Impressions on visiting a Mosque

Don't worry, I'm not about to convert. But I've been to Christian weddings, funerals, and the accompanying church services. I've been to Jewish weddings, funerals, and Barmitzfas. I'm an equal opportunity atheist.

So:

All religions are the same. All sermons are the same. The very tone of voice is the same.

When singing the prayers, the leader has his back to those who pray, facing into a hollow cavity by what, in a Christian church, would be the pulpit. I interpret this similarly to the refusal to have graven images. The prayer, the voice, does not belong to the person who utters it—it belongs to all. It is egoless.

You can tell that Islam is a desert religion. The images, the colours in the Mosque all point to this, for they suggest a desert oasis. The walls are all white, the carpets red and patterned simply. But every time there is a design, or picture, or letters in Arabic, they appear in blue, like water. The images are all of plants—flowers, trees, leaves. Even the designs suggest vines and roots. The effect is not emasculating, as it would be in a different kind of church. As gold and crosses are “heaven” to Christianity, black tradition to Judaism, so green and blue, flowers and leaves are “heaven” to a desert religion.

The act of prayer is different, because it is a physical act. Not an intensely physical one, but physical enough to engage the body as well as the mind. In this way, Islam becomes an exercise as well as a belief.

A people, and a people’s mentality, are shaped by the religion. The sermon seemed to have three components (which I was aware of). The first was history, tradition, Arabic directly from the Koran, translations, the stories of Mohammed. The next component was instruction, not what a good Muslim was—it seemed assumed that all present were good Muslims—but rather what a good Muslim should strive to do. Central to this was the belief that, though Allah would help, tasks had to be undertaken and struggled through personally. You had to do 99% of the work, hard work, and Allah would only give the final but crucial 1%. The final aspect of the sermon, and the aspect which I found most interesting, was mathematical. Here, the sermon acted as a proof, justifying everything that was said—not only why right action was right, but why Mohammed would record a chapter which seemed to glorify himself, because it reality it glorified God. The structure of the sermon was that of a proof, and it seemed as analytical within the structure of the faith as it was based on blind belief in what the sermon-giver said.

All of my Muslim friends have a distinctive way of speaking, not an accent as much as an intonation. From having foreign parents, of course, but listening to the intonation of the prayers (which no doubt mirror the rhythms of Arabic) I could hear something of the intonation that gives a distinctive speaking voice even in English.

And, of course, women. I was pleasantly surprised in the Koran to see how equal of a role women (for that time) were given alongside men. Here, the women and men prayed in separate rooms. I would be fascinated to see what the women did. I can only think, though, that listening to separate sermons, being in a separate place, somehow the men and women are worshiping different Gods. Every teacher, every classroom colours what one learns of a subject, and I imagine religious teaching is the same way. In this way, different genders are kept in the dark about what the other is thinking, worshiping, what they believe it is right to do.

Addendum:

I talked to Rez afterward, and I was wrong in my interpretation of a few points. Women do not listen to a different sermon, or pray separate prayers. They are merely in a different room, getting the backwash of what the men get by watching the sermon and prayers on a screen via the miracle of video technology. So they watch the same service, second hand. So, they are second rate. Rez says that this is so the men and women will not be distracted by each other—they bend and kneel in their prayers, the physicality would make it easy to stray into perversion. Perhaps, but there must be a better way. This seems to me simply wrong.

The second thing is that the chanted call-to-prayer and recitations of the Koran are not done specifically toward a wall, but rather simply always in the direction of Mecca. This changes little though: still, the leader prays with, not to, the followers. Still, it is an egoless prayer.