Prayer time

Good Morning friends. The hazy weather has returned to Jeddah, the capital city of the western province of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. I'm currently sitting in my hotel room watching the sun rise to my east. It's pretty reassuring each night when I go to bed that I do not have to worry about setting an alarm clock. Each morning the Adhan plays around 5:55 to start off the Sunrise prayer. Here is my view as the sunrises:



Prayer start times can be quite confusing. Let me give you the rundown on what I have learned about prayer. Each day Muslims pray 6 days a time. Each prayer time has a different name. The are Fajr (first prayer), Sunrise (sunrise), Dhuhr (noon), Asr (mid-day), Maghreb (sunset), Isha (bedtime). The daily time of each prayer is different. Prayer times are based on the sun and it's rotation on the earth's axis, and it's relation to the Holy city of Mecca. For example, today Fajr started at 4:33am in Mecca. In Dammam, one of the eastern most cities in the Kingdom, it started at 3:42am. Then in Jazan, a city just southwest of Mecca, Fajr started at 4:29. Most prayers last about a half hour, except the Asr, which is one hour.


Each time prayer happens, the Adhan is recited (or sung) at each mosque by the muezzin. The Adhan is also referred to as "the prayer call". In other religions, this would be similar to the ringing of the bells. It's basically a way to let people know that it is time to pray. Depending on the voice of the muezzin in your neighborhood mosque calling the Adhan, you will hear either melodic melody of sounds or nails scratching a chalkboard (also can sound like screeching and screaming). Each mosque broadcasts the Adhan over a P.A. system from the tower. Here is a photo that I took from my room.


If you see, there are two towers, one on the left and one on the right. These are the two towers of the mosque. Due to the fact that each mosque may have a clock that is a minute or two off from the next closest one, you will here the Adhan being started at different times. The result is a wave of differing voices calling out this beautiful song.


Each person will face the Holy city of Mecca and prays. My hotel provides guests with a prayer rug and a decal on the ceiling that shows you the direction of Mecca. Both malls that I've been in provide quiet places for people to pray if the desire to go there. Here are some photos.






It is required that everything close during each prayer. Stores ask clients to leave, restaurants lock their doors and everyone turns down their lights. Luckily, in Jeddah, most restaurants do not ask patrons to leave, but they wont let anyone in during the prayer. They simply dim the lights and close the shades. So far, from what Jason and I have seen here in Jeddah, not everyone prays. Life pretty much goes on as normal, except that business is shut down. This may or may not be true in other cities.

Now, you are probably wondering, how does one keep track of when he would need to pray. Each day, a prayer schedule is published in local papers. The paper that I get called Arab News (it's like our USA today), prints a table that has a bunch of cities all over the country listed.


I would assume local mosques have this posted somewhere. In addition, there are several smart phone apps available. Luckily, the official start time only adjusts by a minute each day, so it's usually in same time frame as the day previous. When I first arrived, I thought that this would be so difficult to adjust to. This is not the case. It's just a part of daily life here. As long as people are respectful of it, you are good.


So there you have it, some basics on prayer here in the KSA. I'm sure that some of this is wrong, and I definitely know that there is much more to this...but it's a start.


Today is Wednesday. I've been gone one week, and finally feel as if my body is adjusting to the time change. Yesterday was a good day. We spent most of it at PBK in the Mall of Arabia. We did spend sometime starting a basic action plan for one of our stores. On today's agenda: breakfast, PB in Mall of Arabia and then finding somewhere cute to eat for dinner.


What about you...what did you do yesterday? I'm really enjoying the emails that people are sending me. Is there anything you want to learn about the KSA? I'd love to be able to share with you and help you to create a more accurate picture of what life in The KSA Is like (it's very different than what I expected). I'm enjoying sharing my thoughts and experiences with you. I look forward to hearing from you. Remember, you can email me at jayliffejessup@wsgc.com. Talk to you soon. Xoxoxo


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