Time of worship and life .. The Imam begins his 86th Ramadan between his watches

Time of worship and life… The Imam begins his 86th Ramadan between his watches

Through his doubled glasses, which he made specifically to help him work, Imam Muhammad focuses his left eye on the small parts of the watch, and he separates the fine tiny parts with a screwdriver in trembling hands, pulling some together and tightening them.

He is the Imam Muhammad Sheikh Saleh, aged 86, who spent 63 years practicing his career of watch repair and an Imam for worshipers.

Bell of start 

“I learned to read the Koran when I was seven years old, in the village of Jaghar Bazar, in the countryside of Amuda, and then my passion for reading religious books increased, after that, I loved to repair watches and I learned the career in Damascus, in four days. “, pleased with the information, of which he smiles at each time he mentions it; as if he is saying four days for 63 years.

“I still remember the French army, on those days we got very hungry and thirsty” said the Imam as he  summarizing the circumstances of WWII, where he was a child in the village of Qahfka, in the countryside of Amuda.

The Imam has practiced his career since 1956 in many cities, where he was forced to live with the family in Kobani / Ain Al-Arab city and its countryside for \12\ years, working as a watchmaker and an Imam of the  city’s mosques, and he spent the same in Amuda, to be settled, finally, in Qamishli  doing the same job of being an Imam of Al-Noor mosque, and  a watchmaker.

The Imam uses his left eye, because the right has lost its function long ago, and depend on his walking stick for moving between the mosque and his small shop. “I used to repair all kinds of watches, even the small ones, but now as I went on time, I only change batteries and covers of watches.”

“My eyes are no longer as same as before, my hands tremble, and I have pain in my knees, I really feel my age” , explaining  his health situation, that he cannot repair or fix it with a battery, to make him strong once again.

Timings for prayer and fasting

The Imam tells about the culture of watches in the lives of people. He explains to us the prayer times, years before relying on watches. He refers to the shadows, with his walking stick, and explains the times of true and false dawn and the dusk, before the pocket watches replace the eyes of Imams and Mullahs. 

Furthermore, he explains how people in his time used pocket watches to know prayer times, as those watches did not have many models, as well as using bell alarm clocks to wake up in Suhur time, and their prices were between 5-7 SP.

In his last residence in the city of Qamishli, Muhammad Sheikh Saleh has not ceased to be the Imam of Al-Noor Mosque, since 1981, where the mosque was built, followed by building his shop several years later. He has been  an Imam and a watchmaker for 38 years as saying, “my residence and career were next to the mosque.”

The imam practices his prayers in full, as he fasts on the month of Ramadan, along with his work of repairing watches. He says, “I fast and work during the days of Ramadaan.” His patience as he fast reflects his dealing with the small parts of the watches.

Muhammad Sheikh Saleh, the Imam, continues to examine the watches with his left eye. Since 1956, he has kept some of his equipment, a hammer and a small screwdriver, separate the watches parts and recombine them, to make it work again.

Qamishli – Ibrahim Ibrahimi / Abbas Ali Moussa – NPA