Faith

Why it matters

Salah doesn’t pause for an outage. The times still come in when the phone is flat, the water is off, or you are sleeping somewhere unfamiliar.

A little preparation keeps prayer easy on a hard day: a printed timetable, your qibla written down, a mat in the bag. None of it costs much, and most of it is free.

What the guidance says

Prayer times without your phone

• Keep a printed timetable with your kit. Most masjids print one each month. Swap it when the new one comes out.
• This app’s Prayer tab works offline. Open it once while you’re online, so your location and method are saved.
• Wear a watch with a long-life battery, and keep a spare battery in your kit.
• At home, a battery clock or a prayer clock that shows the five times does the same job.

Your qibla

• Find it now, while it’s easy. Use your masjid, the Prayer tab, or Google’s Qibla Finder. Note which wall or window of your home faces it.
• Take your compass number. Use a baseplate compass: the flat, clear kind with a ring of numbers you can turn, and an arrow on its base. Stand facing the qibla with the arrow pointing the way you face. Turn the ring until its N sits under the red end of the needle, and read the number at the arrow. Write it with your timetable.
• Use it anywhere nearby. Turn the ring so that number sits at the arrow, then turn your whole body until the needle sits over the N, and the arrow points to the qibla. No battery, no signal.
• A qibla compass is sold for this job too. Learn how to set it for your city before you need it.

What if you’re somewhere new and can’t tell? Scholars have answered that. Read these two short pages now, while you’re online:

• Turning to the qibla while praying (SeekersGuidance)
• Qibla direction and prayer validity (SeekersGuidance)

Your masjid

• Write down your nearest masjid’s name and address in your family plan, and one more that you could reach on foot.
• Know the way without a map app. Walk or drive it once and note the route.
• Get to know it. Save the office number and ask how the congregation checks on elders and families in an emergency. Offer what you can: a car, a spare room, first aid training.

Building community ties before an emergency matters, and for many people the masjid is where those ties already are.^•

Wudu and a clean place

• Keep a little extra water for wudu. The water and food guide covers how much to store.
• Keep a flashlight in the washroom, for wudu in the dark.
• Pack a travel prayer mat in each grab-and-go bag. A pocket mat folds to the size of a wallet.

Duas and surahs to turn to

In a long wait or a frightening night, the Quran and the duas of the Prophet (peace be upon him) are good company. Read and learn the sources here:

• Sahih al-Bukhari 6346, the Prophet’s dua at a time of distress
• Sahih al-Bukhari 6369, seeking refuge from anxiety and grief

A few passages that people may turn to:

• Ayat al-Kursi, Quran 2:255
• The last three surahs: al-Ikhlas, al-Falaq and an-Nas
• Surah ad-Duha, Quran 93
• Surah al-Kahf, Quran 18

These are a starting point, not a set list. Read whatever brings comfort to you and your family.

Keep a pocket dua booklet and a pocket Quran in the grab-and-go bag, so all of it is there without a phone.

Read ahead: when prayer changes

Some parts of prayer change when water runs out, when you’re far from home, or when someone is unwell. Learn them before you need them, and from scholars.

How to use these links: read each page while you’re online, talk it through together, and take your questions to your imam. Print the pages you’ll want and keep them with your kit.

Tayammum

Surah al-Ma’idah 5:6 gives tayammum (dry ablution, with clean earth) for when there’s no water for wudu.

• Read: How to make dry ablution (tayammum) (SeekersGuidance)
• Ask your imam when it applies. An outage with stored water at home is a different case from being stranded without any.

Prayer away from home

An evacuation can take you a long way from home. If it does, the rulings for a traveller may apply to you.

• Read: When is a person considered a traveller? (SeekersGuidance)
• Read: Questions regarding prayer while travelling (SeekersGuidance)

When someone is unwell or injured

• Read: Prayer rulings for the sick, injured and hospitalized (SeekersGuidance)

If you care for an elder or someone with a long-term condition, read it with them now.

Your sadaqah

Appeals multiply in a crisis, and some are fake. Decide now where you give: your masjid, or a charity registered on the Canada Revenue Agency list.

Passing it on

Go through the pages in Read ahead with your children. The workbook goes deeper on each of these.

Do this now

You don’t need all of this today. Start with a printed timetable, and set up the Prayer tab.