Prayer for Rain

Yesterday, the Ministry of Endowments (Ar. Wizarah al-Awqaf) here in Jordan asked imams to pray for rain after the Friday prayer. Jordan is a desert and if rain doesn't fall during the winter, we're in for a drought. Early Friday morning, the sun was bright and the sky was blue.

Whereas for prayers like Friday and Eid one should look one's best, the prayer for rain calls for one to look disheveled and needy. After the Friday prayer, the imam turned over his cloak and supplicated for rain, to which we all replied ameen. We then offered two units of prayer.

By Asr time, clouds appeared and by sunset, it was raining hard enough to take shelter from. By Jordanian standards, this was hard rain. Of course, it doesn't compare to a Floridian cloud-juicing.

When I was at Hajj in 1425, we prayed for rain at the Kaaba. During the days following Eid, the rain came down so hard that the streets were flooded.