Omar and Hana are now teaching children to pray | Omar and Hana collab

Written by Kamal Ali, founder of My Salah Mat

The true story of a meeting of fate

This is the true story of how I met the founders of ‘Omar and Hana’ and how together, we bought an exciting idea to life.

‘Omar and Hana’ is an Islamic cartoon studio with over 5 million international subscribers on YouTube so working with them is a huge opportunity.

The year is 2019 and I am browsing YouTube videos when I come across an ‘Omar and Hana’ video. I am so impressed to discover the characters, the quality of the animation and the Islamic information that is shared in this short video. My immediate thought is that I would love to create a collaboration between My Salah Mat, the world’s first interactive prayer mat and the characters of Omar and Hana. They could inspire a new generation of Muslim children to love prayer in a unique, enjoyable way.

The company is based in Malaysia and I find their email address and send them a quick message. Surprisingly, I get an instant reply. By a stroke of luck, the founder has travelled from Malaysia and is in London on business at this moment! There is an opportunity to meet him in person and it is as if it has been written by Allah for us to meet.

Kamal Ali, Founder of My Salah Mat with the founders of Omar and Hana

I immediately seize the opportunity and arrange to meet Sinan Ismail, the founder of ‘Omar and Hanna’. I book my train ticket from Wales and head to London with a MySalahMat product. We meet at Edgware Road tube station and after greeting one another, we go for lunch. I present my exciting vision of what a collaboration between ‘Omar and Hanna’ and ‘My Salah Mat’ would look like. They absolutely love the concept and express their interest in bringing it to life. We continue to talk about life, business and family and it feels like the beginning of a deep connection and friendship Insha’Allah.

The My Salah Mat Interactive prayer mat, teaching Muslims around the world how to learn to pray

We head to the local mosque to pray together where we bond in the most special way! This is the photo we took together after our prayers.

We worked on the project at a speedy rate making good progress until we faced an unbelievable obstacle- a global pandemic! Studios closed, designers stopped working and the project was set back by at least a year.

Fast forward to 2022 and both companies are determined to finally launch the new product. The prototype is produced with the Omar and Hana voices being used in English and Malay.

A special limited edition box and a unique Salah activity booklet were designed featuring the ‘Omar and Hana’ characters. We worked endless hours and had countless meetings over two weeks, and finally, the product is ready to be launched!

An epic collaboration began with a chance email and a meeting of luck, destined by Allah. Now, Malaysia and the international world will see the world’s first Islamic cartoon channel introduce the world’s first interactive prayer mat.