Visiting the Islamic Center of America - Essay Example

The mosque was built in 2005 by the great and famous architect Allan Abbas and Luna Construction (Khalidi, 2012). The mosque has several striking features that draw religious feelings to visitors like me. The most striking feature of this mosque is that it has a tall tower known as the Minaret. In between the Minaret are four loudspeakers, which I learned are used to summon the members of the Mosque to prayers. Merely seeing the Minarets and the loudspeakers in between certainly brings the religious feeling of Muslim territory. In addition, the mosque has a beautiful dome-shaped roof protruding slightly above the building. Therefore, by looking at the dome, one can easily point out that it is a religious place. In fact, the dome is written in a verse taken from the Quran, which brings the feeling that it is indeed a religious place. In addition, the architect employed several Islamic artifacts on the building including decorations, as well as Islamic symbols such as those of Prophet Muhammad, which makes it easy for a visitor to point out that the Mosque is indeed a religious place (Khalidi, 2012). In this regard, I can attest that architects Paul Bertin and David Donnellon designed the mosque in a manner that makes it look like a religious place of worship.

Upon entering the worship service, I realized that the way the Catholics conduct their services is quite different from that of Muslims. Firstly, not all members of the congregation are allowed to enter the mosque with shoes or any other footwear apart from the disabled. As a result, every member of the congregation is required to remove the footwear followed by washing the feet and hands before proceeding to the mosque. This is done because Islam believes that the Mosque is a clean and holy place. Surprisingly, most have no chairs where people can sit. Instead, everyone in the church, except the elderly and the disabled sit on a large carpet laid on the floor. It was also interesting to note that women are not supposed to mix with their male counterparts in one room as Catholics and Christians do. Instead, women have a different room within the Mosque where they gather for prayers. However, the prayers in both rooms are guided by a single Imam or Sheik in the men’s room. This implies that women follow the prayers electronically on speakers provided in their room.

Once the congregants have gathered in the Muslim, an Imam or Sheik guides the prayers from the pulpit. Here the Quran, which is the Islamic holy book, is read to the Congregants. This is followed by lengthy preaching based on the verse read in the Quran. In between the prayers, the Imam or Sheik guides the congregants through the recitation of the Muslim prayer known as Salat (Khalidi, 2012). As the Muslims, recite this prayer, every member is required to bow down on their knees humbly. This is followed by going down and kissing the floor a number of times during prayers.

Once the prayers are done, the members of the congregation are required to give money, just like the Christians do in the Church. Each member is required to contribute according to what God has blessed him or her. Being the day of tithing, I realized that Muslims are required to give a minimum tithe of 2.5%, as opposed to the 10% minimum requirement for Christians. Muslim call this tithing ‘Zakat’ and is given every month.

Overall, the nature of the service was positive. In fact, I realized that there is not very much difference between Christianity and Islam. After all, all both Christians and Muslims believe in the existence of one God. The most significant difference I noted is that, whereas Christians believe in the existence of Jesus Christ, Muslims believe in the existence of Prophet Muhammad. My conversation with one of the members of the congregation mainly focused on the significance of the artifacts in the Mosque, which I knew nothing about. However, overall, the worship experience was positive and was indeed an eye-opener.