Prayer Corner

If you want your children to pray (“when they grow up”), start your du’a now. Make prayer (salat) part of their life, a game, a joy, something to look forward to. A thank you to the Giver, as a natural outcome of enjoying their life. Not something they “have” to do “when they grow up.”

• Start your du’a now: a thought is a du’a. A feeling is a du’a. An action is a du’a. So let’s make du’a for our children to live with salat every day of their life.
• When you are expecting a baby: the first thing you purchase for your emanat (trust) from God may be a prayer rug and a kid’s Quran.
• When you are decorating a nursery with joy: the first thing you do may be choosing a prayer corner for salat.
• Family prayer rugs: Put a prayer rug for your husband, one for yourself and one for the baby.
• Leave the prayer rugs on the floor as a du’a: that you will insha’allah be praying there constantly as a family.
• When the baby comes home: start doing your salat as a family and place the baby on his/her prayer rug while you pray with your husband.
• As the baby grows into a toddler: don’t “ask” her to come and pray with you. Let her play around you, lie on your lap while you are praying, get on dad’s back while he is in prostration…. Sometimes she will pray, sometimes she will play… It’s all part of her joy and thankfulness to her Creator.
• Don’t say “I have to pray now” vs. Say “Let’s thank God”: kids have a blank slate. They will percieve prayer based on your words and attitude towards prayer. When you are playing a game and it is time to pray, announce it ahead of time – “after this game, let’s go and thank God for this wonderful, fun time we had together”