all. Do not take my word for a fact, verifiez ac votre oustaz personnel il vous dira. Peace!
peace - June 13, 2011 at 8:30 pm |
THANKS FOR SHARING. Je n’ai jamais entendu ce point de vue la. (Et j’ai demandé a mon oustass mais on entendra toujours différentes interprétations), néanmoins, sans être complexée, je préfère prier de mon siège. and as you said, May Allah guide us all. Anyway this was more about media and how it changed our perception of praying and islam in general.Thanks for the insight.
nkdk - June 13, 2011 at 10:56 pm