I remember my journey with my childhood prayer mat. It was navy blue with yellow embroidery and cushioned for kneeling (Ru’ku) and prostration (Sujood). My cousins sent this prayer mat to me from Saudi Arabia. My older cousin, who lived with us at the time, taught me how to pray when I was five or six years old. He taught me things like where to place my hands, when to kneel, when to prostrate, when to read verses of the Qur’an, when to stay silent and much more. Today, we have more than 5 prayer mats in our house, and we use them five times a day. This artifact is significant not only in my life but also my parents’ lives. They immigrated from Pakistan and still managed to keep closely in touch with their religion. Seeing my parents navigate such a massive change makes me even more determined to learn about Islam.
This artifact connects to New York City and the United States both. There is a large, diverse, Muslim community across New York City. We all come from different backgrounds but at the end of the day, many Muslims throughout NYC and the USA gather to worship Allah in mosques. They pray together and warmly greet one another upon entering the mosque.

– HI

Relationship:  Child of im/migrant Child of im/migrant