Friday the 24th of May, I attended a mosque service, during the second session at 1:30 held at the Farmington Valley Muslim Center. A Mosque is affiliated with the Muslim religion, and is considered their “house of worship”. Additionally the Muslim religion and Islam as a whole is monotheistic. & The night before attending “Friday prayers”, I was frantically trying to find a conservative outfit that would be okay for the hot weather, while simultaneously being as respectful to their customs as possible. I soon found out the difficulty of properly acclimating or accommodating for the heat while wearing non-revealing clothing. We entered the building and had to place our shoes onto the provided racks, because shoes are not allowed in the prayer room (the mosque). We, as females or “sisters” as they called us, were soon separated to the “sister” section of the room. This section was separated by a short wall allowing for modesty and comfort of the participants. Something that shocked me was the sizing difference of the two sections (males and females or “sisters”). Another learning that stemmed off of this was the fact that at some Muslim Centers in the Mosque or prayer rooms there can even be separate floors for males and sisters. Additionally sisters don’t have to come to the mosque but for men it is mandatory which helps to explain the difference in the amount of people, in relation to each side of the divider. After the sermon when we were having a talk with the founders and Imam (the prayer leader) when it was time for questions, I had asked; ‘why exactly when praying do people open up their hands in a cup like motion with their palms facing up?’ The Imam answered and shared with me and our group that the motion is a way to ask for blessing from up above, to Allah (God in Islam), and each person does each motion or gesture a little differently and it is okay to have differences as long as the main point gets across.
This was a really amazing experience for me, especially because I love learning about new cultures and immersing myself into that experience to make myself more knowledgeable. I don’t know yet how to really define myself within the structures of religion, for example to dedicate myself to one specific “god”, yet I am a very spiritual person who appreciates and is amazed by learning all about different religions and believes that there can be a higher power - but who or what is it, I don’t understand that part yet. This experience of attending a religious service has been one of the highlights of events that I have gone to this year, and it makes me excited for a separate religious event experience that I have to look forward to in the coming year.
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Sources used in my additional research:​
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