My Visit To The Mosque

I made a visit to the Islamic Center of New Orleans on 1911 St. Claude Avenue at about 1:30 in the afternoon on a Friday. I went with a man called Hilmi Hamid. Hilmi was my manager when I worked at Mona's Middle Eastern Restaurant. I went to visit him and asked if I could come with him to the mosque the next time he went, and he was very welcoming and very enthusiastic about it. He told me how it is a very simple place, but that he loved it because he had the opportunity to praise God in the United States. He is a Palestinian from Jerusalem, and he moved to the United States about eight years ago. He said that the only concern he had when moving here was that he wouldn't be able to find a mosque to go to. However, he said that he was very glad to find that there is not only one mosque in the city, but many of them. Not only that, he was surprised to see that there are many Arab Muslims in the New Orleans metro area also. He knew there were a lot of Arab emigrants to the United States, but he thought most of them were in major cities like New York, Houston or Chicago.

When we finally made it to the mosque, I was surprised. I was expecting a standard type of a mosque with a minaret, because that's the only kind I could picture, but instead it was this old YMCA type looking structure from the outside. Downstairs was this international food store, and upstairs was the actual mosque. It is very easy to get lost if you don't know where the mosque is. Luckily I was with Hilmi, and he knew where he was going. The front of the mosque has a white sign that says "Islamic Center" with green letters. The door to get into the mosque is on the side and it could be easily missed also. Once you are into the door, a steep set of stairs meets you. The mosque is up the stairs.

Right after the stairs is the cleaning area. Hilmi took off his shoes, and I followed suit. Then Hilmi started washing his face, hands and feet, and asked me if I wanted to do the same, so I said I did. After we got clean we went into the prayer room. There were already about 15 people in there praying, and one man was chanting quietly for people to come to prayer. Eventually, many more people of every race and age showed up and in a span of ten minutes the prayer room was filled with men. The Mufti, Mr. Mogammel Houssain, started preaching in Arabic. I was concerned because I had no idea what he was saying, so I wouldn't have much material for my paper to write about. However, I knew Hilmi would try to explain as much of it as he could, because his English was not too good. However, the Mufti started translating everything he said into English, so I didn't have to ask Hilmi about it later.

The Mufti was speaking about redemption. He was stating that God is most gracious and that if a person asks for redemption he will receive it. However he said that if a man asks for redemption, not from his heart, but because he knows he is about to die, that God can see inside the mans heart and that he will not be forgiven for his sins. He also stated that a man must ask for forgiveness of his sins committed during the day by the time the sun sets in the West and must ask for the forgiveness of sins committed during the night by the sun rise in the East. This was the end of the "sermon".

The Mufti then called everyone to prayer. Everyone in the room lined up in rows, and the Mufti started praying out loud facing the shrine in the mosque, which was in the direction of Mecca. Everyone moved in bowed and stood up in unison. Hilmi invited me to pray with them, but I told him I would be very uncomfortable doing that and I would feel like I was disrespecting everyone in there, so I just sat in the back and observed. The prayer session lasted for about 15 minutes. And then people started getting up and leaving. However, some people stayed and prayed some more. Hilmi was one of them. I sat in the back of the mosque, and the Mufti, Mr. Houssain, came over and welcomed me to the mosque and was wondering if I was going to join the mosque. I told him I had to visit a mosque for an assignment and he thanked me for being interested in finding out about their religion, especially at these times as there is a lot of unrest in the Middle East and a bad taste in peoples mind when people talk about Arabs and Islam. We shook hands and he went to talk to other people.

By this time Hilmi was done so we put our shoes back, and at that time I noticed a room which said "Sisters beyond this point". It was the room for women. I noticed that there were no women in the main room, and was wondering during the prayer service why there were no women there. It all made sense when I noticed that room.

Perhaps the most impressive thing I found at the mosque was the politeness and warmth of the people. When Hilmi and I went outside, he was talking to several people he knew, and about five people came up to me at one point and welcomed me to their mosque and thanked me for being interested in their religion and invited me to come more often.

When Hilmi was driving back he was talking about the sermon, and how the Mufti was not too good in English, but in Arabic he delivers a powerful speech, and that some of the translation was not exactly what he said in Arabic. He also said that there is another man that is very good in English and gives most of his sermons in English, so he invited me to see him one day. I told Hilmi I would be glad to go with him another time. However, the only disappointment I had on the visit was that I could not take pictures of the mosque. Overall, it was a very valuable experience and I was glad to have gone to the mosque.

(c) Cedomil Slokar, 2003