Table of ContentsIntroductionSite Tour for Religion AnalysisConclusion IntroductionFor many years I have been fascinated by how various religions influence certain cultures and the extent that certain religions have on individuals. There are so many religions worshiped by billions of people on Earth that I decided to take one of the world's major religions and learn from it. For my visit there, I decided to take the Islamic route because I have always been intrigued by this culture and their praise of Allah. I know they have five daily prayers and must pray facing Mecca in Saudi Arabia. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay I wanted to learn more about the Islamic religion and generally see their prayer in action. After some minimal research, I discovered that their main prayer takes place on a Friday and is called Jumma, which is similar to a Sunday service in Christianity. This happens around 1:30 p.m. in a mosque, usually called a mosque, which is their place of worship. Site Visit for Religion Analysis Before going to the mosque I looked online to see the appropriate attire a man should wear and she mainly just said a long sleeved shirt and a long pants. Therefore, I attended the Masjid-al-Noor mosque in West Kendall for their Jumma service on Friday, February 14, 2014. I arrived at 1:15 p.m. at the mosque and saw a huge and beautiful beige colored building. It sported a dome at the top with a golden crescent pointing to the sky. Upon arrival, before entering the building, there was a row of shelves where you place your shoes. With no intention of being disrespectful, I took off my shoes, put them on one of the shelves and began to enter the building. I immediately noticed these huge portraits of Arabic texts on either side of the wall in a narrow hallway. I took a sip of water from the fountain right next to the entrance before entering the main prayer room. The doors of the prayer room were wide open and there were already around fifty people inside. There was a small space at the front of the room with a podium, a chandelier, and a huge rug that took up the entire floor with individual rectangular sections for people to pray on. What I noticed that was interesting was that some people were sitting on the carpet and others were standing and praying. There was no real order or uniformity among everyone in the prayer room until around 1:45 p.m., when the Imam entered. At the time of his entry, there were about two hundred people inside the prayer hall, with every designated area on the carpet full. The Imam, who I later learned was similar to a priest in Christianity, was the main speaker leading the prayer. As he walked in, all the small talk going on stopped and everyone sat down to listen to what he had to say. He began with the common greeting in Islam, “Salam,” and then delivered his sermon. He spoke half the time in Arabic, so I couldn't understand what he was saying, and the other half in English. When he was giving his sermon on praising Allah and such, he went off on a tangent and started a story in English. His story was made up of how in the Quran, which is the holy book of Islam, there were things proven before modern science. to help humans. He gave the example of how the Quran advises giving to a baby when it is bornor is still at a young age a candy in his mouth. This was supposed to prevent certain diseases and reduce pain before circumcision. He then explained that it wasn't until 1995 that the British Medical Journal published the medical benefits of putting candy in an infant's mouth. His argument was that in Islam there are so many things that were known before modern science proved them, thanks to the guidance that Allah gave to the human race through the Quran. Then after his story, another man came and did the Adhan, which is the call to prayer (Howard). Then everyone stood up and the prayer began. What I noticed was that different movements were made each time he said "Allah", including placing his hands on his knees. Additionally, everyone got down on the ground and prayed twice before getting up again. After the main prayer, everyone sat back and listened to an announcement about a nearby mosque being built and donations needed. They passed around a box and people put money in it and some people started leaving. I waited for the Imam to start leaving the room and introduced myself to him. He told me his name was Imam Zakaria and I told him I was writing a paper for a religion class and asked him if he could enlighten me on other aspects of Islam . He told me he could sit down with me and talk to me about Islam next Sunday and answer all my questions. We agreed to meet around 11:00 a.m. on February 16, then we shook hands and I went home. On the way home from the mosque, I had many questions about different parts of the service as I was confused to see some of the things, like their prayer and the call to God that the Imam repeated without stops using the word “Allah”. I then decided to devise some questions to ask the Imam when I met him that Sunday. Some of them included why their holy day and Jumma prayer are held on Friday, and the main idea of ​​Islam. I also did some personal research into the whole process for Jumma and discovered something called “wudu”. Wudu is the symbolic process of becoming pure which is achieved by cleansing certain areas of one's body before prayer and which is done with water (Burton). It's a process that takes about five minutes and must be done in a certain order. You should first start by washing your hands, from your fingertips to your wrists. Then you gargle water into your mouth and spit it out. Then you put water in your nose and then wash your face. Then you wash your fingertips up to your elbow and wash your hair. Finally, you wash your feet, from your toes to your ankles. All of these washes require three repetitions each, except when washing your hair, and are essential in preparing wudu. Things that can break wudu are passing gas, doing anything that is not pure, which can range from listening to swear words in music to sin. Bleeding and going to the bathroom also interrupt your wudu. In these examples, one has to redo the entire process of cleaning for wudu before praying Jumma. When Sunday came, I went to the mosque to meet Imam Zakaria. I took off my shoes before entering the mosque, as I had done for the Jumma service, and was escorted up to the second floor where he was watching some children as they practiced reading their Arabic. He greeted me and I returned his greeting and he made me sit with him. I asked him the first question that came to mind, which was: “..