Page 151 - Neglected Arabia Vol I (1)

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NEGLECTED ARABIA 7

poll the place used for ablution. Mohammed's injunctions c**gnrd-
iy the sacred character of mosques are given as follows:
When you enter .1 Masjid, you must say, “O Creator! open on us the
f Thy Compassion”; ami when you leave the Musjiil, say, **0 Lori I! w e
ipplicute thy uuuijlicence.” / :
it is a sin to spit in a Masjid, and the removal of the sin is to cover it over. 1
Whoever shall enter a Masjid, let him enter it tor a good object, namely, to
am something himself or to teach others. For he ranks as an equal with him
ho lights in the cause of God, who thus enters a Masjid; but he who enters a
lasjid on any other account, is like unto a man who covets the property of
lother. Verily, a time will come when men will attend to worldly matters in a
lasjid. But sit ye not with such.
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Do not read poetry in a Masjid. and do not buy and sell there, nor sit in a
rcle talking before prayers on a Friday. «
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A IjKOUK OK MlNAKKTS I
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Kvcry mosque has one or more minarets. From these heights the
muezzin sounds the call to prayer live times a day. L
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■—^=he prayers of a man in his own house are equal to the reward of one
^:r, but prayers in a Masjid near his home are equal to twenty-five prayers,
in a Jami (or central mosque), they are equal to live hundred prayers, anti
rusalein to lifty thousand, and in my Masjid (at Madinah), fifty thousand,
t the Ku'bah, one hundred thousand. 1
though the Prophet did not forbid women to attend public
:r it is considered better form for them to pray in private. Only
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