I went up front with Dad, and participated through the whole prayer. Men & women are separated by tradition. I think it’s an effort to keep one’s thoughts pure while praying. I heard some other explanations about guarding the honor of women & avoiding possible embarrassment in public. A little confusing- but traditions are traditions,,, even if the conditions they were made under have since changed. Men aren’t quite the Neanderthals they once were, apparently. Maybe I’m wrong.
We converted a parking lot into a large, open air mosque for our prayers today, with tape stretched across the ground to show which direction Mecca was. The prayers were all in Arabic,,, my vocab is limited to wa Allah akhbar (God is Great). Ha ha,,, so the rest flew over my head.
The crowd participation part has 3 distinct parts: standing, bending & kneeling. Everything is a symbol of supplication to God. I think it’s as ritualistic as holding hands to say grace (community) and bowing our heads to recite the Lord’s Prayer (humility); all symbols & signs of respect, reverence & togetherness.
We turn our heads right & left to acknowledge those around us & shake everyone’s hand; sense of community.
I’m pretty sure I was the only western face in the crowd, but I’m already used to that. It’s fun representing the Western world in small communities like this. If I’m the only American some of these folks ever meet,,, at least I smiled a lot. Ha ha.
The meeting of family & friends continued from there. We walked around to some of the neighbor’s homes…
Oh! I almost forgot,,, a big part of the day today is to ask forgiveness for all our sins & mistakes, both in our hearts and in the world. “Mohon maaf lahir batin” was the standard greeting among all Muslims today (=
Of course- when I sent a text message (sms) to just about everyone in my phone address book,,, I forgot who was Christian & Muslim… (= Indonesia’s 90% Muslim ratio is a fairly safe bet, right? My Christian TNI & Indonesian friends were good sports & wished me a good day back.
The afternoon was spent receiving guests & meeting family. The family is large- and more than one day would be needed to see them all. (=
We converted a parking lot into a large, open air mosque for our prayers today, with tape stretched across the ground to show which direction Mecca was. The prayers were all in Arabic,,, my vocab is limited to wa Allah akhbar (God is Great). Ha ha,,, so the rest flew over my head.
The crowd participation part has 3 distinct parts: standing, bending & kneeling. Everything is a symbol of supplication to God. I think it’s as ritualistic as holding hands to say grace (community) and bowing our heads to recite the Lord’s Prayer (humility); all symbols & signs of respect, reverence & togetherness.
We turn our heads right & left to acknowledge those around us & shake everyone’s hand; sense of community.
I’m pretty sure I was the only western face in the crowd, but I’m already used to that. It’s fun representing the Western world in small communities like this. If I’m the only American some of these folks ever meet,,, at least I smiled a lot. Ha ha.
The meeting of family & friends continued from there. We walked around to some of the neighbor’s homes…
Oh! I almost forgot,,, a big part of the day today is to ask forgiveness for all our sins & mistakes, both in our hearts and in the world. “Mohon maaf lahir batin” was the standard greeting among all Muslims today (=
Of course- when I sent a text message (sms) to just about everyone in my phone address book,,, I forgot who was Christian & Muslim… (= Indonesia’s 90% Muslim ratio is a fairly safe bet, right? My Christian TNI & Indonesian friends were good sports & wished me a good day back.
The afternoon was spent receiving guests & meeting family. The family is large- and more than one day would be needed to see them all. (=
posted by jonathan adventures at 10:08 PM
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