Al Ahmadi Minaret
I see a lot of new mosques going up in Kuwait, and I see a lot of renovations. I just wish someone would spruce up this beautiful old minaret in Al Ahmadi. Looks to me like it is well-built, just needs a new coat of paint. And then I start to wonder, do mosques have committees, like churches do? We have the committee for the church grounds, the committee to take care of the altar, the committee to welcome new members, the committee to work with church school programs for the children . . . it goes on and on!
Do mosques have citizens committees?
10 Comments »
Leave a reply to G.E&B Cancel reply
Recent Comments
Catherine on Donna Leon Crossing Cultu… intlxpatr on Ignoring the Law thani on Ignoring the Law Anon. on British Soldier Kidnapped, Esc… Reeva Mills on Cahors to Bordeaux, Preparing… Wikipedia Donate Button
Amazina
Early Voting in Florida
Here There and Everywhere 
I could be wrong but aren’t mosques usually built by specific families for deceased relatives?
No. Anybody can build mosques anywhere, presuming they own the land. Some people build them for deceased family members in memory of the person and so that the person gets thawab from Allah.
Every area has a mosque build by the area’s people in charge… Co-op bosses.
There might be committees, I am sure.
Actually, the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs is in charge of mosques. So you can’t just build a mosque anywhere, even if you do own the land. (Zoning issues etc)
And yes although some people do pay for the mosques to be built, the have to go through the Ministry, otherwise the Ministry builds then with state funds.
The Imam and moathen (man who calls to prayer) are also hired, relocated and fired through the ministry but a lot of “local” religious politics are involved. So a lot depends on who the most vocal people at the mosque’s “congregation” are.
I have no idea! Good point to discuss.
I would have no idea, either, Big Pearls, and that is why I love posts like these, I learn so much from my readers! I am guessing they are all right – that Chirp is right, people build mosques in honor of the deceased, but that Ruby is also right that you have to get permission/coordinate it with someone. GE&B seems to really know how it works.
This morning, I happened to be awake at Fajr. One Imam – I am guessing they are all live, even at “O-dark-hundred” – sounded really squacky this morning, and barely awake! Some of them – I can hear several – are so melodic, even early in the morning. What a great way to wake up.
Does every mosque do a live call to prayer 5 times a day? Even the little ones?
Well, my father was trying to change the old carpeting and build a women’s prayer hall downstairs for older women who couldn’t go upstairs, so I know a lot about the crazy bureaucracy.
The definition of a mosque, masjid, as opposed to a prayer area, musala, is that it holds all the prayers and has the Friday sermon. So almost all mosques do.
(I’m not sure if the little ones, the historic ones that haven’t been removed, in Kuwait City around the Grand Mosque are designated mosques anymore.)
Your father sounds like a sweet hearted man, G.E&B, and now, thanks to you, I know a whole lot more than I did before. So like the prayer rooms at the malls would be musala, and the mosques that have minarets are masjid? I thought that people go to the bigger mosques for Friday prayers, and to the Grand Mosque for Eid prayers?
Seattle mama :
Can you tell if it’s a Shiite mosque just by looking at the minaret? This mosque deserves to be on the heritage property list with generous funds going out for its restoration.
I can’t tell by the minaret – I would have guessed this was a Sunni mosque. Sometimes I can recognize a Shiite mosque if it looks Iranian, but for the most part, Cheeky, I’m not that good at being able to tell.
Or are you being tongue-in-cheeky?
[…] don’t know something, you often don’t even know you don’t know. In a recent post on an Al Ahmadi minaret one of my commenters asked if I couldn’t tell it was a Shiite minaret. At first, I thought he […]