How I do my prayers, is how I do my everything.

In the name of Allah,  The Most Gracious, The Most Merciful

Assalamualaikum

Title: How I do my prayers, is how I do my everything.

MasyaAllah. This is a beautiful work of art. Excellent photographic skills. But that's besides the point. When I first saw this picture, I can't help but to gaze at the person who is performing his prayers in this picture, with full of envy. How could he have such a great amount of courage to perform his prayers in an open space like that? MasyaAllah.

Here in a country like Singapore, you don't have the freedom to perform your Solat anywhere you like. Try laying out your prayer mat in the middle of a shopping centre and when you get up from your sujud, here's what you'll get. A security guard standing right before you with a crowd behind him, staring at you as though you were an alien from outerspace.

I understand for a fact that in an environment like Singapore, it is completely ridiculous for us to be performing our fardhu prayers in the middle of a shopping centre because it'll only bring chaos as we're blocking people from walking around etc.

Recently, while I was doing some shopping to get some stuffs for a project with a group of friends at IMM Daiso Jurong, I thought that hey, perhaps I could drop by to Masjid Al Mukminin for a while after I'm done with all this shopping, to perform my Zohor prayers. But, I didn't keep track of the time while I was shopping and then the next thing I knew, it was already close to 3pm.

I was afraid that I couldn't make it home on time for Zohor prayers. So I put up a status on Facebook via mobile, asking my contacts whether there happen to be a musollah in IMM Daiso Jurong itself. An akhi replied saying that I could log on to www.islamicevents.sg , and I was told by him that apparently there is a musollah in the building itself. It's located at Level 1, somewhere near the carpark.

So then, I thought to myself. Where should I pray? Should I travel all the way to Al Mukminin mosque? Should I just perform my prayers in IMM itself? I swear that Syaitan almost got me under his trap that time because I could hear voices in my head telling me to forgo my Zohor Prayers and just qada' them when I reach home.

In the end, I put my trust in Him, tawakal-ed and I rushed home with my friends and alhamdulilah, I made it home just in time for Zohor prayers. And upon the completion of my Zohor prayers, I pondered upon myself. Why hadn't I go to Al Mukminin? Or, why hadn't I performed my prayers at IMM itself even after being told that there was a musollah there? The answer to that? I was plain lazy and peer-pressure was just so hard to resist.

Although I still got the chance to perform Zohor prayers at home, I might not get so lucky the next time round because for all I know, I could've just gotten into an accident and died. So Susu, the next time when there is a place for you to pray whenever you are outdoors, just GO and pray and stop procrastinating. Period.

Allah states in a Hadith Qudsi that: "Out of all ways through which My servant gets closer to Me, solat is the dearest to Me." [ Imam Bukhari ]