More Stories from the Edge..."Chaplain, what if they have it right?"

Prayer Room in Abu Dhabi Mall

When I was in Arabia a few years back,  I would take people to various places for rest and relaxation. 

The city of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates was (is) very beautiful and not so unusual looking to me, being I am from the American southwest.  Desert, date palm trees, bougainvillaea, tall buildings, malls, giant gas stations, huge hotels, and intensely hot, steamy weather.  The big difference was that we were next to a large and very aqua-blue body of water, the Persian Gulf. 

Being it is a Muslim country, naturally there were / are numerous mosques all over the place.  On every street corner, mosques, domes and minarets large and small, everywhere!

And I mean everywhere.  Most gas stations even had a small mosque (with dome), just in case the people wished to go and pray.  Even in the malls, there are prayer rooms.

Keep in mind, devout Muslims pray five times a day.  You hear the call to prayer all over the place at various times of day wherever you go.    When the call to prayer comes, many people would stop what they were doing and go to do their prayers. 

It was pretty neat to see and hear.  There are reminders of God and places to pray all over the place!

One day, a young USAF captain was talking to me about this,  and she asked, "Chaplain, what if they have it right?"

She was not talking about the religion itself (Islam).  She was talking about the numerous reminders of God and places to pray all over the place in this country and culture. 

In the USA, would you ever see people stop shopping in the middle of a mall to run off and do their prayers?  Or while they stop and get gas?     Well, I have never seen any prayer rooms at a mall in the US.  Or at gas stations for that matter. 

Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, Abu Dhabi, UAE

OK, well, I have seen tiny chapels or prayer rooms at airports in the US.  And they are usually teeny tiny, off the beaten path and difficult to find.

It was refreshing to see all the reminders of the Holy everywhere you went in this Arabian country.

And I wonder, in that sense, maybe they do have it right...

What do you think?