Day 5

Our final day of touring various temples/churches was an exciting day. We visited an Islamic worship service. When the tour was originally set up, I thought we would be visiting an Islamic Mosque to observe their time of worship (Friday is their big Church day). As we traveled to our location, we had trouble finding the place. This congregation held their services on the top floor of a medical center. There was not a sign for the place of worship -- only the address we were originally given.

I went into the medical center and told them we were looking for the Islamic Center and the lady at the front desk asked, "Do you have an appointment?" I was a bit taken back...then said yes. She called to a back office and two men came to escort us to the worship service. (What an adventure!)

As we arrived at the worship area, we were asked to remove our shoes. The ladies were asked to cover their heads and then we were shown to a table were we learned about the Islamic faith. We had a short introduction with our leader, Naji, and then he was called to prayer service.

The Friday prayer service is similar to a Sunday worship service in Christian churches. There was a call to start the service/prayer, a message given by a minister, a time of prayer, and then a pot luck dinner was served. (They invited us to eat! It was wonderful homemade foods -- with many of the dishes being Pakistan dishes.)

They did not have any musical instruments or any time of singing. The portion of the service that would be similar to music was the chanting sound of their corporate prayers. The minister gave a message about the Prophet Jesus (yes, they believe in Jesus -- just not as the Messiah). The minister shared how Prophet Jesus was nice to his mother and thus we should be nice to our mothers also.

During the worship time, the preacher stood at the front of the room. The men sat on the floor around him and the ladies sat on the floor toward the back of the room (near where we were sitting). At the end of the prayer time, the minister began to kneel on a prayer rug facing Mecca. All of the men lined up in single rows behind him to kneel and pray (they did not have prayer rugs). The ladies lined up in straight lines behind the men to do the same.

This was such a learning experience. Naji shared with us that their are about 7 or 8 Islamic congregations in Fort Worth now. This was a smaller congregation (about 50+ people). For me, this was a day at church that I will not forget. I have added a picture of our group with Naji and Dr. Anees. Sorry it didn't come out great. :(