Islamic Prayer and the Right to the Public Square
Based on Islamic Jurisprudence, when the mosque cannot contain the individuals attending the Jumu’ah prayer – the prayer is allowed to spill over into the street. The town of Basra set the precedence for this practice.
Laws governing prayer are intricately woven together into a suite of laws which few Westerners understand.
As the friend of a Mufti, I was taught that prayers are established when two men are together. One steps forward to lead and the other is to follow the lead.
If reading Qutb, a community of Muslims is established with the number three and Al-Fatiha is to be prayed seventeen times a day.
If following a classical interpretation from the early days of the Islamic Dynasties, a quorum of forty men requires the establishment of a stationary location for the five daily prayers.
In the West, the public square and the sidewalks belong to the pedestrian public, the shop-owners, mothers pushing their babies in a stroller, the hot dog vendor on the streets of Brooklyn, and the news stand owner. We – each individual – own the street.
Allowing a blockade of the public square, a cessation of patterns of micro-commerce, and the public nuisance of being forced to listen to the prayers offered to a god who wants to subjugate Westerner’s to his will – is a bit much for this libertarian soul.
Prayers inside mosques? Yes.
Calls to prayer which ring out into adjacent neighborhoods? No.
Inconvenience and lack of consideration for non-Muslims? Nah. It is lacking in basic civility to set up what is basically an impromptu Islamic base camp on the sidewalks of our cities.
I support public prayer for all faiths for commemorative events only. The establishment of routine religious rites within the public square is a violation of the spirit of what it means to live as free men.
But then again, the word freedom is not mentioned with regard to Islamic governance. Islam requires submission.
AND THEN THERE'S THIS:
4 comments:
Laws governing prayer are intricately woven together into a suite of laws which few Westerners understand.
Including our so-called elected public servants.
Question: What Islamic laws are involved when Muslims are buried on Western soil?
That is a good question.
Islamic laws regarding burial:
Body washed and shrouded. Funeral prayer offered. Not washed if a Shaheed, nor a funeral prayer offered, because his blood gives witness that he is alive and with his Lord (This command, after one of the battles of Muhammad.)
Turned with face toward Makkah.
Burial in a Muslim cemetery, or minimally, not buried adjacent to non-Muslims.
That is the nuts and bolts of it, albeit other aspects come into play that are Sufi/mystical.
Are Islamic burial grouns a WAQF?
Post a Comment