Sarmed

Sarmed

 

(When I pray I like to pray in a place where I’m alone, a place where it’s quiet; maybe even low light so then I don’t have any distractions to be able to focus on what I am doing and connect with my creator. )

 

What does prayer mean to you?
Prayer means I get to have some time just between myself and my creator, God.

It means I can experience things that take me away from this world and have some time where it’s just dedicated to God purely which means I could benefit from that time for the rest of the day.

Prayer for me is not just one thing – there is a prayer that I would offer which is my daily prayers which is something I would have to do every day 5 times and that’s different to the prayer when I need to ask God for something like a supplication. That could be at any time, it could be asking for mercy, for forgiveness, it could be asking for blessings, it could be asking for good health and doesn’t have to be for yourself you do it for others, too.

Worship as a whole could be done in different ways, it could be just a smile to someone sometimes – that’s a form of worship in my belief and that to me is another form of prayer because every step you take in life if it makes you closer to God then it’s worship – it depends on the action that you do and that could vary depending on the situation.

It’s with contact and connections that love continues; the more you contact somebody, the more you stay in touch with somebody, the more you will love them – the less you do that the more you’ll fade away from them and to me that’s what prayer is – it’s that constant connection with God everyday every single day, 5 times. That to me just makes that love relationship between the human and their creator stronger and if that fades I think everything else fades.

In my religion Prayer is considered to be the core of the religion.

Prayer is daily. Until you pray it feels like something is missing, you cannot go on with your day. Prayer is the soul and the soul will never get satisfied unless you fulfil with the need that it needs and it’s constantly in the back of your mind no matter what you are doing and it’s ridiculously powerful.

Where do you pray?
When I pray I like to pray in a place where I’m alone, a place where it’s quiet; maybe even low light so then I don’t have any distractions to be able to focus on what I am doing and connect with my creator. When everyone is supplicating together – I think (to me) it is a more powerful way of supplicating and also (I think) God accepts from a group rather than individuals because it unites people.

I like to pray en-masse prayers also – it’s definitely higher reward in the eyes of God when we pray together – it’s much more recommended in my faith to pray with others rather than yourself. If I can do it, I would love to be able to do it more often but if I’m alone I’d like to be in a place that is quiet and on my own.

Tools for prayer
I love my tool kit at home – even at work I have a tool kit so I’ve got my prayer mat, my beads, my Yamani Agate ring. At home I also have like a little turban that I cover my head with and a perfume that I perfume with before I start prayer – they’re all tucked away inside my prayer mat . To me, it just prepares me for prayer – so when I roll out my prayer mat put on a bit of perfume, put on my head turban style cloth, just wear the amani agate. I remember I am about to meet my Creator so it needs to be done in an appropriate way and and needs to be done in a way that I am conscious about what I am about to do.

It’s been narrated that if you wear the Amani agate to pray, your prayer reward gets tripled, like times by 70. It’s believed that the actual gemstone prays with you. They are a living thing so it also contributes to prayer. You will find a lot of Shia muslims – a lot of the time – wear a stone on their right hand.

Has prayer changed for you over the years?
100% Yes

At the beginning it was something I didn’t understand; so it was more of an activity you did because you had to and you didn’t feel why you were doing it, you just do it – you know it is something that God wants, something that you have to do. I think education is key there, but as a young person you don’t appreciate things as much. But the older I got, the more I realised how blessed I am with all the things that God has given me the more I understood that I’m blessed to have daily prayer as part of my daily things to do. It’s what keeps me connected to God and I think I would be lost without prayer, to be honest.