A telekung (or otherwise known as prayer-veil) is essential for every woman to wear during a prayer, be it from home or at a mosque or even at an office, this attire symbolizes the purity and the essence of Islam. It gives the women in Islam an identity for which they can hold on to as a sacred symbol of the religion.
Here are some tips on how to take care of a telekung, with its constant use (5 times a day or more to be exact) from Subuh (fajr) up to Isyak (isha) and other types of prayers, as part of a rudimentary duty to maintain this clothe ware as clean as possible. At the same maintaining it as well as possible.
1. After prayer storage
After finishing the act of prayer, you may notice that telekung may 
have a slight bit of moisture or precipitation around the facial area.One way of solving this is by hanging out to dry like any normal clothe wear. Dampness as a result of either excess water from ablution or perspiration from usage outside can cause that. By hanging it up, preferably outside, can help reduce the moisture on the cloth and at the same time help alleviate the odors that come with constant usage.
2. When to wash a telekung
Washing at least twice a week, or at the very least, once a week so that this could help with aiding comfort during praying. Since it is compulsory to keep the telekung clean at all times, washing it also needs to be place as priority so that it is clean for praying and comfortable to wear.
3. Types of cleaning agent to use, be advised..... these are for the white telekungs......
Using a cleaning agent, let's say bleach, is one of the ways to clean the clothe wear from any stains that are hard to get rid of. Since the ingredients in most bleach contains six types of sodium (sodium chloride/salt, sodium carbonate, sodium chlorate et al.), it is possible to get rid of any biological matter and stains. Just remember not to wash coloured telekungs with this stuff.......
4. Avoid washing coloured telekungs with bleach, and vice versa with white telekungs and coloured clothes
Which leads to number 4, in relation to num
ber 3. This is a warning on two fronts. First of all, never wash a telekung if it is white with coloured clothes as common wisdom would say that this would literally dye the white into another colour. This is particularly striking if a shirt is red. Then comes to the second point. The flip side of this is that if a coloured telekung is washed with bleach, well, that would be pretty obvious to know how the colour is literally sucked out of it.
5. Alternate to bleaching agent, washing it manually with conventional products
Alternatively to the use of bleach, hand washing the telekung just by s
oaking it is a practical way of keeping the quality of the cloth particularly in the area around the chin strap.
Soaking it in fabric softener or washing liquid for 15 minutes before rinsing it with water and hung out to dry is another method (make sure to hang it under mildly hot temperatures).
6. Don’t use the washing machine…. actually, never use the washing machine
Using a washing machine can be detrimental to the softness of the fabric, it can even rip the whole cloth wear apart. The rotating mills inside a modern washing machine can literally just obliterate the delicate fabrics that make up a telekung.
As stated in number 5, normal washing by human means is an ideal method to wash it.
7. Fold it accordingly
Particularly the ones that have awnings have to be folded correctly, otherwise the awning will not appear correctly when in use. This is only applied for telekungs that have the awning as an extension.
8. If the awning does fold…….
In relation to number 7, if the awning does fold use a bit of water or fabric softener and then iron it out so that it can reform back to its former shape.
9. If the material is lycra………
If the fabric is made of lycra, then it doesn’t need to be ironed since it is crease-proof material especially if it is embroidered in colours and patterns. But if ironing is needed, the use of low heat irons are recommended, preferably steam irons.
10. And finally…………
If in an open area where there are many telekungs, it is advised to separate used and new ones to avoid contamination or transference of microorganisms. This is especially recommended when praying at outside places like mosques and suraus or even offices.
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-Written by:-
Ammo, guest writer of this blog and intern at Zaahara. Interests include motorsports and football, while making multimedia related stuff~
