Where Can I Pray?

When traveling you are frequently confronted with unfamiliar surroundings. If you are lucky enough to be traveling in an area with a large Muslim population, you will probably not have much difficulty finding a masjid or musalla to pray, or at least someone will be able to offer a spare room. What about traveling in largely non-Muslim lands?

One great resource that I use is Islamic Finder. Once upon a time I had a meager prayer times calculation site that went through a series of rewrites and hosting changes which I eventually abandoned because the guys at Islamic Finder were doing such a great job. Not only does their site assist with Qibla determination and prayer timings, but it can help find Muslim owned business and mosques all over the world. This is especially handy when moving to a new area, or even just a long visit.

What about while you are traveling, or if Islamic Finder comes up short? I have been known to pray in a spare spot in a parking lot, or stop off at a rest stop on the highway. When I travel I keep my compass with me and usually have looked up prayer times in advance. I take advantage of the ease allowed to us by combining prayers when traveling, and remember that all of the Earth is a musalla (with a few exceptions).

The tricky part, I have found, is when I'm traveling by plane or train. You can't ask them to pull over, and you have long waits in the terminal while waiting to leave. In the US for sure, and I'm sure many other countries, airports frequently have a "chapel", "prayer room", "meditation room" or "quiet place". Hunt these down. Not only can you pray in peace and safety, but they frequently have a small shelf with donated Qur'ans and prayer rugs. Many times someone has indicated in some way where the Qibla is as well. I have had a hard time locating these rooms, they don't always show up on all maps (like in Incheon airport in Seoul Korea), but eventually I usually find one. Checking websites for airports in advance to plan out where you'll be able to pray doesn't hurt either.