Muslim Association invites students to the Mosque learn about religion and culture

Rasa - The Muslim Student Association of Marshall University opened the doors to its mosque Tuesday and invited others to experience its religion and way of life. Members explained what the basics of Islam were, answered questions and preformed a prayer for visitors.

News ID: 1404

Date: 16 October 2014 - 01:37

RNA - According to Marshal University's official newspaper, event organizer Suzann Al-Qawasmi said the main purpose of this even is to clear up misconceptions about the Islamic religion.

“I feel like people take a lot from it because they can learn something they didn’t know, or they’ll see something and realize that their religion isn’t that much different than mine,” Al-Qawasmi said.

The event stated with an informal question and answer session. Members invited guests to ask any question they had about Islam. Adee Elhamdani and Malak Khader led the discussion and explained the five pillars of their religion: declaration of faith, five daily prayers, giving charity, fasting during the month of Ramadan and the pilgrimage to Mecca.

Before the prayer was performed, the members demonstrated how to wash before prayer and the importance of every step. Many parts of the body are washed three times before moving onto the next and the right side is always first. Khader said this is because that is how the prophets washed before prayer.

“We try to copy the prophet as best we can, he is the best Muslim, so we try to follow him as best we can,” Khader said.

prayer was preformed upstairs in the prayer room. Elhamdani explained the five mandatory prayers: sunrise prayer, noon prayer, after noon prayer, sunset prayer and night prayer. He them preformed the call to prayer and the afternoon prayer with three other MAMU members.

Marshall student Josef Johnson was in attendance at the open mosque. Johnson said she attended because of her curiosity about all religions.

“I’m honestly just very curious about religion in general,” Johnson said. “I wanted to see what this was about, why it was different from Christianity and why they chose to be Islamic.”

Khader said her reason for choosing the Muslim religion is because the Quran has never been changed and she believes that gives her something to trust.

“The one thing that absolutely convinces me, why I’ve chosen this religion to guide me, I always go back to the fact that the Quran is the only book that has not been changed,” Khader said. “It hasn’t been altered. It hasn’t been touched. And for me, that’s kind of a confirmation.”

Johnson said finding out the book has never been changed was an interesting fact she did not know before.

“Things get lost in translation, and this is something that seems very pure to me,” Johnson said. “It’s good to learn different things. I like the fact that you could just come in and learn more.”

The Muslim Student Association of Marshall hosts the Open Mosque once a semester and invites anyone to come in and learn more.

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