Ladies and gentlemen, may I present . . .
When I leave Zac's on a Friday after helping prep the lunches it's time for Friday prayers and I am always amazed at the number of people who attend. A few women but mostly men of all ages. They come hurrying from all directions into the mosque, but what stuns me most is the number of young men.
I did some research and it's considered a sin for a sane man to miss Friday prayers. There are a couple of valid excuses but they don't include work. Priority has to be Allah over all else.
True, the commandment Jesus says is most important is "to love the lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind," which is sort of the same thing, but it doesn't have the same effect. People, even Christians, don't flock to church - I don't anyway. But if a Muslim misses Jumu'ah three times he's in serious trouble.
Maybe that's the trouble with Christianity: it's too nice. "It would be good if you came to church but you don't have to." But it's that freedom that is so great about Christianity.
I imagine - I don't know - that many of the young men who turn up regularly on Fridays are like those Sunday driver Christians who just do it. They talk the talk without living the life. *
But imagine if people, especially young men and women, flocked to our churches because they wanted to, because they wanted to make a difference in the world. If God's love impacted them and they couldn't help but love in response. What a new world that would be.
*I try to live the life but am aware how often I fail.
P.S. The traffic wardens would have a field day if they visited the roads around the mosque on Friday lunchtimes. They could get their ticket tally up to requirements in half an hour.
5 comments:
Middle Son used to live across the street from a mosque and I was also amazed at the number of people who would show up for Friday prayers. There was no on-street parking available for blocks.
Enforced religious observance is no guarantee of piety, only that someone, somewhere, is running the show with an iron fist. That goes for any religion, including the "good old days" of Christianity.
The come if you want to doesn't apply to the Catholic church, where Sunday mass is a solemn obligation, mortal sin to miss it, except for illness. You die unshriven of the sin and it's hell for eternity.
Not much choice there. No question of wanting to,either. Sadly it is about threats. Not very Jesus-like as I understand it.
I suspect Moslem mosque attendance is also driven by group solidarity of a minority in a "foreign" country. Even born there, not accepted.
Some of the street insults to Moslems I've noted are very similar to the insults shouted at Catholics, seen as not welcomed in an officially protestant country. The fact our families often predated the Reformation didn't seem to count.
I wonder if Moslems have become the new Catholics, the despised minority religion.
I agree, Debra.
I didn't realise the Catholic church was still like that, Boud. Yes, you may be right about the group solidarity too. And about the despised minority.
Just a matter of opinion, but I don't think the number of times you attend church makes you more or less worthy. I grew up catholic and we never missed a Sunday mass or any other holy day of obligation. Now I can't remember the last time I was in a church. I have strong beliefs but mandatory church attendance isn't one of them.
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