After Fajr prayers at Masjid Al Salaam, a brother approached me and asked if I needed a drive anywhere. We struck up a conversation and turns out he’s originally from Montreal and has been in Greater Vancouver for past two years.
We join a friend of his in the underground parking lot beneath the masjid and they learn about 30 Masjids. They are very inquisitive and fascinated with 30 Masjids in 30 Days as a Concept, they keep asking me all sort of questions.
Sometimes, I find myself being “pitched” a new masjid or a new prayer space, musallah, to visit for this blog. That happened this morning.
The first brother was selling me on Tiba Musalla, they would be finishing the Qur’an Recitation, tonight, their Khatm Al-Qur’an.
They tell me the space is big enough for fifty. Regularly thirty show up for prayers. Tonight though, would be the big night. Perhaps the biggest as it’s almost the end of Ramadan, and it’s a weekend evening.
I ask the brother to take me there and let’s see if Tiba is open right now, it was only a little past 4 a.m. and perhaps someone was in Itikaaf and might be up?
We drive over. No Joy. The door is locked. He doesn’t have the lock box code, so no key access for us.
I advise him I’ll still check out Tiba Musalla, perhaps pray Dhuhr here.
And that’s what I did.
I spent the afternoon in the New Westminister Public Library opposite from Moody Park, then around 5 p.m. walked over to Tiba, which is a couple blocks on the other side of Moody Park.
Not unlike Masjid At-Taqwa in Edmonton, one enters Tiba Musalla from the Side Entrance. Notably though, both men and women use the same front entrance.
Once half-way up the stairs, there’s separate directions for each of the brothers’ and sisters’ prayer halls.
Adequate wudu spots on the men’s side. Something similar on the Sisters’.
This three panel work of Islamic Calligraphy added enough colour to change the entire space. Simple, yet made a huge difference to me as I kept this art in my field of view.
No one is here in either prayer hall, allowing me to see first hand where the sisters’ pray and what kind of space they have. It’s perhaps a third of the size of the brothers’ space. I find this 3:1 space ratio often actually.
Sometimes, simple works. The corner of the main prayer become a de facto Mihrab, or Prayer Niche, indicating the direction towards Makkah, towards which Muslims pray.
Electronic, or white board with erasable markers, either style of prayer times listing works.
A second white board. Fundraising transparency for operating costs. More Masjids should consider a display showing such information.
I’ve said my Dhuhr Prayers.
Time to leave and make Asr Prayers in Port Coquitlam and another Masjid designed by Muslim Eco-Masjid Architect, Sharif Senbel.
Shortly before last night’s Isha prayer, found myself being gently sold on making Masjid Al-Hidayah and Islamic Cultural Centre my next night’s stop. It was not a tough sell, as the the “pitch” this time came from the Architect who designed it.
While waiting for The 159 Bus from New Westminster to take me to Port Coquitlam, I reflected on where a Muslim prays and what if any difference there really is.
Considering places we choose to pray the five daily prayers, be it at home, in a small second floor rented Musalla, or a multi-million dollar pleasing to the eye masjid designed by a cutting edge Architect, we trust God-Alone to accept our prayers no matter where we perform them.
As far as our obligation to complete the five daily prayers, it matters much less where we do them, than the fact that we do indeed do them.
