The things you learn by living in a place. Eventually.

Until today, I had not noticed that “praying for rain” is a Muslim thing. But why wouldn’t it be?

Christians pray for favorable weather. Rain. Less rain. Warm weather. Weather good for bringing in harvests.

It was a small story that moved on the UAE government news service today, about the president of the country calling for all Muslims to pray for rain.

This happened back in November, too. The president calling for Muslims to pray for rain.

The UAE has had almost no rain for months and months. Living here, you never really expect rain, and are generally surprised when it happens, because the average rainfall here is about 2 inches a year.

(And I have to wonder what sort of difference it makes, when agriculture is based on desalinated water, whether it rains 1 inch a year here or 2? No, really. I’m curious. Some activity must be rain-sensitive in the UAE, even in an environment when rainfall is so rare. I just can’t imagine what it might be, but I hope to find out.)

So, anyway, it made me consider the notion of religion and weather.

Wouldn’t you think that one of the first responsibilities of ancient priests was to do something about the weather?

The mass of the local populace would have been farmers, and weather could be a life-or-death issue. A frost at the wrong time, no rain at a critical time …

It probably is a universal. You have religion? Then at some point, you probably have prayed for rain.