It was a pleasant summer day this year. We had arrived almost three hours earlier for the ‘Juma’ or ‘Friday’ prayers. There was no one in the mosque except for some of the students who were busy in cleaning the mosque and making it ready for the mass gathering. Friday prayers have a special meaning for me and all the other Muslims of the world. This wonderful gathering brings with it so many opportunities; to relax your mind from all the worries and tensions of the worldly matters, to see your neighbors and friends, to come to know about the problems and conditions of the people in the neighborhood and to have the great feeling of unity and strength. I was walking with one of my teachers and guide who had a great contribution in my life by his vast study and knowledge. We walked past the different parts of the mosque and reached the beautiful lawn where we chose a corner to sit and talk but instead of talking, we were silent and busy with our thoughts. I, for the first time, noticed that the entrance of the building was grand and beautiful and the calligraphy on it showed the skills of the artist. The design resembled to the grand mosques that were built by great Muslim Emperors in the golden age of Islam. But beneath this, there were so many things objectionable. A small stream of dirty water was flowing from the place where people performed their ablution. The place of ablution was cleaned but careless behavior of people had already ruined its clean appearance. The trees in its small garden were in very bad shape and it looked as if they have not been touched for years. Anyhow, I soon diverted my attention to other things as I had not come to find faults in the mosque and people managing it.
After some time, people slowly started coming to the mosque and majority of the first-comers were aged, some accompanied by their very young grandsons or any other relatives. After some time, the scholar or ‘Mawlawi Sahib’ also came who had worn his typical but beautiful dress of white clothes and an elegant coat. The sound system was checked and mike was placed in front of him. As usual, I failed to give much attention to his speech as it always bored me too much. I tried very hard to be a good listener but I always failed as he never talked on a single point in an organized manner. It looked as if he chose the topic for the day but was never sure how to take it forward. On the other hand, my knowledge of how to deliver speeches made me to find a number of mistakes in his speech. He talked on a point, used to forget his next point, then quickly switched to another issue and in this way, one did not get his target idea and in the end, everything seemed to be mixed together. Like many other scholars of our mosques, when he did not find any other point, he would talk about the immoral life of people, talked about their sins and tried to frighten them of the hell and its punishment. In the same way, on every Friday, he would definitely say something about the glory of Quran but never explained how its actual teachings can be implemented in our daily lives. He would always say his often-repeated thoughts like this, ‘this is a great book, this book has been sent for the guidance of the whole of humanity, this book will always remain and no one would be able to make any kind alterations in it.’ Listening repeatedly to these sentences, many of the youngsters had also memorized his sentences and they started smiling at each other whenever these words were uttered.
The speech finished and people started assembling in proper lines for the prayers and as usual, I saw the despicable scene when children or small boys were pulled from their collars and pushed back into the back lines. I do agree that they should not stand in front lines but this thing can be done more politely as well so that they should not lose their trust and love to the mosque and prayers but it looks as people are willing to burn down all the feelings of love and respect in their innocent hearts and minds.
The scene of prayers has always been my favorite as one can see the minister and the guard, the poor and the rich and people with varying social and economic statuses stand in the same line, without any discrimination. After the prayers, people meet each other, ask about each other and then invite each other to their homes for lunch or a cup of tea and these scenes assert the great importance of this day.
But this is not the case everywhere and scenario is slowly changing. Now scholars with better knowledge of both religious and worldly teachings are coming forward and their effectiveness has really increased the attachment of people with the mosque and true understanding and practices of religion.
A friend of mine went to a mosque and asked scholar a question about the ability of science to tell in advance about the gender of the child growing in the mother’s womb. To this, the scholar got infuriated and ordered him not to come again to the mosque to ask such stupid questions that arises doubts in the minds and thoughts of believers.
I have also shared this observation with you before as well that a man used to bring so many chocolates in his pocket and distributed them among the children in the mosque and treated them with all the love and kindness so as to increase their attachment with this important place.
A description given by a social expert was both shocking and interesting to many of his readers. He had written that, ‘I dream of a young man who should be a doctor, an engineer, a computer expert and with all these, he should also be the Hafiz-e-Quran with complete understanding of the great meanings found in this book and should act as a perfect example for people as how to excel in the worldly knowledge and also have the true understanding and practical implementation of the Islamic teachings. People think that both of them cannot go together but I am dead sure that they work well when we understand and practice both of them together.’
The biggest fault of ignorance is the development of a habit when you don’t accept your ignorance and don’t give importance to the things that you don’t know. There are some very impressive scholars who really motivate their listeners by supplementing their speeches with scientific facts along with religious teachings and this strategy has been found very effective but it is also a fact that if one is ignorant, he would never accept the importance of science and worldly knowledge and this would make their thoughts very limited.
Mosques have played a very important role in the golden period of Islam when they were not only the places of worship but also the points of social and humanitarian activities. Our present day mosques also have so many good qualities but if we bring some minor changes in the way we use them and our scholars start giving importance to more and more studies, both religious and scientific, these places would again play their vital role in bringing perfection in people and in the society.