Many Christians obviously do not know how we Muslims hold our prayers dearly. For someone like me, if I haven’t prayed, nothing makes sense anymore until I find a way to pray.
This takes me back to 2019 during our project in Cadbury PLC in Ikeja. I had an Igbo boss, and I was the only Muslim in the company. Anytime I told him I wanted to go and pray, he would frown. Not that he would say I shouldn’t go o, but he would be like "again?" 😅
He asked me one day; "How many time you na dey pray per day?" I told him five times, and he was like: "Wetin happen?" 😅
So one day, he did a setting out on site, and the representative of Cadbury was coming to check it. He received a call from the office that if there was any complaint on that job, he would be fired.
That’s how Oga came to meet me in my office.
Oga: How far Engr.
Me: I am good sir.
Oga: That your prayer wey you dey pray, when he go start?
Me: I was shocked. Abi oga smoke something 😅🤣. It’s not yet time.
Oga: Please na, can’t you pray before time.
Me: We don’t pray before time. What happened?
Oga: They called me from the office now that the setting out we did must be accepted or else, we would be in trouble.
Me: God will help us.
Oga: Please help me beg Allah o.
Me: I burst into laughter 🤣🤣🤣. So I prayed for him and he said Amen to all the prayers. Imagine.
That’s how the representative came and there was no problem. He was happy. Guess who went back to his old ways? My oga 😅
This situation made me remember the verse in Surah Yunus instead, where Allah says:
وَإِذَا مَسَّ الْإِنْسَانَ الضُّرُّ دَعَانَا لِجَنْبِهِ أَوْ قَاعِدًا أَوْ قَائِمًا فَلَمَّا كَشَفْنَا عَنْهُ ضُرَّهُ مَرَّ كَأَنْ لَمْ يَدْ��ُنَا إِلَىٰ ضُرٍّ مَسَّهُ
"And when affliction touches man, he calls Upon Us, whether on his side or sitting or standing; but when We remove from him his affliction, he continues on his way as if he had never called Upon Us for an affliction that touched him."
May the Almighty continue to preserve us upon Islam.
Allah knows best.