Smart ‘magic Carpet’ Enables Muslims To Pray More Effectively

MUSLIMS with a penchant for cutting edge technology will soon be able to buy a ‘smart’ prayer rug that incorporates a screen that can be controlled with a special phone app.

According to the developers’s website the “magic carpet”, called Sajdah:

Acts as your personal trainer, guiding you through the 5 daily mandatory prayers, as well as 20 others. Learn with Sajdah without worrying whether you’re forgetting something or if you’re reciting the Qur’an properly.

Use the app to learn postures and the order of every prayer.

It adds:

If you already know how to pray, Sajdah helps you concentrate during Taraweeh and other prayers while reading the Qur’an off its LED screen. You can also use it to listen to the Qur’an wherever you are through its built-in speakers. Sajdah is a great praying tool for Muslims who can’t memorize longer chapters of the Qur’an as well.

Religion News Service reports that the company behind the new rug says it has exceeded its funding goal by more than 200 percent. Thakaa Technologies, based in the Persian Gulf kingdom of Qatar, said the company has raised some $36,000 to develop the product.

The “e-rug” takes its name from the Arabic term for the act of prostration to Allah.

Image supplied by Thakaa Technologies QSTP-LLC

Abdulrahman Saleh Khamis, above, CEO and co-founder of Thakaa Technologies said:

I can’t thank our supporters enough. Our design team has been working hard, and it’s extremely rewarding for us to see Sajdah exceed its funding target. But the feeling that we get from helping devoted Muslims improve their praying experience is truly priceless.

To help guide “new” and young Muslims, the rug uses voice prompts and an LED display that shows the correct postures of prayer. The developers of Sajdah also believe the rug’s displays and audio prompts can help those with certain medical conditions, such as Alzheimer’s disease or dementia, to better remember the form and words of prayer.

For other Muslims, the rug can help the user memorise new verses of the Quran. The rug is also designed to be used for the extended taraweeh prayers during the month of Ramadan.

The interface and settings of the smart prayer rug are linked to the user’s phone or an Apple Watch via WiFi or Bluetooth. Currently, only Arabic is supported but the developers hope to offer other languages in the future. They hope to begin shipping the first units of the electronic prayer rug by December of this year.

What a wonderful gift for Muslims to find beneath their Christmas trees … oh, wait …