I'm an Eastern Orthodox Christian, and one of my longtime friends is a devout Muslim. He invited me to come check out friday prayers at his masjid this week. When it comes to places of worship, I grew up attending a Lutheran church, I've been to a synagogue once, a Hindu temple once, and my Orthodox cathedral as an adult, but never an Islamic (masjid? mosque? house of worship?)
I don't know if most people here have much experience with Christian worship, but the first thing I percieved was that Islamic worship is structured in the exact opposite way as an Orthodox liturgy... We have an hour and a half of hymns and song and prayer, and ten minutes of sermonizing. Today, at the masjid, I was surprised to find that the service was almost entirely sermon, touched off by five minutes of prayer. It was funny, actually, my friend and I got there really early, and sat way up close to the mihrab, and then when the prayer started, I had to stumble my way to the back of the room through the crowd of people who were about to pray. I wore my cross outside of my shirt at my friend's suggestion so nobody asked me why I wasn't praying, but I did get a lot of weird looks as I worked my way towards the back of the room.
One thing that really touched my heart was this one kid at the end of the service. As the crowd looked from right to left and stood up, this one kid, maybe ten to twelve years old, walked right up to me, introduced himself, shook my hand, asked me my name, asked me what the thing around my neck was. I explained, my name is X, it's a cross, I'm a Christian, I'm just visiting today, my friend is somewhere up there in the crowd. After he walked away, another man, I assumed his father or uncle or something, came and shook my hand, and said in broken English, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, he is, autistic?" I just kind of laughed awkwardly. I would think autistic children would be the last to approach a stranger. That kid was the only person that noticed me weirdly sitting in the back while everyone else was praying.
My friend and I melded into the throng of people exiting the worship area to go get our shoes, we talked over what I had just witnessed, he explained how during the holiest night of Ramadan, the place was so backed up that people were praying in the hallways. I told him that that sounds exactly like our Pascha service to a T.
As I was putting on my shoes, the same kid from before walked right back up to me. He said he was so happy to see me. He grabbed my hand and pulled me in for a hug, and said, "Sir, I hope I see you here again!" All I can say is that my lil heart melted right then and there.
All I can say is, is that I think Islamic prayer is truely beautiful. I got to see a... divine unison?, when everyone bowed and chanted all at once. I do admire that, and it reminds me of our lenten services at church.
Maybe this is just because I happen to look not out of place at a mosque (i'm olive skinned and dark haired) but I wish more people would've noticed that I was new. When there's new people at my church, everyone can tell, we walk right up to them and introduce ourselves and try to make them feel welcome. I'm a convert to Orthodoxy, the first time I showed up at my church, like 30 people introduced themselves to me, I met all of the priests there, I ended up staying at the church for an hour and a half talking to people. The only person at the mosque who said hi was that one kid. I know, it probably varies from mosque to mosque, but I still. I wanted to meet the imam, but he was way up in front and I was all the way in back, and there was a huge crowd trying to leave.
All in all, I feel extremely privileged to have been invited to such a thing. It was such a beautiful experience to have been invited to take part in. If you are reading this and are Muslim, please, invite your non-Muslim friends to your services. I can guarantee that they are curious. Tell them a time and a place and extend an invitation. You guys have such a beautiful thing that's mostly hidden to westerners. Share it.
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from Islam http://bit.ly/2IrE3WN
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