Adrian_Barber
Mosque
Elyas, "The Mosque is a place for prayer, it's a cultural centre, it's a place for a congregation, it's a place where people get together, it's also a community centre these days... the main mosques these days are more of a cultural centre, they hold events where people from different cultures come in, they learn about different aspects of the mosque, they learn about Ramadan and Eid etc, and the other smaller mosques have a lot of community events going on. The children go there and learn about the Koran and the ladies have a section which they use, they also have events... so the mosque is for everybody in general. You'll find in the bigger mosques that they'll have the coffins and they'll do the funeral stuff as well, in our religion it is all done in the mosque... the funeral prayers are done in the mosque. People will also come from different mosques and visit the other mosques to basically 'exchange' ideas and to teach other more about the religion, but it's also an opportunity to go to another area and make new friends and to propigate Islam."
"At the moment it's Ramadan which is the month when the holy Kuran was revealed, the thirty chapters were revealed in the holy month of Ramadan, that's why it is the holiest month in our religion, in that month people 'fast' from sunrise to sunset (the whole family do that), so people will have a meal in the morning, it's a special meal that the prophet took, shorty after that there is morning prayer and then we fast until after evening prayer. Right now this is quite a long day, after about eight O'clock'ish people will break their fast, there will be a call to prayer for Maghrib so people know what time it is, they will go to the mosque and what you'll find is most people will break their fast with dates and holy water from the Ka'ba (which is called Zamzam). Ramadan is a special month for everybody, a lot of people go to Makkah (Mecca) and perform their Ramadan over there. By fasting you show empathy to poor people and it's a time will give a lot of money to charity. Towards the end of the Ramadan we celebrate Eid for three days people will take a holiday from holiday, visit their past ones at the cemetery, they'll do prayers, they'll eat a lot of food, they'll go out and they got visit their family friends, people buy gifts and new clothes and that type of thing, so it's a family thing and people get together."
Mosque
Elyas, "The Mosque is a place for prayer, it's a cultural centre, it's a place for a congregation, it's a place where people get together, it's also a community centre these days... the main mosques these days are more of a cultural centre, they hold events where people from different cultures come in, they learn about different aspects of the mosque, they learn about Ramadan and Eid etc, and the other smaller mosques have a lot of community events going on. The children go there and learn about the Koran and the ladies have a section which they use, they also have events... so the mosque is for everybody in general. You'll find in the bigger mosques that they'll have the coffins and they'll do the funeral stuff as well, in our religion it is all done in the mosque... the funeral prayers are done in the mosque. People will also come from different mosques and visit the other mosques to basically 'exchange' ideas and to teach other more about the religion, but it's also an opportunity to go to another area and make new friends and to propigate Islam."
"At the moment it's Ramadan which is the month when the holy Kuran was revealed, the thirty chapters were revealed in the holy month of Ramadan, that's why it is the holiest month in our religion, in that month people 'fast' from sunrise to sunset (the whole family do that), so people will have a meal in the morning, it's a special meal that the prophet took, shorty after that there is morning prayer and then we fast until after evening prayer. Right now this is quite a long day, after about eight O'clock'ish people will break their fast, there will be a call to prayer for Maghrib so people know what time it is, they will go to the mosque and what you'll find is most people will break their fast with dates and holy water from the Ka'ba (which is called Zamzam). Ramadan is a special month for everybody, a lot of people go to Makkah (Mecca) and perform their Ramadan over there. By fasting you show empathy to poor people and it's a time will give a lot of money to charity. Towards the end of the Ramadan we celebrate Eid for three days people will take a holiday from holiday, visit their past ones at the cemetery, they'll do prayers, they'll eat a lot of food, they'll go out and they got visit their family friends, people buy gifts and new clothes and that type of thing, so it's a family thing and people get together."