Visiting Islam

Following our training on Islam our group visited an African Masque. 

Having been to a Masque I remembered that the women were in a separate room, so as not to distract the men during prayer.  As we filed in we knelt down on the beautiful, red carpet all in a row.   Unfortunately, no other women came in so we were all on our own.  After about 10 minutes the prayers started.  We sat quietly listening and imagining the bowing taking place on the other side of the wall in front of us. 

After another 10 minutes the men came for us and we filed into the classroom, men sitting on one side, women on the other.  In front of us was a young Emam an other man and four younger men.  As the Emam (pastor) began to teach us I could not help but feel sad.  Here in front of me was a man who was not going to heaven because he proclaimed not to believe in Jesus as the way.  That was heavy. 

Below you will find what I learned, but what was most interesting was that after the presentation was over the older man began to talk with me.  He explained that Alah is perfect and therefore he cannot do anything imperfect.  He therefore had made a perfect religion in Islam and he had sustained it to continue to be perfect (which we know is not true since they originally had 104 books which have been lost or corrupted, so Islam has changed).  Continuing to listen, rather than debate, the man went on to tell me that other religions have been changed.  He must have believed this was enough to convince me because he then asked if I wanted to come to Islam.  I smiled and said no, for which he said I should continue to search.  Prior to our conversation he had declared to the group that he had once search for the true religion and claimed that God send him to Islam.  He urged us to search for the true religion asking God to show us.  In my heart I knew that my search was over because God had given me Jesus, what was cool was what happened later in that day.  As I was reading God showed me the verses in John….  I did not need these verses, because I had peace in Jesus as the way, but it was comforting to hear God’s voice pointing me again to His way just to say, I am with you and even when you don’t need conformation I am in a relationship with you and I can bring delight to your heart.  I don’t serve a far off God as the Muslims do, but one who is near to me.

Thing I learned:

Prayer Positions...

The reason that women wear head covers goes back to Mary the mother of Jesus.  If you look at the picture of Mary she wears a head covering therefore women should wear head coverings to be like Mary.  He also explained that Emoms wear a robe like Moses or other in that time, but it’s not required for the men now, which to me seemed unfair.