Service at Nur-Allah 10/13/19

This weeks’ service at Nur-Allah was very educational, and introduced me to basically my first education about the Islamic faith. Last week, we assisted in actually teaching the class. But, this week there was a teacher there that attends the Mosque and also helps out with the weekend school. We started the class with an opening prayer, which is a large point of emphasis this year for the weekend service. Sister Carol wants to make sure that each child has at least two opportunities to prayer while at weekend school, because in one of the pillars of Islam is praying five times a day, and if the children can pray at least twice at the school, they are much more likely to pray on their own to reach prayer five times a day. After opening prayer, the teacher began talking about “principles”, instead of helping with the class, Anna and I were actually students and were being asked questions about our faith and what we know about Islam to contribute to class discussion. After talking about the principles of Islam, we talked about the five pillars of Islam. The five pillars of Islam are Pilgrammage, fasting, prayer, charity, and declaring faith. We also learned what the corresponding words were in Arabic. We focused on Hajj- which is pilgrammege and what it means to the faith. She also emphasized that pilgrammege can include anyone, no matter what faith, race, or class. After learning the pillars we then read the Qur’an. We read the first two passages, or in Arabic they are called A Surah. We studied what every single sentence meant in the opening prayer, and first part of the second Surah to see what they mean to the Islamic faith and what they mean outside of faith and how it applies to every faith. We then helped prepare a meal.
Today was such an eye-opening day. I knew little about the Islamic faith, but really delving into some of the passages of the Qur’an and learning about the faith and pillars and how they apply to everyone in everyday life was very educational. I am very excited to continue learning about the Islamic faith both in class and through service at Nur-Allah.