Hello. I am a religious studies student and I have an assignment that I could use some help with. Basically I have to take a picture of anything with religious implications and describe it in 1500 words. Its slightly more complicated than that but that is the short version. I'm not a Muslim but my roommate is so I decided to take a picture of his prayer mat. Unfortunately for me he knows little about his faith so he isn't of much help. I don't trust internet sources, and part of the assignment is getting first hand insight from members of the faith, which in this case is Islam.

I would appreciate if i could get different explanations about what the point of a prayer mat is, what it means to you as a Muslim, and its religious implications. From the little i know it is to make sure the surface on which prayer is done is "ritually" pure. But i doubt i can write 1500 words about that. It is due tomorrow morning and I foolishly left it until the last minute. Your input is priceless to me right now. Thank you.