Monday, September 21, 2009

Mosque

In my last post, I mentioned that I agreed to attend a morning prayer with one of my brokers. After spending the night walking through some interesting parts of Cairo, I stopped at home for a little and then met up with Mohamed and went to morning prayer with him.

This provided a very interesting experience. After entering and taking our shoes off, we walked into the huge courtyard in the middle. This courtyard was basically a marble tiled recreation center. Women were socializing in one part, men in another and kids were running around everywhere. The kids here play pretty rough, most of the playing seemed to be mini-gang fights of one group against another and dragging other kids across the tiled floor. Every once in a while an older kid or an adult would break up a battle or dragging. It was a very lively atmosphere!

In one corner there were Gatorade containers filled with water with metal cups on top. These were provided so that people could wash there mouths out before praying. Basically wash out the remnants of cigarette smoking, etc. This was a pretty nice testament to the devotion and respect people have for Allah.

Although there was lots of activity, many men were sitting and reciting the call to prayer with the loudspeakers. This lasted for a while and some kept reciting while others socialized and others broke up scrimmages. Then all of a sudden the mosque went silent. At a certain point, a certain line is recited and this is the indication that prayer is about to begin. Everyone became quiet, kids stopped running and the men stood up and lined themselves up shoulder to shoulder and feet the feet of the person next to you in perfectly straight lines. It was one of the most amazing things I have ever witnessed, in my mind the scene went from near complete chaos to perfect organization and order within seconds.

The prayer itself was very short and was complete within 10 minutes. It consisted of a few repeated lines and a movement of bringing your hands to your ears and back down after each line. Then bowing to Allah twice, listening to a passage of the Quran, more repeating and hand movements, more bowing, another passage and that was it.

It was a fantastic experience, I had been to church and synagogue services before, but never to a mosque. I'm glad I did, it may turn out to be one of the most interesting and insightful lessons I learn from living here or from school. I had a very interesting and diverse weekend, it began in a synagogue celebrating Rosh Hashana and ended in a mosque celebrating the end of Ramadan and beginning of Eid El Fetr.

This is probably my last post for a while, tomorrow morning I leave for Morocco for 10 days and I'm not sure what my internet access will be like.

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