01-03-2005, 10:30 AM
Assalamu aleikum,
Nice idea sister! We treasure our prayer so much masha'Allah so it is truly a good idea to write at bit about them too!
When I still lived in Sweden our workingplace had to move to another building for a short while and I fast had to locate somewhere to pray Duhr. Found a little tiny, I wouldn't call it room, I think wardrobe is a more approprite word, so there I prayed among boxes and machines. The first time a college wondered what I was up to, and he was just coming in to see what was going on, when I had finished my prayer, and he said 'Oh it is you!' and said no more. After that I made a little sign and hanged on the door telling everyone, ''Occupied, will be free soon'', and it worked well.
Then travelling by car back and forth between Morocco and Sweden always puts you in different situations, but the whole family often prays together sitting in the car. That way also I and my daughter feel comfortable since we don't have to expose ourselves to watchers, not so much anyway. But since one has to turn of the highway and stay at a parkinglot for example there will always be people that go by and wonder ''what on earth are they DOING?'' They don't need to say it! One time when we were just about to start praying at at parkinglot in Germany, a car pulled in front of us and some young men jumped out of the car and started to respond to the call of nature! Now this was a bit too much, so we did not pray there, it felt wrong, so we drove on to the next place to stop.
Doing wudu when doing this kind of travelling is also a challenge, people does not understand what you are doing - they look at you as if you are out of your mind or something like that. So life is truly a challenge many times, but it strengten us insha'Allah.
What I know women are not supposed to pray out in the open, will try to find a hadith insha'Allah, but is should make sense since the position with the forehead on the ground will surely not make people look away...
Wasalam