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CHAPTER 24: Mosque and Clergy
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202 CHAPTER 24 Mosque and Clergy The Mosque As noted above, any clean prayer space where Muslims prostrate themselves as part of the worship ritual is a mosque, a “place of prostration.” It should be empty of paintings, pictures, and images, but it need not be dedicated only to the act of Muslim prayer. The Friday mosque (jāmi`) is a multipurpose communal building as well as prayer space. Important community announcements are made there, particularly during the Friday prayer when more people gather together for prayer than at any other time during the week. Crowds will gather at the Friday mosque on any day during times of crisis. The Friday sermon will often treat contemporary issues, including political as well as religious and social issues, but this has always been complicated by the close but not always amicable relationship between governments and religious leadership in the Muslim world. In some times and places, the Friday sermons are expected to toe the line, while in others they are forums for raising issues of concern even if they might challenge governmental policies or structures. Friday mosques may also serve as educational centers. Famous religious scholars are sometimes associated with great mosques, and many mosques also include additional buildings for Qur’an studies, recitations, and the study of religious tradition and Sharī`a. They are not only centers for study, but also refuges for students who wish to take their schoolwork to a quiet place. In busy urban areas, the mosque is a tranquil and calm place where 203 C H A P T E R T W E N T Y - F O U R one may get away from the crowds and noise to find a spot to meditate, rest, or even lie down and take a nap. This applies mostly to men, as the mosque remains a bastion of male camaraderie. Men may plan to meet at the mosque and socialize or even find a quiet corner in which to eat. In the Muslim world, the closest shops or stalls sell candles, prayer beads, incense and perfumes, and, of course, Qur’ans and other religious books. When large numbers of travelers descend upon a town or city, it has been a normal procedure for those without accommodation to sleep in the mosque. In the Muslim world, mosques are usually built and maintained by individual benefactors, trusts set up by families, or government. In the West, individual benefactors or family trusts continue to build mosques for public use, but governmental support is not an option in most Western nations. Some Muslim benefactors from the Arab world have given large sums to support the growing Muslim communities in the West, but this support has often included significant influence in religious practice and expectations, accomplished frequently by procuring imams supported by outside benefactors with particular religious perspectives to serve those communities. Different models are now being explored by Muslim communities in the West in order to sustain the large costs necessary to build or purchase and then maintain a mosque, and one of them is the congregational model that has become standard for other religious communities in the United States. It is quite likely that the style and expectation for governance in such communities will change along with the changes and development in their modes of financial support. Clergy As mentioned earlier, worship services need not be led by clergy and there developed no official rank of clergy in Islam. There are no rites that are restricted to a priestly class and no official document that permits a person to lead prayer. To this day, any pious male individual who is respected in the community and knows the prayers is entitled to lead a community in prayer. Females may lead an entirely female community. The person who delivers the Friday sermon is often a scholar, but may even be a government official who is assigned to preach in the mosque. In the United States, different traditions mix. In some places, a resident imam who functions much like a congregational minister or rabbi in American Christian or Jewish congregations might deliver the Friday sermon, or the honor might be given to various qualified people at various occasions. Muslim scholars traditionally proved themselves by their knowledge and their piety. Traditionally, a scholar might give a sign of approval to a student , which communicated that the student had learned all the traditional 204 A N I N T R O D U C T I...