It’s the time of the year when I leave my terrace doors open so the lovely fresh spring air can enter. However, along with the gentle breezes come some uninvited guests, namely: houseflies.
Keeping the counters free of open food containers and such will soon motivate most of the flies who enter the apartment to cling to the glass doors of the terrace, looking for an exit. When I open the doors again and gently shoo them, they’ll fly out.
But there are exceptions: flies with mysterious motives and urges. They alight on my hands, the clean-enough countertops, everywhere but the terrace doors. And this type of fly likes nothing better than to bother me during salat. They crawl around on my (clean) prayer rugs and ignore the stinky vetiver lotion I apply to my face that would repel any normal fly. And eventually, inevitably, they’ll land on my nose as I’m in the middle of reciting a surah.
Today during dhuhr, I’m not proud to say that I had a mini-meltdown re: fly guests. I’ve handled their presence with sakina and sabr before, so I’m not sure why I was flipping out today. Allah SWT wanted me to see myself in that state, perhaps, and to ask forgiveness afterwards.
As I made wu’du shortly before ‘asr prayer, one of my guests alighted on the edge of the tub. I looked down at it and realized that I could probably take it out by dumping some of the contents of my water bucket on it. Reader, I did not take out the fly. I couldn’t bring myself to do it. There is a sahih hadith in which the Prophet SAWS, no fan of dogs, said that he would order them all killed except that they were their own nation. And so are flies. I quietly determined to pray no matter what the fly did.
And said fly was super-distracting during salat al ‘asr: for example, trying my sabr by landing cutely on the terrace door (“come let me out! Break your salat! I’ll go out this time! Really!”). This time, whenever it cut another caper, I smiled to myself and to my Rabb.
As I continued with salat, it occurred to me that Allah SWT had allowed me to resist the urge to kill that fly, and that I was grateful that I hadn’t done so. Just as I smiled at the thought, the fly landed on my nose … and stayed there. I continued to smile.
Salaams! What I’ve been told is that the insects and reptiles and the animals around you all want to participate in the Salah. I have a lizard in my living room that always appears when I pray and sits right in front of me and then disappears when I finish the Salah.
I tried to refrain from killing any insects or bugs that appear when I’m reading the Quran or making Salah sometimes it’s challenging like your experience . It also shows that you must be a Saleh person if they want to participate in your Salah