Faisal Alnifais

ENG 101

Mr.Waltman

Memoir essay

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim , Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alamin, Arrahmanirrahim, Malikiyaw middin,

Iyyaka na’budu wa iyyaka nasta’in

This was the first poem I ever knew was written in a language which I didn’t understand, because

I was in India and I didn’t learn Arabic there. Being a Muslim it is our custom to pray for five

times. When I was five I used to see my family members to do the prayers but I didn’t understand

the words what they were murmuring. I just leant the way they were doing. But my grandfather

made me learn about the prayers which enabled me to understand about the concept of our prayers.

it was very difficult for my grandfather to do five times prayers so we did it every evening when

my grandfather announced that it was the time of name. I also started doing “Wudhu” which is a

kind of pre prayer ablution like drawing water for the face wash, hair, head , arms and also the

feet. Then we all gathered in the bedroom, or the living room so that we could spread our mats for

the prayers. I was too small but I remembered that my grandfather, my mother and my siblings

were doing prayers and making some postures and murmuring some words. I was not able to

understand the words they murmured but I imitated them and learnt the postures of the prayers as

I used to do the same at that time of prayers. All of them used to do prayers quietly for devotion.

I would just watch my family when I was too small mimicking their movements. there words were

whispered which were not audible so I was not able to understand those words so instead of
listening the sound I used to focussed on the entire process which they were doing. I was just

watching the way of my facing was doing and I did the same as cupping my hands before my face

as if they were full of water. after that I splash my hands up to my ears, bending my waist and

kneeling.

The language which was used in Namaz was Arabic and I was not able to understand Arabic very

well. So we were not able to understand to repeat these gorgeous, rendering strings of sounds

together as a way to build the string with god. I just moved the postures along with my family, and

listened to their words which were whispered, I also watched all this with reverence and

fascination. My grandfather was my idol so I was not aware about the prayers but the only thing I

wanted was that I wanted to be like him which inspired me to write about the fascination of prayers.

When I was six years old and my grandfather was watching my fascination about the prayers, he

decided that was the time to teach me about saying prayers. He wrote Arabic words using English

alphabets and spelled phonetically, in various colourful inks. He then laminated that paper and

spent hours together to teach me about the words of prayer. The lines would say “alham dulillahi

rabbil, ar rahman ir rahim.” he taught me to sound together. I just lean up towards my grandfather’s

lips and got the perfect happiness in the magical music which was coming from him. Both of us

practiced together moving through the postures. We were enjoying, laughing and sometime I just

forgot some words but I learnt by the time . It didn’t take long before I had mastered it. I was so

proud after learning about the prayers. My grandfather too was proud of me as, my learning was

exact the same language and postures which was spoken by the prophet himself.

I learnt that if the prayers are making a place holy, then these prayers are having some divine

energy which can move throughout the human body. I also learnt about the Arabic word “ ruh”
which means the spirit and the breath which is the most essential element of the prayers which is

directing , bridling the breathe spirit through a kind of focused music. So the music of hymning

directly to god was my first experience of mellifluous charged language which is the base of my

understanding of poetry as a craft. I learnt the real meaning of the prayers which changed me from

my inner depth. Doing prayers and loving the music of the prayer made me learn about the spiritual

love for music which speak enough beauty of breathe and spirit to earn the god’s attention. I learnt

the about the breath and spirit and the holy faith on prayers which is essential to understand about

the prayers. I learnt the way to direct the breath spirit through a kind of focused music. Hymning

directly to god is the music which I learnt through leaning the prayers which was my first conscious

experience of my life. I was so inspired by the music of the prayers that I started writing which

becomes a meditative practice. there is no way to stop writing in my life and I always address love,

fear, death, family , god in my poems as I learnt from my early age language about the beauty of

breath and spirit to earn a tiny moment of god’s attention.

No one can separate me from my writing of the poems as I am writing from my spiritual life and

understand that Venn diagram would just be a big circle. I always work on the divine of love, fear,

death, family, god and others which first to be courted. I learnt about mystery which is provided

in the prayers which was charged, earnest and true.

I am encourage about the feed back of my writing so that I can develop better skills of writing and

rectify my mistake which helps me in gaining more knowledge about the writing. I feel glad to get

the feedback from my companions which help me in proof reading the writing. One of my

companions gave the feedback about the composition of the co tent of writing. I took it seriously

and positively and added many details about writing. I tried to solve the issues which were

extracted by the feedback of my companion. Critical thinking of this writing helped me to

understand about to go beyond the author and in the end, I think getting the feedback is much more

positive. It is the permanent solution of the problems in writing which enhances the writing skills.