An introduction to religious and spiritual experience

Muslims 
are required to pray five times a day in the direction of the 
Ka’aba in Makkah (qibla) and in hotel rooms all over the world the cor-
rect direction is indicated for the faithful. Prayer rooms are becoming 
more widespread in public places to enable Muslims to obey the tenets of 
their faith in this way. The mosque (from Arabic masjid, meaning to pros-
trate) is of course the primary location for prayer. After removing their 
shoes and performing the correct washing procedures and covering their 

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Religious Triggers
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heads, male and female Muslims separate but perform the same ritual 
prayers. The majority of women pray regularly but at home. 
Here is an extraordinary experience recounted to Prof. Dr. Cafer Yaran 
of Istanbul University, when he undertook a survey of religious experi-
ence in Turkey,
When I was fifteen I wanted to learn the Qur’an very much but my 
father did not allow me to go and learn. We lived in a village and my 
father thought that my age is too old to do this as a girl and it would 
be better for our family if I spent the time with helping village busi-
nesses rather than learning the Qur’an. However, my desire has never 
ended and I strived to learn it insistently. My father hit me several 
times for this. At the end I lost my hope and started to pray only. One 
night after everybody went to sleep, I saw a light like a signboard on 
the wall. It was something framed luminously. There was nothing 
hanged there in normal case. When I looked carefully I saw letters on 
it . . . . That is, I saw the Qur’anic alfabet. My Lord had heard me and 
gifted me with such an extra-ordinary way to learn the Qur’an. 
Every night I waited everybody go to bed as early as possible. When 
the lights off, the signboard appeared, the luminous letters came out 
and I read them surprisingly. After 14 days, I thought ‘I wonder if 
I read them right or wrong’ and finding an old Qur’an I tried to read. 
I read for a while and that night I could not see the signboard at all. 
That is to say, I had learnt to read the Qur’an and there was not the 
signboard anymore.
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