This a is a janamaz, an object used to aid one in one’s prayer, that my mother brought with her from Bangladesh and it used to belong to my grandfather. My mother hailed from an extremely religious family as her father was a huzur, a person with a great understanding of Islam and someone who helps guide regular people to be proper Muslims. A huzur is like a rabbi for Jewish communities and a priest for Christian communities. My grandfather was the type of man who never became rich solely because he was constantly giving his money and services for free to the poor and kept only enough to live a decent and religiously motivated life. As a result, ever since she was a little girl, my mother always performed salah (prayer) five times a day, and she even took it a step further in that she would pray more than what was required, as her father had taught her that devotion to Allah should be every Muslim's utmost priority. She would always perform nafl prayer, which is a type of optional Muslim salah, on a daily basis for the sake of more rewards as a nafl prayer is believed to give extra benefit to the person performing them. According to my mother, she brought this janamaz with her when she came to America with my father so that she would always remember her roots and the teachings of her father. This object is special to me personally in that it is the only memory I have of my grandfather as he died before I was born and there are no pictures of him available.

– Tasnia Tabassum

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