On the way to take my son to school every day and week, we
pass by an Islamic Mosque. We live in
Fremont and it has been with great curiosity the sightings I have encountered
while driving by the mosque. On some
days, typically Friday’s, the court within the mosque is filled to capacity
with the majority-men. If my kids and I
get caught in the red light at the intersection, you can see the uniformed body
posture and reverence that each person in that mosque bestows to their God-Muhammad. All facing towards the same direction, body
after body they face towards the Quiblah in Mecca. Their belief for this religious routine is to
pray or salaat in unity with all Muslims of the world, just as it is written
and followed by Muhammad. I never
realized the significance until recently but now am aware of the women and
children’s absence in this ritual salaat.
Women are separated from the men and are even to abide by cultural
beliefs that if they are allowed in the same room for prayer, women are to pray
in the back of the room so the men will not see them or lay an eye on
them. I recall watching a movie in
Islamic studies and it was mentioned that when women did come together to pray
or even to learn, they would do so by a female instructor and allow only women into
the classroom. Women pretty much are
each other’s support system and backbone to help one another because
unfortunately, the men did not support them in areas of learning, or to seek
higher education, or simply to better themselves. The downfall is that some of these women are
really intellectual women but must live under certain family and cultural
laws. Divorce is rare for the women to
initiate but if they do initiate, then they would have to resist what comes
their way.
Islam and Christianity have some similarities but overall
their differences in belief, Quran and the Bible differ. Islam has a great belief system with their
prophet Muhammad and believes in only one God.
Christians believe Jesus Christ was called to be the chosen one and refer
God as the Trinity. Nonetheless, these both religions come from the Middle East
and call upon a very normal person to be the religious leader.
No comments:
Post a Comment