Make prayer beads

Scouts is open to everyone. We don’t identify exclusively with one faith, and we welcome people of all faiths and of none.

We know it’s important for people to learn about each other, including understanding different faiths and beliefs. Scouts always respects people’s beliefs, faiths and cultures, and everyone should be open to learn.

As an inclusive and values based movement, we support our members to engage and learn about different faiths and beliefs in an exciting and meaningful way, even if they don’t have a faith themselves.  

Celebrating and understanding differences, including differences in faiths and beliefs, is an important part of our Scout values, which are:

• Integrity: We act with integrity; we are honest, trustworthy and loyal.
• Respect: We have self-respect and respect for others.
• Care: We support others and take care of the world in which we live.
• Belief: We explore our faiths, beliefs and attitudes.
• Co-operation: We make a positive difference; we co-operate with others and make friends.

Our value of Belief and its exploration helps Scouts to learn from other faiths and beliefs. This encourages them to develop or build their personal beliefs and understand their shared values, whether faith-based on not. 

We know that learning about faiths, beliefs and different attitudes can help to break down barriers, helps us all to recognise what we have in common, and teaches us to value and respect other people. It also helps us to build up respect, acceptance and knowledge for each other, leading to a more co-operative and inclusive society. 

In our diverse society, people can sometimes feel cautious talking about  this sensitive subject. However, it's important that Scouts offers young people safe, exciting and open spaces to explore faiths and beliefs. They should be able to engage in personal reflection, as they question and develop their opinions and understanding of the world around them.

Making time for personal reflection and developing our beliefs means exploring the places, people, communities, celebrations or stories which hold meaning for us, and it may not necessarily mean exploring a faith. 

For example, someone’s shared values may be their Scout Values and that person may choose to reflect on them at important times, such as when they make their Promise. Others may choose to reflect at certain times of the year, such as a faith-based festival, birthdays, meaningful events or at New Year. Some people may still celebrate events, such as Christmas, but use it as a time to celebrate family, friends and loved ones, as well as for charity and giving.

Discover more about Faiths and Beliefs in Scouts.

Whether you're from a predominantly Muslim group, or just interested in finding out more, here's some more information about Islamic prayer beads.

• Islamic prayer beads are called Sibha, Subha or Misbaha.
• They’re often used by Muslims to perform dhikr - a form of worship involving the repeating of phrases.
• They usually have 99 beads, separated into three groups.
• Muslims may say words such as Subhanallah (Glory be to allah), Alhamdulillah (All praise is to Allah), Allahu Akbar (Allah is most great, or God is greater) using their prayer beads.
• The importance of prayer is mentioned throughout the Qur'an, the holy book of Islam. 
• In the era of the Prophet Muhammad, Muslims did not use Islamic prayer beads as a tool in their prayers, but may have used pebbles or the cores of Jujube fruit.  
• Now, there are many different tools to help Muslims remember Allah, including prayer beads, apps and digital finger rings.

This is a good opportunity for Muslim Scouts to reflect on the importance of prayer and worship in their faith, if they'd like to.   

• What does prayer mean to you? Why do you pray? Why is it important? 
• What does Islam teach us about prayer? 

The importance of prayer is mentioned throughout the Qur'an. For example:  “Those who have believed and whose hearts are assured by the remembrance of Allah (SWT). Unquestionably, by the remembrance of Allah hearts are assured.” (Qur'an 13:28, translation)   Another translation of this is "Those who believe (in the Oneness of Allah), and whose hearts find rest in the remembrance of Allah, Verily, in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find rest." 

It was also stressed by the Prophet Muhammad: “Know that among your duties, prayer is foremost”.  

The Hadith (the words and teachings of the Prophet Muhammad) say  "Allah says, “I treat My servant as he hopes that I would treat him. I am with him whenever he remembers Me: if he thinks of Me, I think of him..." (Al-Bukhari)

If you used clay to make your prayer beads, you could also reflect on how Allah (SWT) has created man from clay, and how we are as diverse as the different soils we are created from. "We created man from sounding clay, from mud moulded into shape..." (Qu'ran 15:26) 

1. Take a piece of clay and mould it into your chosen shape. You could roll the clay piece into a ball, then mould it into a different shape later. 
2. Carefully push your cocktail stick through your clay to make a hole, keeping your fingers safely away from the stick. This should be supervised by an adult volunteer.  The ball of clay should now be on the stick.  
3. While your clay is on the stick, you can perfect or change your shape. If you started with a ball shape, you could pinch each end of the bead to create a bicone shape, which is like two cones, attached together by their base. 
4. Smooth out any marks, then carefully slide your bead off the stick. You can smooth the clay by using a little water on your fingers – but don’t get the clay too wet, as its more likely to crack a when it’s drying. 
5. Now’s a good time to check the size of the hole against the size of your cord or thread that you’ll be using to join the beads together. Remember it’ll shrink a little when drying. If needed, you can use a wooden skewer to make the hole bigger.  
6. Once you’ve made all your beads, put them away somewhere to dry. Check the instructions, but it’s usually at least 24 hours. Keep the drying clay away from anywhere that’s too hot, such as in direct sunlight or on a radiator, as this makes it more likely to crack. Don’t forget to store any remaining clay in an air-tight container 
7. When the clay’s completely dry, you could use fine sandpaper to smooth each bead. 
8. Once the beads have fully dried, you can paint them. You might want to put the beads back on your stick or skewer for this part. 
9. Once the paint has dried, you could add a coat of varnish to protect your beads, and for a lovely shiny finish.  

For a cheaper option, you could make your own salt dough, using plain flour, salt and water, then bake your beads in the oven.

1. Draw out a long thin shape, depending on what shape and size of bead you’d like. 
   • Long thin triangle strips will create oval-shaped beads. The base of the triangle will be the width of the bead. The longer the triangle, the fatter your bead will be.  
   • A long straight strip, or long thin rectangle, will make wide cylinder-shaped beads. 
   • You can also experiment with other shapes, so be creative. 
2. Keep drawing out the shapes, until you’ve drawn out the shapes for all your beads. To make this step easier, you could make a paper bead template to draw around. 
3. Carefully cut around your drawn shapes using scissors.  
4. Fold the wide end of your shape around the dowel, then create a crease so the skewer stays in place.  
5. When you’re happy the dowel’s straight, add some glue across the rest of your shape. 
6. Take your skewer or dowel and, starting at the wide end of your paper, roll the paper around the skewer slightly, creasing it, so that it starts to form a cylinder. 
7. Once you’re happy with the alignment, roll this back and remove the dowel.  
8. Apply a little glue across the width of the paper. 
9. Now carefully roll the paper past the glue and continue rolling, keeping the paper as straight as you need for your design. 
10. Remember to add glue as you roll, making sure the roll is tight. 
11. Keep going until you get to the end of your paper shape, making sure it’s firmly glued down at the end. 
12. Carefully transfer your bead onto a toothpick, and pop it in a foam block or similar. This will mean it doesn’t stick to anything and make it easier to varnish. 
13. You can cover the outside of your bead in a layer of varnish. Several thin coats over time give a much more polished result than one thick coat. Be patient for the best results! 

 Thread your beads 

1. To make it a quicker and easier activity, people could choose from a selection of ready-made shop bought wooden beads, rather than making their own.   
2. If you’re making your beads, gather all your finished beads together and decide on the order they should go in. 
3. Once you’ve got your finished beads, thread them onto your cord and secure with a knot. You could try a simple overhand knot or a square knot.  
4. People could use their beads as prayer beads, worry beads or reflection beads.