Role of Masjids in a community?

[helpinghumanity]

Assalamo alaikum wa rahmatullah

I hope all of you are in the best of health and eeman.

What is the role of a Masjid in a community? Is its role limited to only "providing a space for performing prayers" OR Is the role of a Masjid far greater than that? How are the ideas of social or communal development linked with Masajids?

What are various programs or events that your masjid conducts? Can Masajids conduct various sport events? Are these events equally distributed to both gender? Does your masjid have programs for elderly brother and sister, teenagers and pre-teenagers?

And if so what is YOUR role in helping the community via a platform provided by the masjid?

Jazakumullah khairun ..wa-alaikumus salam

 

[Aapa]

Assalaam walaikum,


Excellent thread.

We are in need of making the masjid the center of our communities. Although, the masjid I attend has some programs they are weak. I believe it is because we have revolving imans. I still have not figured that one out.
We have limited programs. Some of the issues are languages. When a program is offered in Urdu, those who do not speak Urdu are left out.

The largest obstacle I see is the congregation themselves. If 24,000 people can attend Eid prayers..where are the 23,000 on jumma? I am part of a group of women who try to organize community events..and we get tired of looking at each other.

This thread may help us to generate ideas.

 

[Hard Rock Moslem]

Many years ago, I was not yet a muslim at that time and was a small boy. I'm not even allowed stand at the masjid gate, someone will chase me away let alone going inside. Alhamdulillah, today non Muslim are allowed to visit and some masjid provides da'ee as "tour guide". The issue is, masjid should also be kids friendly and turn a community centre. I'm working with my local masjid.. now most of our masjid here are headed by young and old so there are new ideas. It being transform from a salat centric to a community centre.. but this will take time longer than expected as some old folks are adamant to change. I aim to turn our masjid into a "mini Islamic information centre" for both muslim and non muslim.. inshAllah.

 

[um muhammad al-mahdi]

:salam2:

the masjid should be the place, especially if not in a Muslim country, where you feel at home, among your family. So this include praying, celebrating, studying and so on... all this done as a real family. Sisters helping sisters and brother helping brothers, families helping families. I never knew what it meant until finally (alhamdulillah) they opened our local masjid (even if there are other 2 around my house mashaALlah) in south London, mashaAllah tabarakaAllah!

 

[PeArLL]

Develop a strong community by organizing various programs including salat ...

 

[kalamazoo]

Assalaam walaikum,


Excellent thread.

We are in need of making the masjid the center of our communities. Although, the masjid I attend has some programs they are weak. I believe it is because we have revolving imans. I still have not figured that one out.
We have limited programs. Some of the issues are languages. When a program is offered in Urdu, those who do not speak Urdu are left out.

The largest obstacle I see is the congregation themselves. If 24,000 people can attend Eid prayers..where are the 23,000 on jumma? I am part of a group of women who try to organize community events..and we get tired of looking at each other.

This thread may help us to generate ideas.

asalaam aleykum

..to generate ideas .. of course you are Right.
But .....to my thinking this cant be discussed by internet unless we meet face to face and discuss..those Ideas as you stated to to be generated

thank you sister.

 

[Just a Guy]

:salam2:

I agree that the masjid should be the focal point of the community. The local masjid I attend does offer the occasional community outreach program to non-Muslims as well as having events for the ummah.

Once I get everything sorted out with my house, I intend on making more appearances at the masjid myself and become more involved in the community. For the moment, I have to remain on the fringe for several reasons, but once I regain my independence, I intend to make up for lost time.

 

[ilyas_eh]

Masaajid should be the backbone of the community. In a non-muslim country, their role is very crucial. In my opinion, a masjid shouldn't stop with just providing space for salaah. Rather it should work like an organisation. Like, having various teams ensuring all aspects that are relevant to the community are touched. This way it gives a necessary connection between the community members and is actually quite fun to work in small teams.

What i'm talking about is having community members forming a circle of their own, like one circle should ensure there are different classes available for the people, inviting shiekhs to the community, other one collecting funds and distributing them to the poor by properly identifying them, other one to encourage youth and children to come to masjid by organizing small programs and other that work as a databank having an idea how the community members are in general, like how their economical condition, educational levels are and where do they need help etc. If the masjid is organized people will start showing interest in community works. Through the years we will end up with having more members coming to salaat and other programs...

I know i'm daydreaming. But I just think that it would be nice to have a masjid like that.

 

[Aapa]

Assalaam walaikum,

No, you are not daydreaming. You are generating ideas.

 

[MuslimShadow]

:salam2:

Masjid should be the backbone of Muslim community but i somehow feel that some of them are divorced from reality.

 

[strive-may-i]

I know i'm daydreaming. But I just think that it would be nice to have a masjid like that.

Walaikum Ssalaam wa rahmathullaahi wabarakaathu hu,
Okay for those who still mould their life around deen, Masjid still plays a critical role in community... I can see that in Villages, Towns and Cities.

Thats the good news for you. You are not daydreaming.

Masjid should be the backbone of Muslim community but i somehow feel that some of them are divorced from reality

Spot on. You rock!!!

May Allah guide us enough, so that we are not lost in here... Ameen!

 

[helpinghumanity]

I know i'm daydreaming. But I just think that it would be nice to have a masjid like that.

Brother you are not day dreaming. These ideas have been already implemented by numerous masajid (strictly speaking of New York) and alhamodillah they have been proven successful. So keep these ideas coming and if possible include minute details as well. Probably someone may like any idea and would start implementing in his/her nearby masjid.

 

[helpinghumanity]

Assalaam walaikum,
We have limited programs. Some of the issues are languages. When a program is offered in Urdu, those who do not speak Urdu are left out.

Wa-alaikumus salam wa rahmatullah,

One of the masjid that I go to (not regularly because its far..like 10 min drive) sometimes have lectures that are in a language other than English. This is their approach for solving the linguistic barrier. The main speaker speaks for like 5-10 minutes and then the translator translates it for the next 5-10 minutes and this process goes on till the end.

I guess you can adapt the same turn-wise approach if practical in your area.

The largest obstacle I see is the congregation themselves. If 24,000 people can attend Eid prayers..where are the 23,000 on jumma?

One area that you may need to work on is the advertisement of the program/event. Did you ever considered using social medias for that purpose? for example Facebook, Google group, emailing list or event fliers etc. It can definitely change the turnover.

I am part of a group of women who try to organize community events..and we get tired of looking at each other.

Oh mashallah thats great. Now we can talk lol...

What kinds of events have you organized so far? Were they only for a certain age-group or gender? How did you planned and what was your approach in implementing that plan?

 

[helpinghumanity]

The issue is, masjid should also be kids friendly and turn a community centre.

What are different approaches that we can adapt to invite the youth to Masjids? Not only that how can we get the youth to participate or get involved in masajid activities?