The mosque is a fascinating place really. There are a few other mosques in town that service the outer lying areas, but the one that I go to is what we call the main mosque. It’s been there a long time – my friends all grew up there and they are all as old as me so it goes back a ways.
It’s a very multicultural moosque. When the community here was just starting out, everyone banded together – there were no ethnic divisions…Arabs, Indo-Paks, Somalis, West Indians, etc…all gathered at this central mosque to worship. That trend has continued to this day. When you go there you see most of the Muslim ummah represented. It’s very nice and inshaAllah it’ll continue this way. The community has grown from a handful of families to thousands but what has remained the same is the sense that we all share in the future of the main mosque.
Now praying at the mosque always holds an element of the unknown….you walk in and wonder who the charming person will be tonight who will hold the congregation hostage while they have a temper tantrum. Tonight during Taraweeh we had three of them.
Man #1: stood up during the break and berated the parents who let their children run wild in the mosque. They pulled the fire alarm and were fighting in the entrance.
Man#2: joined in and in broken English he threatened to kick out any children who were not by their parents side. I have a feeling some kids got the smack down tonight. Then later he stood up and told everyone who had a complaint about the imams’ recitation, how fast he recited, how many mistakes he made, how slow he was, how long his talk was during the break…that unless they were willing to tell the imam themselves, to keep quiet. I guess people were using him as the go-to person for complaints tonight.
Woman#1: threw a tantrum about how long the imam’s talk during the break was. I guess she was in a rush or something…
All this short tempered fun during 8 rakahs of Salah…not 20. I can just imagine what they would be like after 20. I mean I understand getting tired and a little annoyed. I mean tonight I was squished between two ladies, one who smelled of stale curry and the other who was emitting heat like a furnace. But hey I’ve had it waaaay worse….trust me! Can you imagine also what it’ll be like when Ramadan is in July? Isha comes in at like 11pm some nights. You know my request for vacation is already filled out in anticipation.
Anyways going to the masjid tonight did the soul good like usual. And for that I am grateful.
Hilsen Fra... 
Last night I went for Taraweh prayers and the lady beside me was twitching so much that I had to avert my eyes to not be distracted. But really I wanted to scream…unless you have a medical problem stop your freakin’ twitching…astagfirullah, I am so bad.
Ahahaha! Sometimes it’s hard to keep yourself from screaming I know…you know in other parts of the world they don’t understand about personal space… they’re all up on you in a variety of ways.
It’s very stressful to have to be that close to people. You leave knowing way more about them than you want to.
Alhumdullilah though…at least they’ve stopped stepping on my feet to close the gaps in the line. I used to get so ignorant – I think I remember stomping some lady ‘s foot in salah. I should probably make that one up eh?
I MISS THE MOSQUE!!! Thanks for reminding me how it can be…. (%
It was nice this year 🙂 Hope you found something equally nice out there in Cali !