Five daily prayers
The five daily prayers, or namaz, are a fundamental pillar of Islamic practice that structures the lives of the characters in A Thousand Splendid Suns. From Mariam's childhood in the kolba to Laila's return to Kabul, the prayers mark the passage of time, provide solace in suffering, and become a site of both personal devotion and, under the Taliban, state-enforced compliance. The ritual is woven into the fabric of daily existence, a constant rhythm of bowing and prostrating that accompanies the characters through joy, loss, violence, and quiet endurance.
Instruction and Early Practice
Mariam's first formal instruction in the five daily prayers comes from Mullah Faizullah, the elderly village Koran tutor who visits the kolba once or twice a week. He teaches her the namaz prayers alongside Koran recitation, just as he had taught her mother, Nana, when she was a girl. This early training establishes the prayers as a foundational element of Mariam's spiritual life, a practice she maintains even as her circumstances change radically. The prayers are not merely a mechanical routine; Mullah Faizullah tells Mariam that the sounds of the Arabic words comfort him and ease his heart, and he promises her that they will do the same for her: "They'll comfort you too, Mariam jo. You can summon them in your time of need, and they won't fail you. God's words will never betray you, my girl."
A Constant Through Suffering
Throughout her life, Mariam turns to the prayers during her most devastating moments. After her seventh miscarriage, when Rasheed's cruelty has become routine and her hope for a child has been repeatedly crushed, she kneels and prays for forgiveness for her angry thoughts against God. She recites the verse Mullah Faizullah taught her: "Blessed is He in Whose hand is the kingdom, and He Who has power over all things, Who created death and life that He may try you." The prayers become a way to endure the unendurable, a framework for making sense of loss. When she learns of her father Jalil's death, she is on a prayer rug facing the window, having just finished her dawn prayer. The act of prayer bookends her life: she is praying when Laila comes to tell her she must surrender to the authorities after killing Rasheed, and her final moments before execution are spent muttering verses from the Koran under her breath.
Enforcement Under the Taliban
With the Taliban's takeover of Kabul in September 1996, the five daily prayers transform from a personal religious duty into a strictly enforced public law. The Taliban's decrees, broadcast from loudspeaker trucks and printed in flyers, state: "All citizens must pray five times a day. If it is prayer time and you are caught doing something other, you will be beaten." The Taliban's Beard Patrol roams the streets, dragging men accused of skipping namaz and shoving them into mosques. The prayers, once a source of private comfort, become a tool of surveillance and control. The rhythm of the day is now policed; the call to prayer is no longer just an invitation but a warning. Laila hears of men being beaten for missing prayers, and the threat of punishment hangs over every public action.
A Link to the Past and a Source of Hope
For Laila, the prayers are a way to keep Mariam's memory alive. After Mariam's execution, Laila's daughter Aziza takes on the responsibility of waking her mother for the dawn prayer. Laila understands that "the prayers are Aziza's way of clinging to Mariam, her way of keeping Mariam close awhile yet before time has its way." The ritual becomes a bridge between the living and the dead, a daily act of remembrance. In the final chapter, set in April 2003, Laila is up at five in the morning for namaz, a practice that connects her to the generations of women before her who have bowed and prostrated in hope and desperation. The prayers, whether freely offered or brutally enforced, are a constant thread through the novel's narrative of war, loss, and resilience.
