My First Time at a Mosque

I work with a woman whose father passed away and a few of us from the office attended today.

Her father was a Muslim, but her mother was not, so my co-worker isn’t a Muslim.

The email we received with the funeral arrangements said women should cover their heads and could not attend the burial.

Thankfully, we work with a Muslim woman who was attending the funeral with us who  she kept us good & gave us answers to all our questions.

The women don’t attend the burial , because they believe the wailing & crying disturbs the soul and women are more emotional than men, thus don’t attend.

We asked what we should wear besides the head covering and women traditionally wear long skirts.  None of us had long skirts, so she said pants would work. Other than that, you should dress modestly (so cover up except your hands, feet, and face).  

When we got there we had to take our shoes off and sit in the back separate from the men.

The funeral was supposed to start at 11a, but people were still coming in at noon. The Imam (Preacher) was speaking the whole time, mostly about Islam and life and the roles of women and how they didn’t hate people, etc. (We think he was stalling, but we don’t know why & we later remarked, we hoped his sermon wasn’t for us!)

One of my co-workers eventually told our co-worker (who lost her father) that we had to skedaddle back to work…  She just walked out to the parking lot to chat with us.

We didn’t hear much about her father’s life, but it was still very interesting.  The family was wearing beautiful full length white dresses (a color of purity and peace).

Anyhoo, turns out we probably went to the wrong event- there was a Memorial service at a hotel after the burial where the family was going to give tributes.

I definitely learned more about the Muslim faith. I feel fortunate to lie in a place where I have friends of all different walks of life that they can share with me.

 Have you ever been to a church of a different religion?