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For some Muslims in Blitar, Ramadan night prayer is exercise
Many Muslims are drawn to the unusually fast-paced prayer.
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People perform the fast-paced 'tarawih' prayer on Thursday night at the mosque of Mambaul Hikam Islamic boarding school in Udanawu district, Blitar, East Java. (JP/Asip Hasani)
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arawih is a night prayer commonly performed by Muslims during the fasting month of Ramadan. They spend at least 10 to 30 minutes every night performing it together in mosques or prayer rooms.
But Mambaul Hikam Islamic boarding school in Udanawu, Blitar, East Java, has a unique tradition of holding a very express tarawih prayer, spending only 10 minutes or less.
The Jakarta Post visited the school's mosque on Thursday evening and found out there were a lot of people from inside and outside the city joining the prayer in the mosque as they were curious about the fast tarawih.
Khoirul, for instance, drove 15 kilometers from the nearby city of Tulungagung to perform tarawih in the mosque. “I come here to know how it feels to perform the fast tarawih prayer. Usually, my body feels fresher after doing it,” said the 30-year-old man.
The mosque can accommodate more than 500 people. But before isya, the regular night prayer, which is usually held before the tarawih, the number of attendees had exceeded the capacity, and many of them had to lay plastic sheets around the mosque area to use as a prayer mat.
School leader Dliyauddin Azzamzami Zubaidi led the tarawih and recited Al Fatihah (the first chapter of the Quran and a compulsory recital every prayer) so fast that no one could even clearly hear the pronunciation. From one rakaat (prayer segment) to another, it took no more than 7 seconds.
Some people looked overwhelmed when following the face-paced movements and Quran recitals during the prayer. It looked more like an exercise class.
