Poems by Adilah Ahmed
Salaah (Prayer)
I am called five times a day
To purify myself and pray
A higher purpose
My true calling
I submit
Fajr
The dawn prayer
The morning light spreads across the expanse of the sky
I am awake before the world
The silence is deafening
I call it soft magic
Zuhr
The midday prayer
The sun begins to pass its zenith
I am beginning to reach the busy part of my day
But I make the time
Asr
The evening prayer
The hardest prayer
But the strongest reminder
That this world is a temporary one
Maghrib
The sunset prayer
With orange skies
I get myself ready
My day has ended
And my night
Just beginning
Isha
The night prayer
Begins when the red light disappears from the sky
And will last until the next dawn
I complete my last prayer
With it, I have made it through another day
I will do it all again tomorrow
Insha’Allah (God willing)
Paradox
Pages from my diaries
Plastered like wallpaper
I sit in this room
With my thoughts
Wondering
If I am thinking
Or whether
I have been thought up