Pretend praying is art:
"Has it been a few more seconds yet ? I think it has ... right time to for Sudjood ... now what was I thinking about, oh those shoes, well they are fairly expensive ... okay, must be time for Sudjood again, let's do it a few seconds early so they don't think I'm faking it though not too early otherwise they'll think I'm not saying prayers in my head ... right, sitting down in the Qu'ud position now ... those shoes would be really nice, but I need that hair straightener too, those GNC ones ... oh blimey, I've forgot, how many times have I been in the Qu'ud position? Stay calm, no one is monitoring you, just get up once more for Fatiha before going down to Qu'ud again, that should be enough .... hmm growing hair long means a lot of maintenance, how do women find the time every mornings ... where are we, ah finally the part where we wish ... bla bla bla ... few more seconds ... 5 4 3 2 1 I'm done. Hooray!!"
PS: Reference for those positions:
http://muslim-canada.org/salaat.htmlI would do more of a...
Sitting there thinking about life, what I'm going to do tomorrow, or imagining a different life, then I hear some movement and get quickly into one of the positions and carry on from there. Once the coast is clear, I would sit back down and resume thinking. Sometimes I'd even pause and go and ask about a certain surah, if mum would help me at that part because I couldn't remember it (even though I wasn't actually praying, but just to make it more believable.)
^That was when I would 'pray' in the other room, before that it would have to be next to mum because I couldn't remember some of the surahs to recite.
Then I moved to my room, that was when I pretended to know the parts I didnt, then I had the freedom to be in my room and not pray/read a book, draw or whatever. I even at one stage left my room door open, just to show I did pray in my room.
^Those prays were only during ramadan months.
Then to freedom - I just stopped pretending at one point. When mum would ask/nag, I would lie sometimes that I had, but then finally if she'd ask, I would just say no.
Last ramadan she never asked, or maybe once, not sure, she didn't nag about it though.
Topic: How to survive Ramadan?!