Prayer Beads

I have limited interactions with the people of Iraq. I do get out and meet them occasionally, but not often. And, usually, at any meeting, there are no women present, we always meet with the men. And the one thing that is consistent about those meetings is that they have their prayer beads with them, and they're usually "working" them!! I find this really fascinating. So what's with prayer beads? Wikipedia has this to say,

"Prayer beads are traditionally used to keep count of the repetitions of prayers, chants or devotions by adherents of religion. Since the beads can be fingered in an automatic manner, they allow one to keep track of how many prayers have been said with a minimal amount of conscious effort, which in turn allows greater attention to be paid to the prayers themselves.
There are three widely accepted uses for prayer beads:
Repetition of the same devotion a set (usually large) number of times. This is the earliest form of prayer beads (the Japa Mala) and the earliest Christian form (the prayer rope). This is also the type in use by the Bahá'í Faith
Repetition of several different prayers in some pattern, possibly interspersed with or accompanied by meditations.
Meditation on a series of spiritual themes, e.g. Islam."

"In Islam, prayer beads are referred to as Misbaha or Tasbih, and contain 99 beads, corresponding to the 99 Names of Allah. Sometimes only 33 beads are used, in which case one would cycle through them 3 times to equal 99. Use of the misbaha to count prayers and recitations is an evolution of Muhammad's practice of using the fingers of his right hand to keep track. While in pretty wide use today, some adherents of Wahhabism shun them as an intolerable innovation, preferring to stick to the exact method believed to have been used by Muhammad. Their use as a religious item has somewhat diminished over the years, and many use them nowadays strictly as worry beads and as status symbols. They are most commonly made of wooden beads, but also of olive seeds, ivory, amber, pearls or plastic."

I was at one of the local shops today and looked at their selection of prayer beads.....and yep they all had 33 beads, no more, no less!! And, they come in a variety of colors, including green as is shown in the photo. But, I'm still not sure what the Iraqi men that I meet are doing with their prayer beads. They might be for worry, for a show of status, or for prayer. I'll probably never know, but it is certainly interesting!!

The practice of using prayer beads is found in many different religions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Sikhism and Bahai.