A year and a half ago a friend and I visited a Muslim Prayer Service at a little mosque in a house on Marlborough Avenue here in Guelph. Later that day I made some notes and observations which are reproduced below.
Notes from a visit to a local Mosque in Guelph for Friday prayers
Date: Friday October 9, 2009, 1 PM
· I went with another pastor from Guelph named Royal Hamel. Our purpose was to observe and experience a Muslim Prayer service.
· Raining steadily all day. As we entered the front door, rain was pouring off the edge of the roof and ran down our necks. No one else was in the small foyer; we timidly proceeded further, passed through a small coat room, turned the corner and stepped into a large empty carpeted room. A bearded man in his mid thirties in a long white shirt/robe immediately moved toward us and said “You must take your shoes off. We pray here!” His tone wasn’t unfriendly, just urgent. We jumped back and he was immediately at our side, guiding us to the place where we could store our shoes. He stayed with us for the next ten minutes, sincerely welcoming us and curious to know why we had come.
· His name was “Ibrahim” and he called himself the “priest.” I think that was just his adaptation for our sakes of the word for “Imam.” He escorted us to a couple of stacking chairs at the rear of the room and told us we could sit there and he took the time to explain what would be going on and answered all of our questions very patiently and in a friendly manner. Another older man approached and informed us that he was 75 years old and therefore knew the ways of the world and if we wanted any scientific explanations for anything we didn’t understand that we could ask him and he would be glad to help us. We explained to the Imam that we were Christians and probably wouldn’t be joining in with the prayers and kneeling as the rest did but that we meant no disrespect. He graciously assured us that was not a problem.
· Ibrahim held a book under his arm and told us that he had memorized the whole book and that it was the word of God. As we expressed our interest and amazement he said that of course it is difficult to memorize other books or scientific books but quite easy to memorize the word of God. “God will help you,” he said. “Why, there is a seven year old boy in Toronto who has just finished memorizing the whole Qur’an. It’s a miracle,” he exclaimed. He then welcomed us one more time and then moved to the front to say some personal prayers with the few other men at the front of the room. It was about 1:10pm and there were 8 of us in the room. He then sat down on a little set of steps at the front, faced us all and began to share a message in English. He talked about the fact that the season of fasting (Ramadan) is now over and the next event on the calendar is the “Hajj” (the pilgrimage to Mecca). I couldn’t understand everything he said, but there was quite a bit about how important it is to keep the rules and the commandments of God so that God will accept the sacrifice of your pilgrimage.
· During the 20 minutes that he spoke, men slowly drifted into the room, ambling to a vacant spot where they could kneel or sit on the floor, stopping to stand in their spot, kneel in personal prayer and then settle in to their place. The Imam rambled on, unfazed by their movements, they seemed just as unfazed by his words. A cell phone rang several rings; no one moved. A few minutes later it rang again; a man crawled over to the back corner of the room and silenced the phone that was sitting on a back table. Men continued to arrive and silently move to their places on the floor. By 1:30 the room was about two thirds full (about 60 men). The Imam suddenly pointed out “the two visitors here with us today to observe,” and thanked us for coming. Several men turned and looked. I nodded to one and he nodded back.
· The service seemed to increase in intensity and at 1:30 things got a little more serious. An older man walked out to the front foyer, out of our sight, and began to pray loudly in Arabic. All listened in silence. Then all stood together; the Imam continued the prayers, all bowed at the waist and stood straight again, then in unison all bowed low with foreheads to the ground. For about 6 or 7 minutes this continued with men going through these various positions in unison in response to cues they were hearing in the Arabic prayers. The time ended with men performing their silent personal prayers. I noted the strong participatory nature of the service.
· Then there was a pause at 1:40 and a layman came to the front and took the mike to make some announcements. A little hard to understand but one of them was about the recent tragedy in Indonesia and a collection being made to help them out. Then a large red metal toolbox began to make its way through the room, being pushed along the carpet from man to man. It had a slot cut in the top and was in fact the offering box (plate). I thought to myself – the room is decorated so sparingly, there is no eaves trough at the front door and the rain runs down your neck as you enter and they take up the offering in a red toolbox – this place is definitely run by men.
· We were told by Ibrahim before the service started that the women worshipped separately, saying their prayers in the basement – “for purposes of respect”- he informed us. But I never did see one woman during the whole time, even when entering or leaving the building. One young father had his little daughter with him in the service at his side. She might have been five years old. There were about 4 teen aged boys present. The men all dressed very informally – everything from long white traditional shirts to blue jeans and ski jackets. Almost half of them wore something on their heads, some of them wore a little knitted skullcap, others toques and several wore ball caps. I don’t think there was one man in the room who was not from some place either in the Middle East, India or Southeast Asia.
· During the little break when the announcements were being made, a young man in his late twenties moved back and engaged Royal in conversation and gave him the name of a Youtube location where he could hear a Muslim teacher speak who can “really explain things about the Muslim faith well.” He thought we might want to know about it.
· Then at 1:45 things got really serious. I now counted 90 men in the room and it was quite full. Suddenly everyone stood in unison and were perfectly quiet. The Imam spoke in Arabic in loud and commanding tones, very intensely, and there were responses at various times by the men, but rather weakly I thought. Heads were all bowed; they again went through various positions, up and down, kneeling with foreheads to the ground, the Imam leading strongly from the front. Then they all sat cross legged, turned their heads first to one side and then the other, to look at each other(passing of the peace?) and suddenly at 1:55, it was over, and all got up to leave. The Imam continued in prayers with 2 or 3 other men beside him at the front as we exited. The rain ran down our necks on the way out also.
· Inside before we left, several men approached us with more words of welcome. More than once I was greeted with – “Welcome to the house of God.”
· Personal notes: there was no singing and no expressions of joy. I will certainly not fault them for being unfriendly nor for lacking devotion. I was quite struck by their sincere concern that we outsiders have every opportunity to understand the Muslim faith. Things were very informal and laidback at the beginning and became progressively more serious and intense as the service proceeded. Most of the attendees were late for the preliminaries, but no one was late for the prayers. The sermon was definitely not the highlight of the service; most people missed it or ignored it. The number one purpose for coming together was to pray. I recalled the first words we were greeted with as we entered – “Take off your shoes; we pray here!”
· Final Thought: just before the service began, we were waiting and killing a little time. I found in my pocket a piece of paper with some verses written on it, verses I had been memorizing for my Triad appointment the previous day. I read them slowly, thinking about the differences between our two faiths - “Surely our griefs He Himself bore and our sorrows He carried. Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.” I found myself sitting and gratefully reflecting on the God I have come to know in the Bible – the God that is spoken of in these verses.
Thanks for reading. In my next installment I plan to reflect further on the Muslim faith - the challenges it brings to us Christians, and the things we can learn from our Muslim neighbours.
John
