An entrepreneur who created an interactive children's prayer mat has spoken about how he was inspired to launch an adult version.

My Salah Mat was created by Kamal Ali after he wanted to find something to help his son learn to pray. 

The interactive prayer mat aims to teach children all the positions and recitations of Islamic prayer. 

Since then, My Salah Mat has grown with products sold worldwide. 

Kamal Ali said: "It’s amazing to see how my Salah Mat has grown over the years, from a small idea I had in my living room, to the company it is today."

His innovative design was soon being considered for adults. 

He said: "For a long time people have been asking us to develop an adult version - a fully interactive prayer mat to help adults learn to pray.

"We always had the intention of making one but with My Salah Mat Being really busy, producing and developing a product takes so long."

Kamal faced challenges designing a product during the lockdown periods.

He said: "With the kids prayer mat I had more time. I was able to travel to China to meet with the manufacturer to make sure the prayer process was right. 

"With the adult prayer mat I already had the design knowledge, but I couldn’t travel which meant it was much harder to communicate the finer details. Because of the pandemic everything took much longer and costs were much higher. 

"The entire process took 18 months, with almost all of the production happening online and over the phone. Communicating the complexities of prayer to people who had never experienced it would have been difficult in person, but over the phone and through emails, it was a whole new experience of developing products."

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After months of work, several prototypes and much back and forth, the Adult Prayer Mat was created."

He added: "From a young age I was taught the Quran, taught how to pray, but truthfully I didn’t take prayer seriously until I was in my early 20s. I am a perfect example of somebody who would have needed a product just like this.

"Thankfully for me, I did retain enough information and knowledge for me to start praying. But I did have to read up on certain rules and aspects I might have forgotten.

"I hope that it will help me too. It recites slowly and you can really contemplate and reflect whilst it’s being recited. This reflection is vital in prayer. 

"You can pray quickly, sure, but then you’re not taking in the spiritual benefit. Prayer shouldn’t be a duty as it becomes for a lot of muslims - I hope that our prayer mat will slow down prayer and create a practice of slow recitation and inner peace.’

"I want to put an emphasis that there is no shame or reason to be shy in learning how to pray as an adult - there is no shame from when you start your prayer as a child or an older adult. 

"The most important thing is that you start the prayer - and if this product is able to help you do that then I’ll feel content."

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