Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Big mosques have a trained professional singer for a muezzin. Many tiny
mosques can't afford a real muezzin, so the imam himself does the call to prayer.
The qualitative difference can be obvious. Invariably, my hotel seems to be within
earshot of five or six mosques, which creates quite a cacophony.
My challenge is to hear the Muslim call to prayer as a beautiful form of praise
that sweeps across the globe five times a day—from Malaysia across Pakistan, Ara-
bia, and Turkey to Morocco and then to America—like a stadium wave, undulating
exactly as fast as the earth turns.
Prayer services in a mosque are usually gender-segregated. The act of praying is quite
physical (repeatedly bending over) and—as a practical matter of respect for women, and
less distraction for both sexes—they generally worship apart from the men.
Just as pre-Vatican II Catholicism embraced Latin (for tradition, uniformity, and so
all could relate and worship together anywhere, anytime), Islam embraces Arabic. Turks
Search WWH ::




Custom Search