3D printing technology is slowly and steadily taking over our lives. Every new innovation is aimed at making our lives better. In that sense, even religion isn’t out of reach. With the hope of enhancing one’s personal religious experience, Bahraini designer Othman M.R Khunji designed a 3D printed device that intends to make the Islamic Prayer more worthwhile to children and adults who need a reminder to continue remembering Allah through their prayers. The Prayary is effectively an Islamic prayer mat with a mechanism built into it that, through the basic motions of prayer, creates a rosary. The Prayary embeds the value and beauty of your religious experience into the ‘Misbah’ rosary, allowing you to sustain the connection you felt with Allah, Salat and prayer even after you’re done with praying.
The idea is that this Prayary can be used to add an additional incentive to participating in Islamic prayer in an analogue manner, bringing religion and tradition to a contemporary state without altering it. To do so, Othman heavily experimented with woodcutting and 3D printing. The poetic Quranic verses on the rosary beads have been made with UV printing technology, while the bead’s material have been made with a laser cutter.
“In a nutshell, the Prayary springs into action during the ‘Sujood’, or the position of total surrender to Allah, when your forehead touches the praying mat. This triggers the mechanism to pull on the cartridges with the right amount of tension. This allows the canvas material or thick tracing paper to be pulled and directed into the glue box and finally rolling around the iron rod, forming rock solid beads,” Othman explains.
