A Chat with a Wrestler

God is our Master. You must do it…strong…because while praying you and your peers have rules, you know, you must pray at prayer time, you must fast during Ramadan and measure out your zakat ("tithes" or paying part of your money). We must help each other, we are all human; God, our Master said, not I, that we are all children of Adam. But you do sports because you like it, or to support yourself and your family. 

[Later Laye explained it a little differently.]

You must be (spiritually/physically) clean to pray, bathe, do ablutions (purifications) and dress correctly when it is time to go pray. Sometimes I may have to go wrestle at 2 p.m., but if I were at my house I would pray at 2 p.m. (This is one of the five daily prayer times). After I wrestle, I come back to my house to take off my clothes (the wrestling clothes, njemb, are not considered modest enough to wear during prayer) to wash and to pray…you know…it is my intention to pay back the skipped prayer times...and I do that.

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