Posted by Eid mubarak. There’s a mosque about a block away from my flat here in north London so I decided to go there for Eid prayers this morning. It’s a nice place, one big prayer room, expansive and ornately decorated, divided in half down the middle by a semi-opaque white barrier. The kiblah is towards a corner so everyone has to turn diagonally and it kinduv looks like the women folk are side-by-side with the men folk.
Anyway, I went in and sat down and they were doing the normal chanting before prayer starts. Then everyone got up to start prayer and each person placed a small rectangular flat stone in front of him/her. There were a few in a bookshelf type thing so I took one and did the same, thinking oh well maybe this is to mark personal space or something. Then the prayer started and the imam (who was wearing a turban?) did the opening “Allahu akbar”. In our ‘normal’ Eid prayer, they do that like 5-7 of those in a row and between each, most people let their hands drop to the side. This time, they only did one and then started Al-Fatiha and everyone kept their hands down by their sides. d’oh!! Then the mass chanting starting.
After Al-Fatiha, everyone put their hands up to their faces like they were making du’a and they starting singing/chanting some prayer which I know I’d never heard. It was very rhythmic and musical, moreso than most other prayers I’ve heard. The only thing I could tell is that they said Muhammad a lot more than in most prayers I’ve heard. I think they repeated this prayer like 3-5 times or something. Maher was quite confused by this time. And it’s not as if just the imam was leading… everyone was singing/chanting the same thing.
In rukuh and sujud, rather than saying “subhan rabil’azim” or “subhana rabil’Allah” 3x, they said something else… I couldn’t tell what. Then during 2nd standing rakah, they did the same confusing du’a praying/chanting thing again. I swear, each single standing rakah of chanting/singing had to be longer than a full ‘normal’ Eid prayer back home!
The end part (and I knew this was coming!), they didn’t look to the right then left. They said, “Allahu Akbar” with the hands raised 3x. After the opening prayer, during the opening of the khutbah, the Imam went thru a little du’a and everyone stood up and bowed while all reciting something or whatever… no clue about that either.
All in all, it was a very confusing experience; reminds me of the time I went to a Catholic mass with the chanting out loud of prayers/du’a that only a Catholic (or in this case a Shi’a) would know. I didn’t ask anyone outright if it was a Shi’a mosque because well… I didn’t want to insult someone and get a fatwa on my non-accented self.
On my way out, I noticed that there were copies available of a message by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (not Ayatollah Maher) to the Hajj pilgrims. I took a copy; only skimmed it yet but it seems to be the normal message about peace and harmony followed by denouncements of evil Zionists & imperialistic Amrikan infidels… ahh the love engendered by Our Glorious Leader… I carry my blue passport close to my heart. (what? I do! I need it for identification to get into clubs!).
