LivingHalal in Action: Never Miss Your Prayer

This story of LivingHalal in Action is clipped from Washington Post. May Allah reward this Muslim Taxi driver, and may Allah make his action a reason for people to know the true Islam.

I already was in a bad humor as I watched the taxi meter click away on my trip home from Dulles one recent Sunday afternoon. My bag had gone astray on the way home from South Carolina.

I read the notice about the increase in fares to $2.80 for the first quarter-mile and wondered if the decrease in gas prices would reverse the fare hike.

My driver apologized after receiving a call on his cellphone. I asked him what language he spoke, and he replied "Urdu, or a branch of Urdu called Punjabi."

He explained that Punjab is located between Pakistan and India and was divided in half. He was from the half that went with Pakistan at the time of the great division. Later, he got another phone call -- "the wife," he said. And we both acknowledged that he had to take that call. When we turned on to the Clara Barton Parkway, I asked him if he knew who Clara Barton was. He didn't, so I told him what I knew about her. He had a couple of questions about her that I couldn't answer, and that ended our conversation.

After we pulled up to my house and I paid him, he popped the trunk. I asked why he opened the trunk because I didn't have any bags. He replied by asking if he could use a corner of my drive to say his prayers.

I was surprised, but even an agnostic, which I am, would not deny a person a place to pray. He spread his rug, faced east and began to pray. I observed him from the house. First he stood and then he kneeled, and I was surprised at how touched I was.

It seemed like such a formal but human thing to do, and right on my driveway. I was very proud that he trusted me to ask and that I trusted him and gave my permission. My experience that evening seemed so starkly different from what I hear on the news each day.


-- Lee Gough, Bethesda