Assalamu alaikum - Rain prayer (Salat al-Istisqa) to be held in mosques across the UAE this Friday
Assalamu alaikum - Mosques across the UAE will perform the rain prayer, salat al-istisqa, this Friday about half an hour before the weekly Jumu'ah prayer. The move follows directives from President Sheikh Mohamed and continues a Gulf tradition brought out when rainfall is scarce. The prayer is a collective plea to Allah for rain and mercy.
This year has been one of the driest on record, with interim figures showing April and May breaking temperature records. Dr Omar Al Darei, chairman of the General Authority of Islamic Affairs, Endowments and Zakat, welcomed the directive and said it’s important to keep this practice alive. He urged everyone in the community to take part.
The Emirates Fatwa Council has been raising awareness and issued guidance about how to perform the prayer, and they published a study in English and Arabic that people can download from the council’s app and website. There’s also growing interest in using technology - like drones and improved cloud-seeding methods - to make rain enhancement efforts more precise.
Normally September and October bring some of the year’s highest humidity, sometimes hitting 100%, but the season so far has been unusually dry. The UAE has an arid desert climate and typically gets about 150mm of rain a year, so extra rainfall is important for farmers trying to grow crops and for recharging groundwater.
The country has been working on increasing rainfall for years: cloud-seeding began in the 1990s and by the 2000s the National Centre of Meteorology was collaborating with international partners such as NASA and the US National Center for Atmospheric Research to improve seeding strategies. The NCM warned of heavy rain last weekend, but overall the UAE remained mostly dry.
May Allah grant us beneficial rain, insha'Allah.
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