How Muslims Worship in a Mosque

The most beautiful building among these is the Mosque. The Mosque was built in early 1990's and is American built, almost entirely by local architects and local artists. There is a fountain in front of the Mosque and a second fountain inside the vestibule. These fountains have come from as far away as Egypt, Syria and Saudi Arabia and are merely for decoration though in older times fountains were used for washing before prayer.

Once inside the prayer hall, the imam explained to me that in a mosque there

The mosque can be identified by its elaborate squinch-supported domes. The Great Mosque of Cordoba is one of the finest surviving examples of Umayyad architecture in Spain. The mosque has marble capitals and columns in the hypostyle prayer hall. A person enters the hall through an open courtyard called a sahn. Its famous horseshoe arches have an alternated pattern of pale stone and red brick voussoirs

In addition to the structure's architectural composition, elaborate Quranic inscriptions further elaborate this message of religious superiority. Carole Hillenbrand alludes to such:

It is also used for meetings of the Muslim community, to discuss matters that may need to be reinforced or ways of improvement that can be applied, as well as a religious school with religious study classes, lectures, and a place where prayers are recited on dead before burial. This multiuse is not only used for Mosques but also Synagogues. Synagogues used for very comparable matters such as religious school for children, study classes for adults, funerals, lectures and meetings. This is all done in order to achieve social justice, which in the contemporary word is equally as important as worship in Judaism.

prepared to sacrifice Isaac here. Both inside and outside of the mosque holds magnificent beauty,

There holy book is called Quran and contains the revelations that god made to Muhammad. They believe that through god Mecca was the holy city and the center of Islam. The five pillars are very different from any other religion because all Muslims must know them and they are the key to Islam. They are Shahada, Salat, Zakat. Siyam, and the Hajj. The Hajj is a key step in the five pillars and it tells that a Muslim must travel to Mecca to participate in a series of rituals if money and heath is stable. Islam’s holy building is called a mosque. They also have two major sects called sunni and shii.

Religious Islamic architecture is intricately related to Muslim prayer which is an obligation to do every day. The Dome of the Rock was said to be the first great Islamic building. The Muslims had taken the city of Jerusalem in 638 created the shrine of worship to commemorate the event and the triumph of Islam. The Dome of the rock, similar to the Acropolis, was built atop holy ground. Called the Noble Enclosure, the site was where the Hebrews built the

Religious rituals hold a very sacred place in the hearts of believers, being able to witness one from an outsider perspective is something that is truly eye opening. Personally, following our unit in class, I had a desire to witness at least one practice associated with the Muslim religion. The Nueces Mosque was perfect for this purpose because of its proximity but is mostly dominated by a younger demographic. I reached out to the president of the mosque, Ammarah Tariq, who very graciously welcomed me to join them for their Friday ritual prayer service, Jumu’ah. Members of the community noticed I was clearly an outsider and did not hesitate to greet me and explain to me procedures to adhere to such as removing my shoes. Following the removal

Where do Jews, Christians, and Muslims usually pray? These three religions have a house of worship where they can sit down and pray. But however, the houses are different and build differently for their satisfaction and comfort. Jews pray in a synagogue which is also like a temple. These temples are built facing Jerusalem with long halls for prayer. Synagogues can also have smaller rooms for studies and sometimes a social hall for occasions as well as offices for bookkeeping. For Christians, they pray in normal churches. Most churches, especially older ones, are built in the slope of the cross. Muslim's house of worship is a Mosque. Mosques are built with no furniture, no painting or statues. It's just a big empty room where Muslim can sit on the floor and pray. When entering a Mosque, shoes are required to be taken off. When men and women pray, they are separated into two different rooms. All three religions pray in a house, that is a correct. But, the way the houses are built for them to pray are different.

What astonished me was that they were not done all in one sitting because the first one starts at around five in the morning and the last one is at around nine at night. One thing that was similar was that in the Mosque their was an Imam, which is like a priest in a church. Upon entering the Mosque I saw that on the sign there was the ionic star and crescent symbol. I also noticed that the color green is symbolic in Islam. I found it very unique that when people entered the mosque they did a prayer. The Mosque was not as fancy or heavily decorated as I imagined it would be. One of the reasons why I think that is, is because unlike in some churches where there are membership fees that you have to pay in order to attend ,it is absolutely free to attend a Mosque. You can give donations because just like in a church they pass a bowl around at the end of the sermon. I found the mosque to be quite family friendly and I noticed there were a few families that day. The women were covered in their traditional hijabs. I am not Muslim;however in order to be respectful to the Islamic culture I dressed in long sleeves and dress pants and I wore my hair back. Since I was not praying I was not

This is set by the time of day. The last important component to the prayer pillar is the public day of prayer, Friday. On this day, devote Muslims join together to pray in mosques (Molloy, 432-434).

My first impression upon arriving at the mosque was that it was very drab and plain inside, as compared to how it looked on the outside. The religion I grew up in had beautifully decorated churches; while I wanted to ask why the mosque was so drab inside, I felt it would sound rude and unkind. Furthermore, I was disappointed to see the only chairs available to sit upon in the mosque were for pregnant, disabled, and elderly people. The religion I grew up in had nice, plump, padded pews for its members to sit upon. Again, I did not question why there were no pews as I felt it would be unkind.

Minaret – the “slender tower” with balconies in which a muezzin announces prayer time to Muslims (Dictionary)

I chose to research the Muslim religion for my site visit. I wanted to have in depth experience with this religion since I did my group project about Sikhism and during class we went into great detail about every other religion. I did not know what to expect when visiting a mosque, it was a pretty nerve-wracking experience for me being a non-Muslim. I have been raised with Christian morals my whole life even though I have only gone to church a few times in my whole life. Almost all religions have a house of prayer; Jews have synagogues, Buddhists/Hindus have temples and Catholic and Christians have churches and cathedrals. Muslims have mosques; each religious center has their own different rules, rituals and services that need to be followed. A mosque is a place of prayer for Muslims within the Islamic belief. Another word for mosque in Arabic is Masjid. Kind of like a church, a mosque is where Muslims worship and bow before Allah to declare their obedience and loyalty. Mosques date back till the time of the prophet. In order to find a mosque, I went on the Internet and stumbled upon Masjid Beit El-Maqdes.