format_quote Originally Posted by
bjc22
Hello. I am a religious studies student and I have an assignment that I could use some help with. Basically I have to take a picture of anything with religious implications and describe it in 1500 words. Its slightly more complicated than that but that is the short version. I'm not a Muslim but my roommate is so I decided to take a picture of his prayer mat. Unfortunately for me he knows little about his faith so he isn't of much help. I don't trust internet sources, and part of the assignment is getting first hand insight from members of the faith, which in this case is Islam.
I would appreciate if i could get different explanations about what the point of a prayer mat is, what it means to you as a Muslim, and its religious implications. From the little i know it is to make sure the surface on which prayer is done is "ritually" pure. But i doubt i can write 1500 words about that. It is due tomorrow morning and I foolishly left it until the last minute. Your input is priceless to me right now. Thank you.
The trouble here if I might say so is that a picture of a mat does not give you much to pick out and describe and so you have limited yourself before you start.
I would suggest you look on Google images for say pictures of churches or Mosques and if you look hard enough you might get a picture of both at the same time. For example, I know that in Abu Dhabi the Christian church is right next to the Mosque.
If possible get a picture with people walking to of from these places that you can talk about the differences, the devotion, the colours, Muslims and Christians together, architectural differences, church bells and the muslim call to prayer, etc
If you want to be more abstract look at my picture, its a road, where does it go where does it comes from and then its easy to talk about the Christian or Islamic way of life; life is like following a road, twists and turns, accidents, getting lost, stuck in traffic etc and them move to say how faith helps you on this (life) journey.