Intercultural Field Experience & Research Paper Submit Assignment

Intercultural Field Experience
Name
Institutional Affiliation
 
A Mosque Service
Introduction
A mosque is a place of worship for Muslims. It’s a special place where the Muslims go to communicate to their God and also it’s a place where a number of cultural activities are conducted. These include: a place of prayer, funerals, special ceremonies, sacrifices, business agreement, alms collection as well as a home for the homeless. Muslims believe that worshipping together has more value than alone. It’s considered a sacred place and it calls for a lot of respect and order. A mosque is structurally constructed in a unique way depending on the place it is located but general; it’s made in a less corporate way. Under this research we are going to go deep into the dos and don’ts in the Muslim culture through the mosque service that I attended.
SECTION A
Through the interaction I had, I had a number of questions that I wanted to answer and these include: who do the Muslims worship, how do they worship, who leads their services, their eating culture and also about their ethics in and out of the mosque. Muslims have basic principles that they abide by showing their commitment to their God called Allah. Allah is an Arabic word for God. By following these commandments, it confirms your closeness to Allah and your good relationship with him.
Muslims believe and worship one Supreme Being who they call Allah.to them, He is the most dominant being, the ruler of the universe; he also created the universe for six days and then sent prophets to the world to proclaim his name. These prophets included: Abraham, Noah, Moses, David, Jesus and also Muhammad. The prophet’s duty was to rally the worship of Allah only so as to stop and curb polytheism and idolatry. The Muslims attribute Allah to a number of names and characters which are; The lord of the worlds, almighty and all-seer, the master of the day of judgment, a human constructor and also a God of the Quran. The Quran as a holy book gives the Muslim the guidelines and framework on how to worship. Worships were one of the major indicators of devotion to their faith. It’s carried out in a number of ways which include:
Daily prayers (Salah): This is one of the major ways of worshipping Allah and the reason to why the Muslims do pray is, it’s written in the Quran that: “And I did not create the jinn and mankind except to worship me.” (Quran, 51:56).
Zakat (charity): This is another way of worshipping Allah; the Muslims believe that those that give are more blessed than those that receive. By this, they strongly advocated for helping the needy and those who were disadvantaged in the society, giving out clothes, constructing for them better houses, providing food for them, accommodating them in their homes, visiting the sick and praying with them are among the many activities they engaged in. through these, they had a strong conviction that Allah was pleased.
Fasting: This is a period of time whereby the worshippers go without food for a given period of time to devote, pray and communicate to their God. The Muslims call it Ramadan and this is a period whereby they have reflection on their spiritual life and growth, self-improvement and a real and serious commitment to worshiping. They conduct community prayers in this given time. During this period, they are exposed to: fasting (going without food), alms giving also known as offering sacrifices in my religion (Christianity), reading the Quran and also abstaining from all the bad habits and actions and also staying humble.
Hajj (pilgrimage) this is done on the eighth to twelfth day of the last month of the Islamic calendar. This is done by travelling to the beautiful city of mecca by and adult Muslim at least once in their lifetime. This place is believed to have the House of Allah. For one to visit the place (one has to be in a state of being physically and financially fit to sustain his family when he will be away. It’s an act of solidarity of the Muslim people and a sign of submission to Allah.
The Muslims read a book referred to as a Quran which stipulates how they should live, how they should behave, their dressing, foods and eating among others.
An imam is a person chosen by the Muslims to lead them in their spiritual way, he has to be the wisest, knowledgeable, has good mastery of the Quran and also be resistant to every kind of sin, mistakes and errors. The imams act as protectors of the religion, they are role models by being clean and having been free from all sins, they exposit the Quran and the religious law and finally they spread Islam and expand it in relation to its social and through influence to the areas government. Muslims can go to the mosque for prayers in any day of the week but they usually have Friday prayers which are mandatory for every believer in their religion. Salah is led by an imam on this day from the Quran.
SECTION B
Before worshipping Allah, there were a number of rituals that were performed and which are usually performed and they happened to be very different from what happens in my religion. These rituals include: Sunni. Washing of the hands, mouth, nose, face, arms, forehead and hair, ears and feet three times in that order. Shi’ah. This is washing of the face first, then the arms and using the moisture to wipe the head and feet. And lastly, If they lacked water enough to carry out these rituals, they used sand. This was symbolic to fulfill the fact that cleanliness is second to Godliness and therefore they had to practice that as it is clear in the Quran.
Before entering the mosque, we had to remove our shoes and sit on the floor facing the prayer wall which angles them to the direction of Mecca where we have the House of Allah.
The worshippers also carry out a number of activities that are the orders of their worship. We were together involved in recitations from the Quran and a sequence of bodily movements like bowing with our foreheads, hands, k...