Prayer Through a Muslim Woman's Eyes
A Muslim woman’s understanding of prayer is quite different from a Christian’s!
Normally Muslim prayer is seen as reciting prescribed prayers at five specified times of the day. While she sometimes whispers requests extemporaneously, she considers those prayers to be less valuable than the ones prescribed by Islam.
Before praying, Muslim women have to perform ablutions to make their bodies physically and ceremonially clean before Allah. They should not even wear fingernail polish or makeup when they say their prayers. Allah would not be pleased. Many have white prayer clothes that they put on first. Women will spread their prayer carpets on the floor, ensuring that they are pointing east toward Mecca (some carpets even have attached compasses). Then the women kneel, turn their heads right and left, repeat the words, rise, . . . This is their ritual.
All this contrasts with how the majority of Christian women pray daily. It is important that we understand just how “strange” our manner of prayer may seem to our Muslim friends. They may be taken aback by how casual we appear to be about prayer.
As Christians, our prayers are more conversational—more of a dialogue than a monologue. Our tone is often one of casual friendship. Rather than kneeling on a carpet, we usually just pray wherever we happen to be, in whatever position we happen to be in. It does not matter if we are standing, sitting, or kneeling. Holding a baby, washing dishes, driving our car, walking during our lunch break—we can pray during any of these activities. We do not cover our heads. We do not prepare with ablutions. We do not face a certain direction. This informality is very foreign and unfamiliar to Muslims. They have a master/slave relationship in their faith, while our faith is centered on a father/child relationship. Our Father is available to us at all times, and we do not have to “clean ourselves up” before we can approach Him.
It is good to offer to pray for our Muslim friends and withthem, but be aware that it will be a completely new (and strange) experience for them. How do we approach prayer with our Muslim friends? We might say to the friend whose mother has died, "May I pray for you? God really does care about your grief and He can comfort you. When I pray, I speak to God in heaven in the name of Jesus. Would you like me to pray for you?”
And then we may need to explain that we will pray right then. “I mean right here with you now.” This will be new to them. A posture that may be familiar to them is to raise both hands, palms opened toward God. Your prayer might be something like this: “Dear God in heaven, I speak to you in the name of Jesus Christ, my wonderful Savior and Comforter. My friend _______ is really hurting because her mother died, and she is worried about her father. Would you please comfort her? Help her to understand who Jesus is and that He understands our pain and grief. In the name of Jesus, amen.” We can use the word “Ameen” (notice the different pronunciation of the second syllable) and they may repeat it after you have spoken it.
Usually Muslims will not say no to prayer. They may even ask you to pray for another request. Or they may be so surprised that they say nothing at all. In those times, do not be discouraged. When we pray, God hears and He answers, regardless of whether our Muslim friend understands what is happening.
Praying in the name of Jesus may illicit varied responses. Many Muslims are very open to this especially when we have a relationship with them. Others may resist prayer in Jesus’ name as Islam denies Christ’s deity.
We speak with God, not to the Muslim, when we pray. We are demonstrating a new kind of relationship with God, unknown to them. Demonstrating this new kind of praying in a father/child relationship is often much easier than explaining it to our Muslim friends.
Pray for your Muslim friends, but don’t stop there. Look for opportunities to pray withthem. They may not understand what is happening, but God’s power and presence will be released!
(Some of the ideas from this blog entry were taken from JoyLoewen’s book Woman to Woman. If you want to gain more insight into relationships with your Muslim friends, I highly recommend this book.)