The Prayer for Rain

Salat al-Istisqa is the Islamic communal prayer for rain, offered in times of drought when the withholding of rain threatens crops, livestock and life. It follows the example of the Prophet Muhammad, who is reported to have led his community out to pray for rain when the land was parched. The people gather, often going out to an open place beyond the settlement in a spirit of humility, and a prayer of two units is offered, followed by a sermon and by earnest supplication for relief. A distinctive gesture marks the rite: the worshippers turn their cloaks inside out, an act understood as a hopeful sign of the turning of their condition from drought to rain.

The prayer is framed throughout by repentance and humility, for the tradition connects the withholding of rain with human wrongdoing and teaches that the seeking of forgiveness opens the heavens; the Qur'an itself, recounting the preaching of Noah, links the asking of pardon to the sending of abundant rain. The rite thus joins a practical plea for a vital necessity to a communal turning back to God, and it expresses the deep dependence on rain that shapes the religious imagination of the arid lands in which Islam arose. Where no formal congregational prayer is held, the simple supplication for rain remains a recommended response to drought.