Alright before I get to tonights prayers, I have to say that today started off a little rough. I ended up waking up a little late for Fajr Prayers, which meant no meal before starting the day off. It wasn’t really to hard until work started. I usually suck down quite a few gatorades and bottles of water during the day, mostly because it’s been hot, and I work a job where I carry ladders, climb telephone poles, and cram my 6′4″ body into low crawl spaces. I know lots of fun. So I was impulsively looking for fluids all day after each job. Fortunately Allah kept the air cool, and made the day easier, AlhumdiAllah, as well as some digital encouragement on the phone.

OK so tonight I arrived at Isha (prayers (night time prayers), and one of the brothers asked me to say Adhan (Call to Prayer). Who me? Oi!! Now I have done it twice in front of maybe 3 people, and the rest of the time when I am doing my prayers privately. But never in front of 20 or so brothers, and an unknown amount of sisters, although I heard there wasn’t any. Yes our Masjid (mosque) is small. I am not a public speaker, nor am I a person who really likes to get up and sing in front of people by myself, although it’s not really singing. Regardless my voice is notorious to crackle as it fluctuates between the lower notes and the higher ones. So I asked are you sure? He just stuck his hand out and gestured a simple yes. Nerve racking to say the least, but I was honored with such an amazing responsibility to call the community to prayer.

So onto the prayer. It wasn’t really much different that last night. I repeated silently the things that I knew, and silently contemplated during the recitation. I ran into many of the same issues. Shaitain (Satan) has a sneaky way of distracting us, but Allah (God) is far more wise. So instead of being distracted by all these thoughts, I began to examine them. What things can I make better, where can I improved (the list is long), and how can I use these things for the sake of Allah. Some things came in bits an pieces, and others remained unanswered. But not only did I see the things that I needed to work on, but also on some of strong points of who I am, and how each of those can also improve, so that someday I can be a better citizen to society, a good husband for my future wife and family, and a faithful servant of Allah (SWT). And now it’s time for sleep.