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We were talking about making the mosques
attractive places for adults and children instead of scaring
them away. It was also under discussion that before passing any
order to new generation you must be careful.
Before we can make our mosques attractive
for the people, we must look at the utility of a mosque. Our
mosques are supposed to be not only the places or worship but
community centers also. We should be taught knowledge, ethics
and magnanimity in the mosques. Just to sanctities these
mosques and not use these for other purposes of education, will
be self-inflicting for us, our coming generations and Islam.
In Islam nothing belongs to us personally
and is entrusted to us by Allah. We are the trusties only.As
trusties we have to fulfill our responsibility in this regard
towards our property, our family and our own lives. If we
neglect our responsibilities in this regard then we will be
answerable on the Day of Judgment. A major difference between
Islam and other faiths is that Islam emphasizes community while
others emphasize individuals. Islam is a complete way of life;
teaching us organization, punctuality, ethics and invitation to
others to join this faith. With out organized centers such
things will be difficult to achieve.
When we look at our prophet’s (pbuh) life
and his mosque in Medina, we can visualize how we can make the
mosques attractive places for all too. We see that he (pbuh)
was completely benevolent, he was kind to the children and they
were fond of him (pbuh). If he met a child in the street then
he (pbuh) was the one to say salam to them first and he (pbuh)
played with them. He (pbuh) considered all of them his children
and children considered him (pbuh) as their companion and played
with him (pbuh). This playing with children was not waste of
time as he (pbuh) was teaching them in this way. The children
came to the mosque un-afraid and did not avoid him (pbuh). Once
Hazrat Hussain,(RA) his (pbuh) grandson, got on to his (pbuh)
shoulders when he (pbuh) was bowed in the prayer and the prophet
(pbuh) lingered his bowing until his grandson dismounted. By
our standards of behavior he (pbuh) should have scolded his
grandson or should have slapped him. He (pbuh) was exercising
the respect for human rights over Allah’s rights. We should
learn a lesson from this. Allah made the prophet (pbuh) as an
example for us so that we take guidance from his (pbuh) ways.
Let us learn from another example. Once the prophet (pbuh) was
offering prayers in his home, in the meanwhile his wife Aisha
(RA) came home and knocked at the door. The prophet (pbuh)came
to the door during the prayer opened it and then went back to
his (pbuh) prayers. Herein lies a lesson for respecting a
woman, a wife and a human being. He (pbuh ) could have let her
wait at the door until he (pbuh) had finished his prayers but by
doing this he (pbuh) would have breached the respect for a
woman, a wife and would have disregarded human rights. There is
nothing written in Quran about not letting the women in a
mosque, neither is it evident from prophet’s (PUBH) life. In
his (pbuh) time women would come to the mosque for prayers,
would form a line in the back to pray and used to linger on if
they had a question to ask him (pbuh) and the answer was spread
to others for education. Some people try to hide behind the
argument that Aisha (RA) said that, “prophet (pbuh ) would have
stopped the women entering the mosque if he (pbuh) had noticed
them coming for the prayers all made up”. However this does not
mean that their coming to the mosque was stopped, it was just a
taunt to them by Aisha (RA). Those women are not respect mosque
Let us now see what shape we can give to
mosques. First of all we should request to the management of
the mosques that why not allow women to come to mosque? Then we
should make sure that in the mosques special consideration
should be given to facilities for women and children. We should
make arrangements that the children get attracted to the
mosques. We should learn to not scold the children coming to
the mosque and should arrange for playrooms for the small
children and have toys there. May be we should also arrange for
baby sitters during the prayer times and some of the women could
take this responsibility as volunteers. For the bigger children
there should be an adjacent multipurpose hall which could also
be used for the community gatherings for rent or youth could use
it. |
