Titip Doa was inspired by a common habit among Indonesian Muslims of asking pilgrims to pray for them as they depart to Saudi Arabia for pilgrimage

A common habit among Indonesian Muslims during the Hajj pilgrimage season, which peaked on the Idul Adha celebration, is to ask departing pilgrims to pray for those left in the home country –a practice known as “menitip doa”.

Prior to departure, family and friends would gather at the pilgrims’ residence to send them off. Often these visitors would also convey their requests for prayers during the visit, inspired by the belief that a prayer read during the pilgrimage will have a greater likelihood to be answered.

Often the requests can get very specific and elaborate, and one pilgrim can receive a great number of them.

When Muhammad Senoyodha Brennaf went on a pilgrimage in 2016, to keep things easier, he and his wife created a simple survey form for family and friends to list down their prayers requests. They ended up receiving 190 entries, with topic ranging from curing illnesses such as cancer, success in education and marriage, to being given the opportunity to go on a pilgrimage themselves.

“When we read these prayer request [during the pilgrimage], the more we read these prayers, the deeper we felt their hopes and struggles … We would like for others to be able to feel the same sense of empathy,” Brennaf explained in an email to e27.

“Hopefully this will get people to start thinking and caring for each other, at least by praying for each other,” he added.

Brennaf, who is the CEO of local startup Astrajingga, then built a mobile app called Titip Doa.

Through the mobile app, users are able to submit their prayers request to be read by other users. Users are able to monitor the progress of their requests; once the prayer request has been read by other users, there will be information on the identity, location, and how many times the prayer has been read.

Prayer request going into the Titip Doa database will not be edited or curated, though users can report any request that is deemed in appropriate.

The app is set to be launched in mid-January for Android devices.

Also Read: How AyoPoligami app becomes the most hated app among Indonesian women today

The rise of halal-tech

 

Being the biggest Muslim population in the world, Indonesia provides a great potential for businesses working to provide halal services to the market, from food, clothing, to travel and tourism. Several startups in the Southeast Asian region has built platforms that cater to needs of the Muslim audiences.

Astrajingga itself has built online travel agency Halal Local and personal finance management platform Monicca.

Despite the great market potential, Brennaf said that his intention in building the app is purely for charity. The service will continue to be provided for free; he will not even put advertisements on the platform.

“Even if, in the future, there will be any intention to commercialise it, then the Titip Doa app will utilise big data to process Sentiment Analysis. This market sentiment analysis will be useful for many things, such as understanding the most common aspiration [of citizens] in a city, who is the leader that many people are expecting for, public opinion on certain issues, and many more,” he explained.

He also has no specific target with the launch of the app.

“But seeing the response towards the prayer request form that my wife and I created in 2016, hopefully it will gain the attention of many users. Hopefully, if God willing, we can get 10,000 downloads within six months,” he said.

Brennaf is also working on the app all by himself; he has just begun to recruit volunteers to help on the project.

“For the future, I already have a clear picture on the upgrades that we are going to implement, and the stages in doing it. But it will adjust the market validation process following the launch,” he said.

“If we are talking about a more serious process such as expansion, diversification, or even pitching [the product] to venture capital firms, then there is such possibility. As the Titip Doa app begin to grow significantly and have a good potential, then we will certainly need external support for this project to grow bigger and give greater impact,” he closed.

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Image Credit: pansiriphoto / 123RF Stock Photo

The post Meet Titip Doa, the app that will get strangers to pray for you during Hajj pilgrimage appeared first on e27.