Mani and Modi are helping local militia unit near al-Habbariyah, Karbala.
Mani (Mainstream): It is getting a little boring here tonight. Nothing is going on. It must be after midnight. Your cousins are doing pretty well here; they have lots of business. Modi.
Modi (Moderate): This area does get a little boring at night. Once we did have a really hot time here, though. Nobody will ever forget that.
Mani: Oh? When was that hot time?
Modi: It was in the year 680. The Caliph attacked a caravan of relatives of the Prophet (pbuh). Husayn ibn Ali was murdered.
Mani: MODI, you rascal. You keep doing that to me. That happened more than 1,300 years ago.
Modi: But to the Shi’ites that event is more like two weeks ago. It split the Shi'ites and the Sunnis.
Mani: Yeah. I don’t think they ever forget. I am sleepy already. What time is fajr (Early Morning Prayer)?
Modi: Fajr will be 5:31 AM. The newspaper said zuhr (Early Afternoon Prayer) will be 12:02 PM, but I do not think that is right. I would wait until at least 12:05. Zawaal (noontime) actually occurs right after noon, and prayers are prohibited at noon exactly. The sun does not enter zawaal for a minute and a half, and another 60 seconds is added for one other calculation you do not want to know about.
Mani: What are you talking about? I have not understood anything you said.
Modi: In Early Afternoon Prayer calculation, anyone doing it must always add a minimum of 2.5 minutes after 12:00 to begin the prayer. That is the technical minimum. Many scholars prefer adding another 2.5 minutes to be correct. Therefore I always say 12:05 should be the earliest for the zuhr.
Mani: I will take your word for that, though sometimes I think you are bonkers. Come to think of it, the newspaper said zuhr was 12:02 yesterday also. I remember that because I had almost no time to do anything between zuhr and ‘asr (Late Afternoon Prayer), which was 2:47 PM.
Modi: You had 2 hours and 43 minutes; that was time enough for a movie.
Mani: Just about. Remember you have to add ablutions into the calculations before each prayer. And if you have to do a full body wash (ghusl), that is even more time. You cannot put anything off or the prayer will not count; you have to make it up.
Modi: Nobody said it was easy to be a believer. Look at all the good credit you are piling up for judgment day.
Mani: Modi, look over there with your binoculars. It looks as if some of our guys are up and running.
Modi: I do not know where they are running yet. Oh, that is it! It looks as if some fighters were trying to infiltrate and our guys spotted them. (Explosions!) There go our mortars. I also see a group of guys farther out. They will flank the infiltrators.
Mani: Well, a little excitement, anyway. (looks around) Do you see anyone around here?
Modi: Not really. We planned it so that the farther out from the center, the closer together the pickets were established. If they tried to infiltrate, we wanted them to try on our terms, not theirs.
Mani: Why are they trying to infiltrate?
Modi: They need a victory so badly, even getting past our pickets to blow up a truck or tool shed will be celebrated like a Philadelphia touchdown.
Mani: What’s a Phila-something touchdown?
Modi: Never mind, it is not important.
Mani: Getting back to the prayer times. Why can’t we just have standard prayer times every day instead of having to look them up all the time?
Modi: For any important matters, Mani, we must use sacred time to be accurate. Our Most Beloved had a timekeeper in Medina to monitor this sacred time for the umma (community). It is evident that he wanted to maintain accurate times for prayer, Ramadan, Hajj, etc., according to Allah’s schedule, the lunar calendar. Since lunar times are not consistent with our standard times, we must tweak our schedules every day to be accurate.
Mani: I guess we will always have to do that tweaking.
Modi: Yes. Our Most Beloved thought it important that we do it this way. It is nice to know that we always run on accurate time.
Mani: I certainly would like to have more than a couple of hours between prayers in the afternoon.
Modi: That is the reason for breaking up the day like that, Mani. It is to keep people like you out of trouble.
Mani: Does any other organization control anyone’s time that closely.
Modi: One that I can think of, US Marine Basic Training.
Mani: You are impossible.
Modi: Right now, I would settle for impassible.
Mani: Hey, Modi, look at that (points to the moon).
Modi: (looks to where Mani is pointing). What are you pointing at?
Mani: The moon is telling us it is time for coffee.
Friendly fighter: Coffee anyone? I brought some.
Modi: You saw this guy coming, Mani. (They both laugh.)
Mani: I am going to look up Prayer in the law, now that you convinced me that there is a lot to know.
Modi: That is a good idea. I have to warn you, you will have to look through 119 pages, not including funeral prayers.
Mani: Well, Modi, if you make a mistake in some places, the least you will undergo is embarrassment. Depending on where you are praying, making mistakes can be very unpleasant.
Modi: Yes, in some places form is more importance then substance. You could be in serious trouble just for adding a special prayer to Our Most Beloved, Husayn ibn Ali, or anyone else you respect who has passed on.
Mani: Modi, you have convinced me. I am going to buy one of those Prayer Time Watches. I do not want to hear they are inaccurate! Okay, I see that smirk. I will stay with the newspapers. Got to sleep. I will wake you when the SUN comes up.
HJS
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