Finding the Masjid Muhammad was a little difficult as I drove through the same traffic circle three times until I finally stumbled upon the continuation of P street in Northwest DC. I pulled into a small parking lot and struggled to find the entrance of the mosque. It was close to the noon day prayer so I just waited until someone showed up and could find the entrance for me. The entrance of the majid was anything but elaborate. It was a basement with white tile, bulletin boards and posters put up randomly along the wall, all in english.  The receptionist, Cynthia, wore a Hijab but she had a familar American accent unlike some of the people I had met at the other mosques. She was also very cordial and was able to provide me with some information about the Masjid Muhammad because she had grown up in the mosque all her life.

Brief History Lesson  

The Masjid Muhammad wa first established in 1941 as a mosque for the Nation of Islam, an organization established for the spiritual, social, mental, and economic, well being of the African-American community. Not knowing enough about the subject, I’m not sure what prompted the change from the Nation of Islam to traditional Islam but I do know that it was a significant change and had a large impact on what the Masjid Muhammad meant to the community. 

This mosque differs greatly from the others because as Cynthia said, the Islam in this mosque was a grassroots movement rather than the traditonal religion passed down through generations of immigrants. Because of the transition from the Nation of Islam to Islam, the members of the mosque had to learn the essence of true Islam. Interstingly, some of the older members of the masjid were brought together by the Nation of Islam but continued to practice Islam even after the masjid was no longer affiliated with the Nation. Cynthia, on the otherhand, was raised in the masjid and has always lived under traditional Islam. And unlike many of the other mosques, the majority of the congregation is comprised of Americans. A detail that greatly adds to the Middle Eastern components of Islam. In some ways, the Masjid Muhammad had an atmosphere that likened the black Baptist community that I am apart of. 

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Being a veteran of entering sacred Islamic centers, I was not as intimidated as I was when I first walked into the Dar Al Hijrah masjid in Falls Church. The exterior was not as complex and ornate as the Islamic Center on Mass. Ave. nor was it as looming as the Adams Center. The front was not decorative with Arabic writing but it still had a presence of reverence and importance. 

The Imam who I met with, Imam Johari, was very welcoming and incredibly informative. He to, wore a Thob but also a bright orange blanket that made him seem king-like. However, he made sure to let me know that the blanket was for personal comfort and warmth rather than for some sacred tradition. As we walked around the mosque, Imam Johari pointed out some key details about the masjid; its name, its origin, its architecurtal strucure. He assumed that I knew nothing, which I did, and made sure to talk slow and point out things that as normal as they were for him, seemed foreign to me.

“Dar…Hijrah”

Dar means place which makes sense and is not difficult to understand but Hijrah is a very intersting concept. Not only is it the migration of the prophet Muhammad to Medina, but it is the official establishment of Islam. What makes the name intersting is that in 1981, students founded the masjid because they had no place to worship and the “place of Hijrah” was where they were free practice their religion much like the prophet himself.

 What was so intersting to me was how purposeful everything was in the masjid. There was meaning in every little detail from the rows on the carpet to the location of the niche (Meharajab). Before entering the masjid, there is an area off to the side that looks like a regular tile bathroom but even this sanitary space carried more meaning than a simple restroom area. Wudu is the cleansing process that Muslims undergo before entering the masjid or begining their prayers. There is a strict process of washing the feet, hands, ears, and face in order to be considered clean and acceptable to enter the masjid. Cleanliness is one thing that every masjid has emphasized. The carpets have lines from being recently vacuumed and there is always a shelf accesible for shoe removal.

The masjid had a sense of elegant simplicity: the domes, the arches, the way the sunlight filed in through the window, the geometric designs. The room for prayer was peaceful and welcoming rather than ominous and intimidating like the santuaries of large churches. 

And we sat there, cross-legged in the middle of this beautiful but simple room and Imam Johari taught me some of the key aspects of Islam and what it means to live as a Muslim.

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Coming from a very traditional mosque, my expectations were in some ways further off when I visited the Adams Center in Sterling Virginia near Dulles Airport. I pulled up to the Adams Center expecting a mosque but was greeted with an incredibly large structure thats purpose was clearly more than just a masjid. One of the first things to catch my eye when I walked into the Adams Center was the basketball court. A little bit jarred, I cautiously walked around, afraid I might walk into a sacred space.

The first person I met was Cynthia. She worked in the office and was the person that I was supposed to talk to about the Adams Center. She wore glasses, and an organgish head covering that stopped at her waist, underneath she wore jeans. She seemed a little hesitant at first, because in some ways, you never know what is intersting at a place where you work every day but she did point certain things that she thought were noteworthy. ”The Adams Center is not just a mosque,” she said as we filed past bulletin boards of community pamphlets. She described it as a community center where some people spend all of there time and where others come just to attend Friday prayer. Much like the Mass. Ave. masjid, the attendants ranged from a very diverse group of people. Cythina was from Peru while her colleagues were American as well as from other Middle Eastern countries.

A Community Center, not just a Mosque

Even beyond the basketball courts, the Adams Center was clearly more than a religious center. Hearing Cythnia talk about the Adams Center Boyscout troup, youth programs, basketball league, and Feed the Hungry programs, I pictured a mosque very far removed from the traditional atmosphere of the Mass. Ave. Islamic Center. In some ways, the Adam Center was not that differernt from many of the churches I had gone to.

Salah

I was able to sit in on the afternoon prayer which was conducted on the third level of the Adams Center. The prayer room itself was not ornate in design except for the Arabic letters in framed glass. Beside the the framed glass and a neatly written Arabic phrase on a white board, everything else was in English. The room was clean and neat and there two large windows facing the direction of Mecca.

I took off my shoes and sat down against the wall, but to my surprise, there was not Imam to lead the prayer until a booming sound came across a PA system. The call to prayer (Azzan) was being given over a loud speaker just as if someone had stood up and given. The reverance and the urgency was all the same as men filed in and removed there shoes to assume the position for prayer.

One of the important things that Abassie said in his interview was that the Islamic Center was a transiet mosque, meaning that the people who come and pray usually don’t live around in the area and that the people who come and pray, are not necessarily “members” of that particular mosque. This adds tremendously to the diversity of the mosque and is apparent at any given time of the day in the masjid (mosque). The masjid is mainly designed to encourage and facilitate the worship of Allah, even though in Islam, the daily prayers can be conducted anywhere clean.

When I first stepped into the mosque, there was an incredible amount of reverance. The shelf of shoes indicated its emphasis on cleanliness while the silence in the masjid indicated its reverance. The inside was intricately desigend with Arabic letters, Turkish tiles, and an incredibly ornate rug with patterns that weaved along the entire floor. Because there are 6 prayers a day, each prayer has a designated time when the Imam gives the call to prayer. It was very close to the call to prayer and a man and his son walked in to be there in time for the prayer. His son, about 4 years old playfully ran about the mesjid and played on the beams that supported the roof of the mosque. His father, without paying any mind, assumed the prayer positions and began to pray.The child mimics his father with the same motions with the same reverance. Then like before, he jumps up and dances around the room. His prayer lasts 2 minutes while his father’s continues for 5 or 6 minutes.

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Salah

Salah is the Arabic word for prayer and is observed in most mosques 5 times a day. Each day there is call to prayer led by an Imam or whoever is well-versed in the Qur-an and is qualified to lead the prayer through a series of chants.

When I arrived the call to prayer was just begining. A man wearing a white Thob stood in the niche that indicated the direction of mecca. The call to prayer was a tonal chant that is very difficult to explain to someone who has never heard Arabic or a Norweigan yodel because it is a combination of the two. The fluctating sounds resonate throughout the entire masjid over a speaker system as people file in right on time.  The mood is light as men stroll in laughing and patting each other on the back. And unlike some churches, there was no particular dress for prayer, since the majority of participants were coming straight from work. One man wears a full suit while another in khakis and an untucked shirt. In any other setting, the atmosphere right before prayer is like any other public meeting place. However, the mood is not shared by all as some walk in with purpose and assume the prayer position right away. What stood out to me the most was the transition between not praying and praying. In almost every church service that I have been to, there is a lead up to the prayer but here in the masjid, one could blink and the prayer would begin. In so few words, one might observe this if they were not expecting what was going on: walk-in, look around, talk with neighbor, find spot alone, cross arms, bow head, bend at waist, kneel with feet under butt, touch head to ground. This process happened so abruptly and casually that I could barely tell when people were praying or just standing around.  Keep in mind this all takes place around the time for prayer call.

Once the call to prayer has been said for the last time, there is a great deal of urgency in every movement. Conversations wane and rows start to form with men all facing the niche. Utter silence. Only the rustle of pants and muted mutters can be heard in the room as masjid drastically transitions from a meeting area to a sacred space with one clear purpose: to worship Allah. Even after the reverant tone has been set by the final call to prayer, men still file in through the back and join in with the prayer motions, all in unison. The prayer leader chants in short intervals but each person’s lips move, some  with whispers others just silence.

Where are the women?

 Now its important to notice that the people that I have been talking about are strictly men. The prayer area for woman was designated by two large wooden panels and thin line of caution tape. Now being from such a politcally correct, flawless, progressive, Western, equality based society…I was suprised by the separation between male and female but even the women who quickly filed into the designated space did not seem phased by the segrgation. 

Personal Commenatary: So often when I am exposed to a new cultural experience for the first time, I inevitably see it in terms of my own experience. And inevitably that narrow lens also separates things into right and wrong. i.e. I could see the sepration between man and women as inherently wrong because of the accepted norm that women should always be equal or seen as the same.

However, religion is one of the main ways that faith and truth are both debated and sought after and for some, even found. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are only three ways that truth is sought through an act of faith. In some ways, these three Abrahamic religions are simply variations of each other with different cultural and traditional influences but in other ways, these seemingly similar schools of thought are fundamentally different and even irreconcilable at times.

What I aim to do in the allowed time is to profile each of these and possibly more religious ideas not to reach any particular conclusion. I believe it is in the searching that answers are found and in the finding that answers are given. Over the next few weeks, I will be searching, observing, questioning, and trying to understand the experience that binds and divides all people that is faith.

*I am in no way qualified to comment on any practices in Islam because I am not Muslim or have studied the Qur’an. My only credibility is my experience. Having said that, my goal is to simply observe and share my observations