There are two women saying Salawat and counting the beads. “In Arabic, these salutations are called ṣalawāt. In English texts they are often abbreviated with the use of SAW (in accordance with the Arabic words (sallallahu alayhi wasallam) or pbuh (which stands for peace be upon him in English). However, this practice is considered to be controversial among a few of the senior Islamic scholars who disagree with this use on the basis that it demonstrates a lack of respect and laziness”3. The woman on the left passes each bead with a Salawat slowly and meditatively and the old woman on the right counts them fast as her hands used to do it through the years, in which her voice doesn’t match to her actions. Their voices overlap each other and the size of the video portrays the actual size of their hands. The idea began when I was thinking about the act of praying and the different approaches to praying with respect to different religions. I picked two different people: the first person is of my generation and she chose to be Sufi; the other person is the older woman born Muslim. The video was made in two different locations and times. The first location is outside in the early morning and the other location is inside at dusk. The comparison is how religion in general can become a tradition for some people and an option for others.
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