Читать книгу A Race to Prayer (Salah) - Aliya Vaughn - Страница 7
Оглавление‘Come on!’ Sulaiman shouted, punching the air with his fist. ‘Put your foot down. They’re going to overtake you!’
Huge clouds of sand billowed in the air as the quad bikes roared across the desert terrain. Flashes of colour appeared momentarily before disappearing behind the sand dunes.
His grandpa glanced up from his newspaper and tutted loudly.
‘Sulaiman! Stop moving. Every time you move - my paper moves and I cannot read.’ He slapped his paper with the back of his hand in annoyance.
Sulaiman quickly shuffled along the sofa so as not to disturb his grandpa. He knew how much he liked to do the crossword in peace. Sulaiman’s grandparents were visiting on holiday and he didn’t want anything to spoil their trip.
Sulaiman twitched nervously again as he watched the quad bike races live on satellite television. Suddenly the adhan interrupted the racing commentary. A picture of the Kaaba with large Arabic writing filled the entire screen. It was time for Dhuhr, the mid-day prayer.
‘Oh, why did that happen!’ Sulaiman huffed. ‘Now I’m going to have to go and pray and I’ll miss the end of the race.’
‘No, you won’t,’ his grandpa reassured him. ‘The races on the television are in Dubai and the time is different over there. We’ve still got three hours until we have to pray Dhuhr here in Britain.’
Sulaiman was relieved. He knew it was important to perform the five daily prayers at set times throughout the day, but they often clashed with whatever he was doing and he found it hard to steer himself away.
‘Anyway you call this racing?’ his grandpa continued. ‘You haven’t seen a proper race until you’ve seen camels racing. When I was a boy…’
Sulaiman quickly rose to his feet. He could tell Grandpa was going to recall memories from his childhood. His grandpa was well known for his lengthy stories. Having been raised in the desert with a Bedouin family, he was obsessed with camels. Sulaiman loved his grandpa dearly but he had heard his stories so many times before.
‘Er... excuse me, Grandpa,’ he interrupted politely. ‘I’ve just remembered I’ve got to do something.’ Before his grandpa could utter another word, Sulaiman had disappeared out of the room.
‘Oh!’ Grandpa exclaimed, looking baffled. ‘Was it something I said?’
