ALEXANDRIA- A mosque in Al-Beheira governorate of Egypt has announced a competition for encouraging children to keep up with their Fajr (dawn) prayers, offering LE 1000 ($55) to those who manage to pray at the mosque for 40 days in a row.
“It is an excellent idea. We hope other mosques will follow suit and collect donations to encourage young kids to pray in the mosque,” Mona Ahmed, a resident of Damanhour, Al-Beheira, told Masrawy newspaper.
Mohammed Allam, member of the board of directors at Nasser mosque made it clear that a man had donated LE 10,000 for the competition, giving each kid a sum of LE 1,000.
The prize will be awarded on Friday, September 11.
Registration for the competition has concluded on the dawn of Sunday, August 5.
“This competition will encourage kids to organize their time and learn new things instead of playing all night and sleeping all day,” Muhammad Rihan added.
Fatema Abbas said she hopes the mosque would offer a place for women wishing to bring their kids to the mosque, while Salma Ahmed urged other mosques to copy this good example and offer kids token gifts for encouragement.
The idea of the competition is copied from a similar one in Sultan Selim Mosque in the Fatih district of Istanbul which offered gifts and bicycles to kids who attended Fajr prayer for 40 days in a row.
Muslims pray five times a day, with each prayer made of a series of postures and movements, each set of which is called a rak‘ah.
The five prayer times are divided all through the day which starts with Fajr prayer at dawn.