After Trump's Election, A Nonpracticing Muslim Returns To Prayer

[rug]

January 18, 201711:42 AM ET
Commentary heard on Fresh Air
ZAHRA NOORBAKHSH
Zahra Noorbakhsh will be touring her comedy special, On Behalf of All Muslims, in the spring of 2017. She is the co-host of the podcast Good Muslim, Bad Muslim.

When I was a kid, Mom used to say, "You know you've become an infidel when you forget the Fatihah." The Fatihah is the preamble to the Quran, a prayer Muslims repeat five times a day.

Mom used to warn me to be grateful for the practice. That on the Day of Judgment, Allah would call upon me to recite the Fatihah and I would realize that I had forgotten the words and know what it means to be a lost soul.

While other kids went to soccer practice on the weekends, I went to a religious Farsi school, where prayer was homework and I heard the Fatihah all the time. They would check to see that I was praying correctly, and that I was emphasizing the right "qh" and "ha" sounds, and performing the correct poses and postures.

Dad paid particularly close attention to my religious education. "Don't say 'God,' " he would order, if I was being flip. "When people say 'God' they're thinking of a man god, and that's as bad as idolatry. We shouldn't turn people into gods. Say, 'Allah!' Allah is the everything in the universe!"

http://www.npr.org/2017/01/18/510346895/after-trumps-election-a-non-practicing-muslim-returns-to-prayer

http://www.goodmuslimbadmuslim.com/

[guillaumeb]

1. Recommended

From the article:

When I heard that Donald Trump was our next president, it was the first time in my life that I understood what prayer was for.
When I needed it most, I reached for the words of the faith that I was raised with: that the universe is unified by a force of compassion.

Many have turned away, only to return when they realize what faith offers.

[edhopper]

2. if prayer worked

Last edited Sun Jan 22, 2017, 12:35 PM - Edit history (1)

Trump wouldn't be President.
Either that or God is evil.

[guillaumeb]

3. Much too simplistic.

Trump is President mainly because of GOP voter suppression.

[edhopper]

4. forgot to put

those laughy faces. fixed.

[nil desperandum]

5. Or

maybe he answered the prayers of the opposition, and not those of Democrats and independents...

It's all a mystery...no one can know why or how he works his magic....

At least that's what they tell me, those who believe.

[edhopper]

6. In that case

the Muslim in the article is praying up the wrong tree. To mix a metaphor or two.

[nil desperandum]

13. Nice....nt

[Angry Dragon]

7. Perhaps god has moved on to another planet

[edhopper]

8. God can

pay complete attention to every planet in the universe and every living being where ever they are.

Or so I am told.

[Angry Dragon]

9. kinda like a Trump alternative truth ............. just short a little bit of proof

[edhopper]

10. Proof? Ha!

Faith is where it's at. Says o right in this thread.

[Angry Dragon]

11. Faith is a good thing, but one has to keep it to themselves

does not travel well

[edhopper]

12. I don't trust faith

in this sense.