Muslim Friday Prayer Service
On November 13th, I attended a Friday noon service at the Islamic Community Center of Des Plaines. This mosque is near my house and I always wondered what actually happened there. So, I decided it would be a perfect opportunity to go to a service and find out. Upon entering, I was a little nervous and a bit uncomfortable due to me being a Catholic and going to Sunday masses almost every week. During this Friday Service, called Jumu’ah, I observed many things and a few of the seven dimensions that were demonstrated. The main dimensions that I observed and that were demonstrated were material, social/institutional, doctrinal/philosophical and mainly ritual.
As I was walking inside, I noticed how packed the mosque …show more content…
There were no chairs or pews, like in catholic churches. People were just sting on a carpet floor. One of the rooms there was a washing station. These washing stations are called “wudu’s”. I observed that people there were washing their hands, face and some were washing their feet. I decided to just wash my hands and feet because most people were doing it. After getting cleansed, everyone walked over to the main room and took off their shoes. Everyone there took their shoes off so decided to take mine off as well. Almost every person there cleansed themselves and every individual I saw did not wear shoes in the praying area. I observed that the people for this service tend to be very clean, especially for the service. I believe that cleansing yourself before and taking your shoes off before entering the praying area would be an example of another ritual. Muslims perform these forms and orders at every single service they attend and always want to be clean before entering and saying prayers in God’s …show more content…
The sermons were kind of short and based on some type of Islamic focus. It was given at the beginning of the prayer and was followed up by a lecture called the Khutbah. After the Khutbah, there was another short sermon. A head figure that is called the Imam gave these sermons and readings. After the first sermon, then there were a few different types of prayers where people lined up next to each other, or were on their knees bowing their heads. These prayers and sermons represent another form of a ritual. During these prayers, Muslims pray to their God, Allah. They read quotes from their holy book, the Quran. The Quran acts as a doctrinal/philosophical dimension because it is a systematic formulation of religious teachings in a coherent form. The Quran translates into “the recitation” and is the holy book of Islam. The Quran is believed to be the word of God as dictated to Muhammad by the arch angel of Gabriel. One interesting fact that someone at the mosque told me was that Muslims actually pray five times a day to remind them about God throughout the day. Also that Muslims are always supposed to pray towards the Kaaba. The Kaaba is a cuboid building at the center of Islam’s most sacred mosque in Mecca. In the actual praying area, there is a Mihrab. A Mihrab represents the dimension of material as it is a sacred object that leads the direction of the holy Kaaba.
During most of the reading and prayers, I stood outside
On November 13th, I attended a Friday noon service at the Islamic Community Center of Des Plaines. This mosque is near my house and I always wondered what actually happened there. So, I decided it would be a perfect opportunity to go to a service and find out. Upon entering, I was a little nervous and a bit uncomfortable due to me being a Catholic and going to Sunday masses almost every week. During this Friday Service, called Jumu’ah, I observed many things and a few of the seven dimensions that were demonstrated. The main dimensions that I observed and that were demonstrated were material, social/institutional, doctrinal/philosophical and mainly ritual.
As I was walking inside, I noticed how packed the mosque …show more content…
There were no chairs or pews, like in catholic churches. People were just sting on a carpet floor. One of the rooms there was a washing station. These washing stations are called “wudu’s”. I observed that people there were washing their hands, face and some were washing their feet. I decided to just wash my hands and feet because most people were doing it. After getting cleansed, everyone walked over to the main room and took off their shoes. Everyone there took their shoes off so decided to take mine off as well. Almost every person there cleansed themselves and every individual I saw did not wear shoes in the praying area. I observed that the people for this service tend to be very clean, especially for the service. I believe that cleansing yourself before and taking your shoes off before entering the praying area would be an example of another ritual. Muslims perform these forms and orders at every single service they attend and always want to be clean before entering and saying prayers in God’s …show more content…
The sermons were kind of short and based on some type of Islamic focus. It was given at the beginning of the prayer and was followed up by a lecture called the Khutbah. After the Khutbah, there was another short sermon. A head figure that is called the Imam gave these sermons and readings. After the first sermon, then there were a few different types of prayers where people lined up next to each other, or were on their knees bowing their heads. These prayers and sermons represent another form of a ritual. During these prayers, Muslims pray to their God, Allah. They read quotes from their holy book, the Quran. The Quran acts as a doctrinal/philosophical dimension because it is a systematic formulation of religious teachings in a coherent form. The Quran translates into “the recitation” and is the holy book of Islam. The Quran is believed to be the word of God as dictated to Muhammad by the arch angel of Gabriel. One interesting fact that someone at the mosque told me was that Muslims actually pray five times a day to remind them about God throughout the day. Also that Muslims are always supposed to pray towards the Kaaba. The Kaaba is a cuboid building at the center of Islam’s most sacred mosque in Mecca. In the actual praying area, there is a Mihrab. A Mihrab represents the dimension of material as it is a sacred object that leads the direction of the holy Kaaba.
During most of the reading and prayers, I stood outside