The Muslim Students’ Association at the University of Moncton has use of a basement room on campus at 18 Antoine Maillet Avenue.
It is a very reasonable sized prayer room, or Musallah, with a section for sisters as well. For what I could see, both brothers and sisters make use of the single sink to perform their wudu, the physical washing required before Prayer.
Being the first one here, there was plenty of time to sit and reflect.
From indentures of fingers left in the carpet during previous prayers, it was easy to confirm the Qiblah, the direction facing Makkah, was simply facing the wall on the left of the entrance.
Boxes of dates and remainders of sliced watermelons suggest a hearty Iftar was had here only a few hours ago.
Almost all the signage is in French. That is as it should be, since this is a French Language University.
The majority of the Muslim Students enrolled here are from The Maghreb, the North and West African countries which were at one time, French Speaking colonies.
A number of Maghrebi cultural practices are present in the Prayer Room.
The clothing rack has a number of the very long single shirts hanging on them. As worshippers trickled in ahead of the Dawn Fajr prayer time, a few of the brothers each took one to wear during the prayer.
This is similar to Indo-Pakistani congregations where one may find a basket or box of Prayer Caps by the entrance of the Main Prayer Halls. In the Hanafi School of Thought, it is encouraged to wear skull caps during the Five Daily Prayers.
It being Fajr and a very early start to this day’s Fast, no sisters turned up for Dawn Prayers.
About 18 brothers eventually would arrive for Fajr.
The prayer itself was unrushed and last about 10 minutes.
Many brothers head back to their dorm rooms almost immediately after we concluded Fajr prayers.
Easy to tell everyone is very tired.
I had wanted to speak to some of them to learn more about Ramadan on Campus, but the brother who offered me his apartment to catch some proper rest needs to start his work day, and is waiting for me, and it’s time to go.
