Arvin Sloane said:
I do have some more questions, however, if you would indulge me: What times are the daily prayers? And how long are they? And are you (in case of emergency, caught in traffic, etc.) allowed to miss them? If so what must you do? Similar to the way Jewish can't eat pork, are their foods that are forbidden? What are your views on other religions -- do you feel they are wasting their time, or do you somehow believe that you are, in essence, praying to the same person? Do you feel offended by shows like ‘24’ that continue to show the enemies as people being of Islamic backgrounds? Is their a general vein of anti-Islamic sentiment in today’s media? Do you feel you, if you wished, renounce your religion? Do you feel you could accept your children’s decisions to renounce their religion? Could/Would you marry someone who wasn’t Islamic in faith? How do you accept what can not be proved?
there are 5 daily prayers...
dawn prayer ( u have about 1.5 hours to pray this... but waking up as soon as it's time to pray has extra reward and is what u should do... and this prayer at this moment is at approximately at 5:30 am.. )
midday prayer ( at approximately 1:05.. u have about 4 hours and 10 minutes between the next prayer)
afternoon prayer ( at approximately 4:20... u have up until about 7:05)
sunset prayer ( 7:05.. u have about 1.5 hours)
then u have the night prayer at about 8:35...
the prayer times usually drift one minute back or forward and so as the days accumulate by summer u would perform the sunset prayer at about 8:00 or 8:30)
Ok now for a man... the only excuse u have for missing out on a prayer is either u were sleeping.. or that u completely unintentionally forgot to pray...
now for the female there are a few other reaons to justify missing a prayer... but u shouldn't miss a prayer for absolutely no justified reason
anyways.. now for example... when ur travelling.. there is a certain distnace where if u exceed this distnace u are allowed to combine the afternoon and mid-day prayer together.. which are shortened... and u may combine the sunset and night prayer together also..
there are many many different situation where ur prayer will be accepted under certain circumstances...
as for foods that are forbidden..
well similarly to jews.. we can't eat pork...
and we can't drink alcohol... ( soha mentioned alot of the other stuff)
i'll answer some more in my next post (God willing)...
although i havn't covered the topics in depth... i have given u just a very brief description... but if u have more questions.. post them up...