This Isha prayer was originally intended to be performed in the Downtown Hamilton Mosque, but when I learned during Iftar that another Masjid was only blocks away, I had to take the opportunity to visit.
The first Isha after the end of the month of Ramadan was just such an opportunity.
Families sitting on their porches, enjoying the warm air. Light traffic, low ambient street level noise for a city of this size. It was indeed a very short summer evening’s walk from the Hamilton Downtown Mosque to Ibrahim Jam-E Mosque at 778 King Street East.
From the outside, it looks a lot bigger than it is. Yet once inside, you can just feel the Ibrahim Jam-E Mosque is bigger than it looks. And the car parking? It’s smaller, much smaller than it looks.
Riding a bike to this Masjid makes a lot of sense considering the dearth of vehicle parking spots… but, the facility to park and lock your bike may not be that much better.
A brother simply up and biked right into the Masjid, and left his bike against the shoe shelves.
Afterwards, it was too dark for me to investigate further about the Masjid’s outside Bike Parking, if any.
I didn’t properly have enough liquids after the Iftar Dinner earlier in the Downtown Mosque. Thankfully, there was still warm coffee here available atop the Iftar table on the left in the main hallway.
There are two prayer halls inside the Ibrahim Jam-E Mosque.
The bigger one is used for Friday Jumah Prayers. Tonight it was being prepped for Eid Prayers the next morning.
This smaller prayer hall appears to get the most use through the rest of the week. Here two young boys sit as Adhan al-Isha is called.
The folded wood panels, I imagine, are used to indicate the Sister’s prayer space behind the men in this smaller of the two main prayer halls; the chairs, are for elderly Muslims who need to sit while in prayer.
Before Isha Prayer, I was only able to learn only one or two details about this Masjid.
It’s about seven years old, and helps to serve the 5,000 Muslims living in or near the downtown Hamilton area.
In the parking lot, I strike up a conversation with the cab drivers, asking them about the Taxi Driver protest earlier around Hamilton City Hall.
[ Before coming to Hamilton on this last day, I had learned about the Taxi Protest via twitter.
Taxi drivers stage protest at City Hall http://t.co/YvBurJdyu6
— Hamilton Spectator (@TheSpec) August 7, 2013
I thought I might write something about it. The story deserves, actually, the story demands its own blog entry here. InshAllah Alhumdulillah, I will can now link to it from here once I write it… ]
This is it.
The Last stop for 30 Masjids Ontario 2013.
Personally, I am also counting this as The Last Stop for 30 Masjids in the Greater Toronto Area 2011-2012 as I had somehow missed visiting Hamilton completely in the first two years.
Tonight, so many questions. So little time.
There is a bigger story here, I can feel it.
If ever there is a 30 Masjids Canada, and I really hope there is, I will return to Hamilton, and ask all those questions.
InshAllah, Ameen.
HiMY SYeD
30 Masjids Ontario – 2013.
