I went to lunch with some Muslim friends of mine.  Afterwards, they were going to the Mosque for prayers, and I decided to join along.  I had seen the Mosque several times from the road, but had never visited or seen it up close.  My first surprise was to see how narrow the building was.  I mentioned this to my friend and he explained that eventually it will be 7 times bigger.  The current structure was just part of an eventual complete circle.

The place was crowded.  The entire parking lot was filled with cars and people of all ages were coming.  Friday is a very special day for Muslims.  My friend explained to me the story of how the Mosque got built.  Originally the Muslims at my workplace met in a conference room, but it was not big enough.  So, they had planned to buy a plot of land to start a mosque.  I do not remember the amount that he said, but it was less than $20k.  That feel through.  Then they found this plot of land that was I think 14 acres.  The people wanted to sell it for $90+ thousand which was more than they had.  So, they had fund raisers, people maxed out their credit cards, people took out loans on their houses, they negotiated to reduce the price, and even with all that, they were $14k short.  They had one day left to raise the money, so a group of them met at the site to pray.  While they are praying, a man with a big cowboy hat and big truck comes up and asks if they owned the land.  They said, “yes”.  And he said he would give them $14k exactly, no more and no less, for the trees.  So, they were able to buy the place.

They started out with a trailer home, which he showed me they still had behind the building.  It was painted many colors.  Then the prayers started.  We hurriedly put our shoes and socks up.  Then he explained that they was the face, behind the ears, the head, arms, and the neck three times.  Plus they wash the feet.  We did this as well.  Then we entered the hall.  There were rows and rows of men standing just a few feet between the rows.  There was the place for exactly two people on the back.

There was a man talking on the speaker in Arabic.   Everyone stood there with head bowed.  Then after a while, the man said something and everyone leaned forward with hands on knees.  Then he said something else everyone stood up write.  Then something else and everyone got on the grown and bowed forward.  There were several repetitions of this.  Then everyone looked to their left and looked to their right.  Then they held their hands in front of them like to hold water in the hands.  And then they put the hands on their heads then it was over.  The entire ceremony only took 10-15 minutes.
Then we found  our shoes and began to get ready to go.  My friend asked me if I recognized the last part, the looking left and the right.  He said that they believe there is an angel on each of our shoulders, one recording the good deed and the other bad.  When doomsday come, they will make an accounting of our lives and we will either be worth to go to heaven or will be condemned to hell.

Before long, my friend was greeted by half a dozen people in succession.  He made introductions, but I am bad with names and do not remember a single name.  Then I talked at length to a fellow that said there are many misconceptions about Muslims and Islam.  I completely agreed with him.  He noted that the media would not be interested in covering such things.  The media is only interested in covering the bad.  I think to a large extent this is true, but I believe that true understanding will have to come through personal connections anyway.  He agreed.

I really enjoyed the experience.  My friend had given me a copy of the Koran a while back.  I read the first few pages.  But now I might be interested in learning a little more.

The entire community was very friendly and welcoming.  It was an experience I hope to repeat.