Rashid Dar, MIA 15, develops prayer app for Muslims COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY - SIPA Admissions Blog

Rashid Dar, MIA ’15,  develops  prayer app for Muslims COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY - SIPA Admissions Blog Rashid Dar, MIA ’15, whos concentrating in Economic and Political Development, recently developed a free iOS and Android app, called Musallah  (which means a space for prayer in Arabic). Musallah makes it easier to find a prayer spot on the go, by mapping out nearby prayer areas for app users. Read why  he created the app  in an excerpt from The Muslim Observer: “It starts to feel less like a blessing and more of a burden,” he tells Muslim Observer. “At times I’ve prayed in the dressing rooms of H.M. with music blasting everywhere and a mirror directly in front of me and I can’t tell you my heart is entirely into that prayer. Essentially what I’m doing is discharging an obligation and not getting as much out of it.” Routinely experiencing these kinds of uncomfortable scenarios and tired of not giving prayer its due importance helped give birth to the idea of Musallah. “A thought hit me: we all have smartphones these days, so why couldn’t we use them to crowd-source musallahs for Muslims everywhere?” Read the rest of Dars story here.