Our World: Friday Prayers

The Friday congregational prayer is called Jumah, similiar to Sunday services for Christians.  Muslims are required to pray five times each day, which they can perform at home, the mosque, at work, or wherever they happen to be actually. But the Jumah prayer is the one prayer of the week when Muslim men are required to make an effort to pray together at the mosque. 

Here in Saudi Arabia, I am usually always at home during Friday prayers because my husband leaves for the mosque and pretty much all other businesses are closed until after the Jumah prayers.  So when we were in Yanbu a while back looking for a mosque for my husband to go to for Jumah, I was fascinated to see literally hundreds of men praying in public in the streets, likely because the small nearby mosques were all full to capacity.

Most of the men I saw brought prayer rugs to pray on.  Many were foreign workers, but I did see some Saudi men in the crowd as well - all praying together on the sidewalks, in the streets, amidst the parked cars and closed businesses.  It was, for me, an impressive and moving sight to behold.



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