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Prayer, Placement, and Absolution: Peter Hristoff on Islamic Prayer Rugs (2015)

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Re: Prayer, Placement, and Absolution: Peter Hristoff on Islamic Prayer Rugs (2015)

#41

Post by MrMcCall »

PrismCrystal wrote: post #17
mkoubaa wrote: post #16

In all the years of using one I never thought it made anything sacred. It keeps my forehead clean and cushions my knees

This reminds me of the practice in Egypt where men would intentionally press their heads into the ground when praying in order to develop a callous, colloquially called a zebiba , showing off their piety. Is this still fashionable? When I traveled rural Egypt in 2008 it was omnipresent; one shopkeeper told me he no longer believed in religion, but he had to develop a zebiba nevertheless, otherwise no one would buy fr…

[flagged]

Re: Prayer, Placement, and Absolution: Peter Hristoff on Islamic Prayer Rugs (2015)

#42

Post by MrMcCall »

pushupentry1219 wrote: post #29
mkoubaa wrote: post #16

In all the years of using one I never thought it made anything sacred. It keeps my forehead clean and cushions my knees

(I'm a Muslim). I mean... Strictly speaking as far as i am aware the mat/rug is not sacred itself. It is just a place to put your head +knees comfortably. In fact the Prophet Muhammad SAW did not use a prayer mat and instead he placed his head on the soil (ground/earth). Also note; Shias place their head on a stone/rock to mimic this practice: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbah

Yes, the prayer rug is not sacred, per se, but it can be embued with a measure of sacredness by our practices upon it.

Please know that Zikr (remembering/repeating one of the many Names of God) is the highest form of worship. (Zikr is commanded three times in the Quran-i-Kerim.)

Al-lah, Yah-weh, Di-os, De-us, Brah-man, ...

Many Names in our various languages for the one Creator, one human race, one religion of God: compassionate service to all mankind that comes in many forms across our planet's cultures and epochs.

Always love. Teach to always love. Never hate. Teach to never hate.

Re: Prayer, Placement, and Absolution: Peter Hristoff on Islamic Prayer Rugs (2015)

#45

Post by noduerme »

noufalibrahim wrote: post #35
Cyph0n wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Sunni Islam, the Hadith is essentially a companion source to the Quran - in particular, Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim. But I should have been more specific. I think Shia art has the same restrictions though - could be wrong.

Islamic canon law (the Shariah) is derived from primary texts (the Quran and Hadith) and uses interpretive methodologies (like deductive analogy - Qiyas) to derive rulings that are not explicitly discussed in the primary source material. This gives some amount of openness and causes some differences of opinion resulting in multiple schools of thought. Practicing Muslims rely on books and texts that systematize this k…

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Re: Prayer, Placement, and Absolution: Peter Hristoff on Islamic Prayer Rugs (2015)

#46

Post by dieppe »

karim79 wrote: post #27
noufalibrahim wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Islam generally has a prohibiton on representational art. Most of the artistic skills were pulled into calligraphy and tesselations. It's why these show up in almost all Islamic artifacts.

Can you please elaborate on 'representational art' in this context?

There's a _great_ book about that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Name_Is_Red

Helps understand how arts, religion, and power are intermingled. Made me question what we mean by "tradition" ; they always seemed fixed to a present observer, but are also the result of constant change.

Anyway, there's more to the book and it is really a great read (maybe more so if like me you know close to nothing about the Ottoman empire).

(and just to be clear: this book talks about what was admitted as acceptable art at a specific period in a specific region where Islam was the state religion, not commenting on the art in Islam as a whole as I would be incapable of doing so)

Re: Prayer, Placement, and Absolution: Peter Hristoff on Islamic Prayer Rugs (2015)

#47

Post by mkoubaa »

PrismCrystal wrote: post #17
mkoubaa wrote: post #16

In all the years of using one I never thought it made anything sacred. It keeps my forehead clean and cushions my knees

This reminds me of the practice in Egypt where men would intentionally press their heads into the ground when praying in order to develop a callous, colloquially called a zebiba , showing off their piety. Is this still fashionable? When I traveled rural Egypt in 2008 it was omnipresent; one shopkeeper told me he no longer believed in religion, but he had to develop a zebiba nevertheless, otherwise no one would buy fr…

I knew people who "groomed" a zebiba, for lack of a better term. I don't doubt that some people who have one are not doing it for show (otherwise who are they emulating?). Whether or not it's fashionable depends on your social circle, I assumr

Re: Prayer, Placement, and Absolution: Peter Hristoff on Islamic Prayer Rugs (2015)

#48

Post by mkoubaa »

pushupentry1219 wrote: post #29
mkoubaa wrote: post #16

In all the years of using one I never thought it made anything sacred. It keeps my forehead clean and cushions my knees

(I'm a Muslim). I mean... Strictly speaking as far as i am aware the mat/rug is not sacred itself. It is just a place to put your head +knees comfortably. In fact the Prophet Muhammad SAW did not use a prayer mat and instead he placed his head on the soil (ground/earth). Also note; Shias place their head on a stone/rock to mimic this practice: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbah

Yeah I think the author of this article had some subjective understanding and experience. I don't mean to diminish it but it's definitely something I and other (but not all) Muslims find foreign

Re: Prayer, Placement, and Absolution: Peter Hristoff on Islamic Prayer Rugs (2015)

#49

Post by nicbou »

kamikazeturtles wrote: post #4

I love this sort of writing. Bringing attention to something you don't pay too much attention to, even as a muslim. My prayer rug has tessellation patterns, probably a testament to God's infiniteness. Where I'm originally from in Diyarbakir, Turkey, the Christians also use prayer rugs when prostrating (to, I think, Jerusalem) so this isn't an exclusively "Islamic" thing.

I look for this sort of thing whenever I travel, but it’s really hard to find.
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