Islamic Center Experience Paper

Introduction: On Saturday February 11th, 2017, around 5:10 pm, Marielle and I were on our way to the Islamic Center of Washington. The Islamic Center of Washington is located at 2551 Massachusetts Avenue Northwest, Washington D.C and it serves as a “Mosque” to the Muslim and non-Muslim community. According to what we learned in class and “The Sacred Quest” The Mosque is a Muslim place of worship, which are followers of Islam. The meaning of Islam is from the Arabic word “Aslama” which means to submit oneself.

In the Islamic content, it means to submit oneself entirely to Allah as the creator of all thing. As for the service, I went to the 5:44 prayer time which is known as the “Sunset Prayer” and in Arabic it’s called the “MGRIB”. Arabic

I couldn’t find the length of time for prayer, on either the website or the “The Sacred Quest”. Therefore, I did the next best thing and called the contact desk and they had told me it depends, but if they were to give an estimate it would usually take about 15 to 20 minutes. From all of this, I expect to experience everything I listed from what I learned from the Washington Islamic Center Website. I’m guessing once I arrive, I will have to do the “Wudu” ritual just like any other Muslim that would prepare for prayer. Next I would continue and follow what the rest of Muslims are doing by following their style of

While I was doing this I noticed that there was very little to no talking happening. The atmosphere felt calm and peaceful, and we all were waiting for a couple of minutes and finally the imam came out. The imam is the one that leads the prayer and services, but may also take on a larger role since they are selected by the members of the community. All the men including me all gathered to the front of the room in two horizontal lines and faced the Qibla.

The Qibla is the direction that should be faced when doing prayer during Salat. We all then lifted our hands up to about ear level while still standing, and then put our right hand over our left hand. While doing that I noticed they started to speak for prayer in Arabic. Everyone around me had their eyes closed too, and eventually they would bend down with their hands on their knees and continue to speak in Arabic. Then they would stand back up and continue to pray in Arabic and had their hands up 90 degrees and put them back down.

Lastly, we would finally go down with our head, hands, and knees still saying prayer then get up on our knees and continue with prayer. We did this for a cycle of three times and then we finally ended prayer. This all lasted about 15 to 20