Prayer Time

In the hotel room there is a Giddeon Bible. A little surprised to find the Bible in a hotel room in a mostly Islamic country. In one hotel room there was a copy of the Koran and the Bible in the same drawer.

Also, there have been prayer rugs hanging in the closet with the bathrobes. I expected the room to be marked indicating the direction to Mecca. There is a sticker on the bottom shelf of the nightstand with “kiblat” printed on it. This is the direction to the Mecca.

Before my trip I did know Muslims pray 5 times a day. I did not know when Muslims prayed during the day. After being awakened by the public broadcast of the prayer from a mosque near my hotel at 4 AM, I did some research. The first prayer of the day happens when the sun begins to brighten the sky at that location. That is early. Websites give the prayer time for a zip code or specific city. The second prayer is at sunrise. The third prayer is at midday. The fourth prayer is when a stick’s shadow is longer than the stick, sometime in the afternoon. And the fifth prayer is at sunset. I have not seen any Muslims praying, but there are prayer rooms in public places like airports.

Islamic TV stations broadcast the prayers. These channels have other programming similar to the Christian TV at home. There are sermons and talk shows. I have not heard any in English.